All the people that have tried at least once in their lifetime the cannabis, smoking or ingesting it, they know that after using it you feel a sensation of insatiable hunger. The ultimate proof that this feeling is not a suggestion, is brought to us by searchers of neurological center Magendie of Bordeaux, France. They have indeed clarify that this feeling is real and they further investigate the origin of it: their experiments show indeed that the THC can tie itself to the molecular present in the neurones of the olfattive bulb, that is the area of the brain that receive and elaborate the information that arrive from the nose. The connection between these 2 moleculars produces an amplification of the inputs that arrive from the nose, this rise up our sensibility to the doers and raise up our appetite. The molecular responsible of this effect is gold receptor see me one and you confounded also in other parts of the brain. The study of the French team, that as being published on the magazine Neuroscience, has been conducted on mice. Like in every other experimenter, the mice have been divided in 2 groups, the first group has been given THC, the other one, the control group, did not receive it. Only in the first group the sensibility to the odours was strongly augmented. As consequence of it, the mice were eating a lot. The scientists have then compared it with a 3rd group of mice, a particular category of mice which the DNA was been modified to disconnect the olfactive receptor. Like the scientists have predicted, in this case the THC did not produce any effect.
This mechanism, recently founded, it is not the only chemical process responsible for the munchies: A few years ago, other studies documented that THC produce the secretion of an hormone called griline, that is also a powerful stimulator of the hunger. However this discovery is much more interesting for the potential medical application, it could contribute to re-give the appetite to those who undergo chemotherapy.
