4 ms·

Marijuana use tied to serious diabetes complication

19 points by clumsysmurf 8y ago

ggm 8y ago
Not just the munchies and appetite effects?
cultus 8y ago
This looks like an incredibly poor-quality study. The effect size is small, and there are differing education levels, etc between groups. People should not be paying attention to single studies like this. It's just stupid clickbait fodder. Literally most medical studies like this are wrong.
URSpider94 8y ago
What an awful study. They have absolutely no theory for where the effect is coming from, other than that people are getting too stoned to check their blood sugar.
- dfraser992 8y ago
  Amen! As a diabetic (with a pretty high educational level, mind you) and as I've ingested marijuana before... halfway thru the article, I concluded it was nothing but anti-cannabis propaganda. I've deliberately put myself into ketosis for the fat burning effects and knowing how DKA develops, never had any issues - because I made sure to take my insulin. My guess on what is going on is a) lower educational level diabetics b) they don't really understand the biochemistry of things, the medical stuff c) they probably (I'm pretty sure) are drinking as well -- and alcohol is 10x at least if not more a larger factor in bad control of one's diabetes. Something I've had to acknowledge as I've gotten older. I was never much of a big drinker, but I've have noticed it has gotten more problematic over the years and my advice now for young diabetics would be to really be super conscious of your drinking habits. Alcohol causes all sorts of lower level not so obvious issues with managing things properly - blood sugar levels get really out of sorts for days until the liver gets back to normal operating procedure. So if the study didn't account for the use of alcohol and how excessive it might be by the subjects (especially in the lower classes) then they ignored a very large factor in how diabetic related problems might develop. And the article was so obviously very sloppily written and the biases in it were quite obvious given how things were phrased --> propaganda.
prolikewh0a 8y ago
>However, the study only found an association and could not prove a cause-and-effect relationship. Garbage tier study. >Zonszein said that getting high on marijuana may impair people's ability to give themselves the correct insulin dose. I've been using marijuana for 5 years now while giving myself prescribed estrogen injections in the leg longer than that. I can only remember one time when I would've too high to dose myself, and often took marijuana to calm myself before the injections. I live in Washington and have done absolutely everything with cannabis of all forms. Just how high are diabetic patients getting, or how high isn't Zonszein getting to form such a bad opinion?
- swsieber 8y ago
  So, you're saying Zonszein is wrong because you have an anecdotal experience that contradicts the hypothesis? I'd venture a guess that if Zonsein is right it wouldn't be a uniform effect. The study does have a bad setup though, to the point of invalidating any conclusions.
blackflame7000 8y ago
“Called diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), the condition occurs when there is not enough insulin to break down sugar in the body, so the body burns fat for fuel instead.” - sounds like every dieters dream
- dfraser992 8y ago
  The important part of DKA is the imbalance in the pH of the blood, which is a dangerous problem. This sentence is basically false and misleading. Diabetics can thrive (yeah, thrive) on a ketosis type diet. DKA != ketosis, but "dietitians" and "popular wisdom / common sense" don't have much of a clue, as I've concluded over the years.

19 points by clumsysmurf 8y ago

ggm 8y ago

Not just the munchies and appetite effects?

This looks like an incredibly poor-quality study. The effect size is small, and there are differing education levels, etc between groups. People should not be paying attention to single studies like this. It's just stupid clickbait fodder. Literally most medical studies like this are wrong.

URSpider94 8y ago

What an awful study. They have absolutely no theory for where the effect is coming from, other than that people are getting too stoned to check their blood sugar.

dfraser992 8y ago
Amen! As a diabetic (with a pretty high educational level, mind you) and as I've ingested marijuana before... halfway thru the article, I concluded it was nothing but anti-cannabis propaganda. I've deliberately put myself into ketosis for the fat burning effects and knowing how DKA develops, never had any issues - because I made sure to take my insulin. My guess on what is going on is a) lower educational level diabetics b) they don't really understand the biochemistry of things, the medical stuff c) they probably (I'm pretty sure) are drinking as well -- and alcohol is 10x at least if not more a larger factor in bad control of one's diabetes. Something I've had to acknowledge as I've gotten older. I was never much of a big drinker, but I've have noticed it has gotten more problematic over the years and my advice now for young diabetics would be to really be super conscious of your drinking habits. Alcohol causes all sorts of lower level not so obvious issues with managing things properly - blood sugar levels get really out of sorts for days until the liver gets back to normal operating procedure. So if the study didn't account for the use of alcohol and how excessive it might be by the subjects (especially in the lower classes) then they ignored a very large factor in how diabetic related problems might develop. And the article was so obviously very sloppily written and the biases in it were quite obvious given how things were phrased --> propaganda.

prolikewh0a 8y ago

>However, the study only found an association and could not prove a cause-and-effect relationship. Garbage tier study. >Zonszein said that getting high on marijuana may impair people's ability to give themselves the correct insulin dose. I've been using marijuana for 5 years now while giving myself prescribed estrogen injections in the leg longer than that. I can only remember one time when I would've too high to dose myself, and often took marijuana to calm myself before the injections. I live in Washington and have done absolutely everything with cannabis of all forms. Just how high are diabetic patients getting, or how high isn't Zonszein getting to form such a bad opinion?

swsieber 8y ago
So, you're saying Zonszein is wrong because you have an anecdotal experience that contradicts the hypothesis? I'd venture a guess that if Zonsein is right it wouldn't be a uniform effect. The study does have a bad setup though, to the point of invalidating any conclusions.

blackflame7000 8y ago

“Called diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), the condition occurs when there is not enough insulin to break down sugar in the body, so the body burns fat for fuel instead.” - sounds like every dieters dream

dfraser992 8y ago
The important part of DKA is the imbalance in the pH of the blood, which is a dangerous problem. This sentence is basically false and misleading. Diabetics can thrive (yeah, thrive) on a ketosis type diet. DKA != ketosis, but "dietitians" and "popular wisdom / common sense" don't have much of a clue, as I've concluded over the years.