Neurological Mechanism Responsible For Marijuana “Munchies.”

researchers “believe they have deciphered the neurological mechanism that causes” marijuana users to get the “munchies,” or the “inexplicable urge to eat.” The paper, published in the journal Nature, says that the “phenomenon appears to be driven by neurons in the brain that typically involve suppressing the appetite,” called pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC). When responding to marijuana, those “neurons that normally turn off hunger pangs instead made users ravenous – at least when those users were transgenic lab mice.” The research was funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health and the American Diabetes Association. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/02/17/marijuana-and-the-brain-the-science-behind-the-munchies/ In a 2005 study, scientists founds that cannabis use rendered specific neurons in the brain "more excitable" and inhibited the appetite-suppressing hormone leptin. In 2009, research out of Japan found that marijuana might interact with taste receptors to enhance the sweet taste in foods, thus boosting cravings.