A new study published on the American Journal of Medicine discovered that there exists a correlation between marijuana use and the lack of diabetes. Marijuana users have also been found to have a thinner average waistline.

The research contained data from over 4,600 people in National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys from 2005 till 2010. 12% of the sample were smoking marijuana.

After adjusting the data to make sure that it is controlled, removing dependent diabetes risk factors of cigarette smoking, alcohol use, income, sex, age, and physical activity, it is shown that the cannabis smokers have an average of 16% reduction in insulin levels, and a 17% lower insulin resistance.

There are approximately 17.4 million cannabis smokers in the United States currently. 26.4 of them, 4.6 million, smokes once a day, or close to once a day. An active chemical in the drug, THC (tetrahydrocanabinol), has recently been approved to be used to treat chemotherapy side effects, nausea, and AIDS-related anorexia.

The regular smokers also had higher levels of good cholesterol HDL in addition to the reduction of Type II diabetes, which, as we all know, is correlated to obesity. On average, the users were 1.5 inches slenderer in their waist.

The data in this study, however, cannot make conclusive deductions of cause and effect, though it does prompt the question, can pot really make someone slimmer?