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Study shows smoking weed may lead to "man boobs"

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Kastrioti

Persecution Complex
Pot-smoking dudes, beware: That joint you're toking may be causing your breasts to blossom.

In a post for CNN on Thursday, Detroit-based plastic surgeon Dr. Anthony Youn warned that marijuana use could be behind the development of man boobs, known in the medical world as "gynecomastia," because of the drug's effects on hormone levels.

"Gynecomastia is caused by a hormone imbalance between testosterone and estrogen," Youn wrote. "When the ratio between testosterone and estrogen tips in favor of estrogen, the body responds by creating excessive breast tissue. Hence, man boobs."

Animal studies, the physician explained, have shown that exposure to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active component in cannabis, can result in a "decrease in testosterone levels, a reduction of testicular size and abnormalities in…sperm."

The jury is still out, however, as to how weed affects hormone levels in humans, though there is some evidence to suggest that pot users have lower testosterone levels than non-users and that heavy doses of the drug may delay the onset of puberty in young men.


There may not be any definitive evidence as yet linking marijuana use and man boobs, but Youn is hardly the first person to suggest a connection.

According to a recent Philly.com report on the topic, the medical community has suspected a link between pot and moobs for decades. However, due to the drug's status as an illicit substance, there hasn't been sufficient research to confirm these speculations.

Still, on MedlinePlus, a medical website maintained by the National Institutes of Health, "marijuana use" is listed as one of the causes of gynecomastia.

Last year, plastic surgeon Dr. Steven Goldman told ABC 5 News that boys who use marijuana in their formative years may be more likely to have man boobs later in life.

"Young men who use marijuana through puberty may have that transient, temporary breast enlargement become permanent because as their testosterone levels are altered by the marijuana,"
Goldman said. "They can get interference with the normal development. And those men can have in essence more breast tissue when they're done with puberty than they would have otherwise had."

Earlier this month, Dr. Adrian Lo, a plastic surgeon at Pennsylvania Hospital who specializes in breast reduction for men, told Philly.com that about a third of his patients are regular marijuana users.

Many "doctors, endocrinologists and surgeons with clinical acumen" have definitely been noticing a trend, Lo said.

Ultimately, Youn says that if you're worried about moobs (gynecomastia reportedly affects about 33 to 41 percent of men between the ages of 25 and 45, and 55 to 60 percent of men over the age of 50), you might want to just give the cannabis a rest.

"Although the association between marijuana and gynecomastia hasn't been conclusively proven, it appears very plausible. For this reason, the majority of plastic surgeons I've consulted with routinely inquire with their gynecomastia patients about cannabis use and recommend they stop smoking pot immediately," he said. "So for now, if you have moobs, it's probably best to put out that joint."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/05/marijuana-man-boobs_n_4392617.html

Original Article by Dr. Youn:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/05/health/youn-pot-moobs/
 
38764210-D7EC-F732-C29DC14283676983.jpg
 

Enco

Member
:lol

Read the original document and you find this:

Marijuana has been associated with the development of gynecomastia in an early case series, 1 but a case control study showed no association. [....] an association with gynecomastia is plausible but has not been convincingly demonstrated.

Maybe I'm misreading things but seems like your usual sensationalist headline.
 
Well, on the off-chance that this is true, pretty much every idiot in my college dorm is screwed. That place is like a Skunk Mary J haven.
 

Kastrioti

Persecution Complex
Maybe I'm misreading things but seems like your usual sensationalist headline.

I actually heard the doctor on the radio on the way back from work. He mentioned it numerous times in the interview that they couldn't really use human patients due to stupid drug laws (my words not his about the laws), but that will change over time as it becomes legalized in more places.

The animal studies were consistent though.

"When the ratio between testosterone and estrogen tips in favor of estrogen, the body responds by creating excessive breast tissue. Hence, man boobs."
 
There is nothing "new" about this news. I remember hearing this when I started puffing back around '96/''97, and it wasn't new then either. Regardless, it's the other activities (such as laziness and eating), that lead to the moobs more than the pot itself. Work out that chest and you'll avoid this issue completely.
 

joelseph

Member
I actually heard the doctor on the radio on the way back from work. He mentioned it numerous times in the interview that they couldn't really use human patients due to stupid drug laws (my words not his about the laws), but that will change over time as it becomes legalized in more places.

The animal studies were consistent though.

"When the ratio between testosterone and estrogen tips in favor of estrogen, the body responds by creating excessive breast tissue. Hence, man boobs."

The scare tactic works on Kastrioti
 

Timedog

good credit (by proxy)
I actually heard the doctor on the radio on the way back from work. He mentioned it numerous times in the interview that they couldn't really use human patients due to stupid drug laws (my words not his about the laws), but that will change over time as it becomes legalized in more places.

The animal studies were consistent though.

"When the ratio between testosterone and estrogen tips in favor of estrogen, the body responds by creating excessive breast tissue. Hence, man boobs."

Whoa, I wanna see way more weed studies in washington and colorado.
 

cryptic

Member
Basic biology says smoking weed has always been estrogenic, now you know though.
Did you know that beer and wine are also estrogenic?
 

studyguy

Member
Take this anecdotally, I actually had to get a mammogram as a dude due to the fact that I had some lump suddenly form on my left breast. Mind you I'm a thin dude so it was terrifying to just see a hard bump there out of nowhere.

The very, very first question I was asked by 3 doctors I saw was if I smoked weed. So clearly this isn't new information. Also for guys that don't know... a mammogram is basically doctors smashing a tit into a pancake.

Imagine a dude with no manboobs and barely any skin to spare trying to do that. The nurse basically pulled the shit out of my skin and slapped it between some plastic vice thing. Fuck that was terrible and it hurt. The lump went away a month later mysteriously. It was probably lupus or something.
 

wenis

Registered for GAF on September 11, 2001.
Basic biology says smoking weed has always been estrogenic, now you know though.
Did you know that beer and wine are also estrogenic?
But beer and wine, everyone drinks those drugs! They couldn't lead to man boobs!
 

Fusebox

Banned
I've been smoking for years and I'm not particularly fit but I don't have anything that looks like man-boobs. :(
 
Still got em. No excess fat anywhere else. I swim almost every day. Haven't touched weed.

FML.

Do you even lift, bro?

Wide arm pushups, til you can pump 100 then increase as ease increases. Break up in sets of 40, 30, 20, 10 w/ 30 second intervals. Every morning till you stop lactating.
 
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