Ep.46 Weed Use in Teens and Weight Gain

Ever wonder if teenage habits can shape adult health?

That family debate about whether marijuana contributes to weight issues just got a whole lot more interesting.

Tune in to learn more about the findings of a pivotal study published in the Addict Behavior Journal, which tracked over 5,000 adolescents into early adulthood.

Association between Adolescent Substance Use and Obesity in Young Adulthood: A Group-based Dual Trajectory Analysis

David Y.C. Huanga, H. Isabella Lanzab, and M. Douglas Anglinc

Dr Gourgari is a pediatric endocrinologist, certified in obesity medicine expert and weight loss coach for teens with more than 15 years of experience. She helps teens build healthy habits that last, so they can feel happier, be more confident and love their body again .

To get a free copy of 30 healthy and easy recipes for teens that are high in protein, visit
https://lifestyleforteens.com/recipes

To learn more about the LIFT Program, visit lifestyleforteens.com/program

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:04

This is the Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens podcast. If you're a mom and want to help your child who is struggling to lose weight, you are in the right place. If you are looking for healthy lifestyle tips, dr Gorgery is here to help you understand the science around safe weight loss in teens and children, because what works for adult weight loss is not always the best for children. This podcast is for educational purposes only. Dr Gorgory does not provide medical, psychological or nutrition therapy advice. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat any health problems without consulting your own medical practitioner and now your host, dr Jenny Gorgory.

Speaker 2: 1:50

Hello, welcome to another episode of the Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens podcast. This is Dr Jenny Gorgory, and today I will be talking about the association between cannabis or marijuana or weed those are commonly used names and the risk to get into an unhealthy weight. And I started this whole discovery because I was recently had a family where a teenager had a different opinion when he was discussing with his mom about whether he was smoking marijuana, whether that was one of the reasons that he was in an unhealthy weight. So he was saying, no, that's nothing to do with it, and his mom was saying, no, I. No, that's nothing to do with it, and his mom was saying, no, I think this has a lot to do with it. So I decided to look more into the scientific evidence and see if there were any studies that have actually looked into that and be able to convince just besides just me talking about it. So, in fact, there has been a study that looked into that. Actually, there have been a lot of studies, but the reason I chose this particular study is because it was based on a few thousand of teenagers, and it was teenagers that they were followed over time and they were also getting measurements of their height, their weight and their habitual patterns during adolescence in terms of smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol and also smoking. So then they looked at them over different years and for several years, and then they found them again when they were not. They found them, they followed them also when they were adults, in their early adulthood, and so they looked to see whether there was any association between their habit of smoking marijuana with the unhealthy weight gain. The actual title of the manuscript is Association Between Adolescent Substance Use and Obesity in Young Adulthood a Group-Based Dual Trajectory Analysis. It was published in 2013 in the Addict Behavior Journal.

Speaker 2: 4:19

So, as I mentioned, this study took into account a huge number of teenagers. There was a total of 5,141 teenagers. It was part of a big study, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which was started in 1979. Started in 1979, and they looked at all those kids for many years, until they were from 12 to 18 years of age to when they were 20 to 24 years of age. So at the beginning of this study, I mean, they looked at several other different things, but they also looked at their habits, as I said, about cigarette smoking, alcohol use and marijuana use, and then they looked also to look what was their BMI, their body mass index, when they were 20 to 24. And if you don't know what body mass index, again, I invite you to go back to episode one of the Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens podcast, where I explain more about what is BMI and how much weight does a teenager needs to lose to be in a healthy weight. But, in summary, bmi is a tool that researchers use to evaluate whether a teenager is in a healthy or unhealthy weight and, if so, how much weight do they need to lose to be in a healthy weight or not? So what the researchers found was that and I'm just going to focus really on the marijuana use and what the teenagers what this study found that were smoking more marijuana were more likely to be in a healthy weight when they were 20 and 24. In other words, they were more likely to gain weight with this persistent marijuana use during the teenage years. And again, this is more than 5,000 of kids that they were followed over many years.

Speaker 2: 6:23

So the question is why does this happen and why does marijuana use lead to unhealthy weight? Well, there are several reasons why this can happen. One is that marijuana use tends to increase the appetite. So when you it is a substance, it has effects on the brain. So some of the effects have this effects on the cognition, that and behavioral that. This is why teenagers actually want to use it. But they also have effects on the appetite regulation so they eat more, they're more hungry, so they are more likely to eat food when they don't need it as a side effect of having marijuana use.

Speaker 2: 7:10

Now, the second mechanism by which marijuana use can lead to weight gain is because there is problems with their sleep. I have talked previously on previous episodes about how sleep affects the weight gain in teenagers. So, because marijuana use can disrupt the regular sleep cycle in teenagers, then they're not sleeping well and then that can increase their likelihood of getting into an unhealthy weight. And again, you can search the previous episodes and look for the episodes where I talk more about the association of poor sleep with unhealthy cravings in teenagers. And obviously, if you're not sleeping well, then that's going to affect not only your hormones that are important for your metabolism, but they're going to affect also your ability to exercise. So it's multifactorial and weed has a negative effect on your sleep. Now there is also a third mechanism by which wheat can lead to weight gain and that is because there is increased risk for cravings for unhealthy snacks, particularly the ones that have high carbs, and there is preference for high-caloric food, especially the sweet and fatty foods. They seem more appealing food, especially the sweet and fatty foods. They seem more appealing and obviously you're consuming most of these factors. You are going to gain more weight.

Speaker 2: 8:59

Another mechanism by which marijuana use can lead to weight gain in teenagers is the ability of teenagers to exercise goes down with the common marijuana use. So there's more. There's decreased motivation to exercise, there's this kind of sleepiness, kind of lethargy, kind of slow motion, and this makes it less likely to go and do activity and you just want to be in bed or in the couch or just doing nothing. So it doesn't promote physical activity and if you're not physically active, then again that's going to lead to unhealthy health. That's going to lead to unhealthy weight gain. That's going to lead to higher risks to be in an unhealthy weight, even when you're 20 and 24. And finally, there is also some studies that Juana may affect metabolism. It can potentially affect the way that your body processes and stores energy and it can potentially affect the way that your body prefers to store fat instead of breaking down the fat.

Speaker 2: 10:06

So I hope this was convincing and I know in certain states in the United States that use of marijuana is legal.

Speaker 2: 10:16

I know it is more accessible to teenagers and, as part of our counseling and our conversations as parents and as professionals we have with teenagers, we talk about the importance of staying away from all those substances and reducing these addictions and, for those teenagers, that it is important for them to have healthy habits and it's important for them to get into a healthy weight. I think it is important to know that one area they can target is if they are smoking a lot of marijuana and weed, they need to cut back on that and stop it, and that will improve their efforts dramatically. I hope this was helpful. If you like this episode, please feel free to share it with somebody who may find it helpful, and you can subscribe to my newsletter if you want. If you haven't done so far, lifestyleforteenscom forward slash newsletter and let's stay in touch. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or any topics you'd like me to talk about. Take care.

Speaker 1: 11:29

If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, I invite you to come check out the LIFT program. It's Dr Gorgeri's 12-week coaching program for teens and their moms, where we take all this information, we apply it to your daily life and we work together so your teenager learns how to create a healthy lifestyle so they can feel happier, more confident, less stressed and love their body again. Visit the website at lifestyleforteenscom and click on the work with me and free resources to learn more about this program and get free help to start this journey right away. Thanks for tuning in and we'll catch you in the next episode of Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens.