Exercise Can Cut Daily Marijuana Use in Half, According to Study That Doesn't Seem to Apply to SoCal Surfers
Here in the pot-shop capital of the nation, it's a little politically incorrect to suggest that you, uh, medicinal patients tend to leave permanent ass marks in your well-worn couches.
Don't tell Spicoli an active beach lifestyle can cut weed use.
But a new study suggests that getting off your rear could reduce your marijuana use. The report published this week in the journal Plos ONE suggests that regular exercise for daily smokers can reduce pot use by half.
Whoa.
Time magazine goes on to intimate that past research shows how exercise can produce endorphin-driven, arguably pot-like chemical reactions in one's brain, so maybe weed is not needed by those high on physical activity.
Stateth the magazine:
... There's a plausible biological reason to think that exercise can cause a "high" similar to that from smoking pot. For starters, a 2003 study in college students found that using a treadmill or stationery bike at 60% to 70% of max heart rate for 50 minutes significantly raised levels of anandamide, a cannabinoid that occurs naturally in the brain and body. THC, a psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, activates the same brain receptor that anandamide does.
The weed-and-exercise study, meawhile, looked at 12 daily pot users and put them on a regular treadmill regimen for two weeks, during which their weed smoking went from nearly 6 joints a day to slightly less than three.
Strange because the biggest pot smokers we know are surfers. And they do more -- and more difficult -- exercise than almost anyone out there except maybe triathletes, mixed martial artists and firefighters.
They toke more too.
Some of them even smoke weed right before they paddle out. We need a follow-up study on that.
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