It may seem surprising that the cannabis plant is still yielding new discoveries about its medicinal qualities despite having been used to treat ailments as far back as 2727 B.C. But thanks to the pro-medical marijuana movement that has swept the United States, with 38 states, including Florida, and the District of Columbia legalizing it, we are learning more about this “wonderful and versatile medicine.”
Those are the words Dr. Terel Newton uses to describe medicinal cannabis. Dr. Newton is a qualified medical marijuana physician and an interventional pain consultant. He also is the medical director of Total Pain Relief in Jacksonville and the Florida medical director for Trulieve, one of the largest national operators in the medical marijuana space.
Dr. Newton is excited about the prospect of the plant cannabis sativa offering a potential breakthrough treatment that could be used to help obese diabetics lose weight. It’s called THCV (tetrahydrocannabivarin), a chemovar, or strain, that comes from the cannabis plant, and it is gaining notice for its appetite-suppressing and energy-boosting properties. Nicknamed “diet weed” and “weederall,” THCV delivers the opposite side effects of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the substance in marijuana that creates the high and often stimulates a person’s appetite while inducing lethargy. Dr. Newton sees THCV as a possible treatment for obesity, a common aggravating condition of diabetes.
“It's been shown to reduce appetite and has a lot of potential in terms of helping patients with obesity, diabetes, and any condition where someone would benefit from a suppressed appetite and weight loss,” he says.
Dr. Rose Mary Stiffin, who earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry, is the chair of the Division of Health and Natural Sciences at Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens. As a diabetic, she is intrigued by THCV.
“I think THCV has a great deal of promise, and I think that we should look at it as something that is going to be used to treat diabetes,” she says.
But Dr. Stiffin would prefer that anyone diagnosed as pre-diabetic or diabetic first adopt a healthier lifestyle that includes regular exercise and “eating green foods that have a lot of antioxidants. . . I always think that we should just try to make use of our own body to treat itself.”
Dr. Newton agrees, saying lifestyle changes would be necessary for THCV to help a diabetic lose weight. Still, he sees THCV as yet another medical benefit extracted from cannabis sativa, although it is not as abundant as other cannabinoids found in the plant.
