RASTAFARIANS AND DIABETES
CAN A TRUE RASTA GET DIABETES?
The beautiful island of Jamaica in the West
Indies is visited by millions of tourists each year, most of them coming on
package holidays from USA or Canada and to a lesser degree from Europe.
Too few of them are lucky to meet or become
acquainted with the philosophy of Rastafarians…but take home the erroneous
belief that it has something to do with smoking Ganja. the name for the good
quality Marijuana grown in Jamaica, in local speak.
I was lucky enough to be introduced to the
philosophy of Rasta, during my sojourn in Jamaica and had great respect for its
practitioners, who were from all walks of life and socioeconomic strata. It is
a philosophy of life, much like Yoga Philosophy, of harmony with nature and
inner self, practising a non-violent way of life. Most religions have rituals,
whether it is vegetarianism or idol worship or chewing peyote or smoking Ganja,
which are just small parts of the overall belief systems. Remember, Alcohol is
considered a drug and banned in certain places, is part of the social milieu in
another, and central in some religious ceremonies.
So all those good memories came rushing
back when I read a scientific article published and publicized in the USA just
this week.
Especially of interest to an
Endocrinologist!
Current Ganja (I prefer this term to the
sterile Cannabis) smokers were found to have lower levels of Fasting Insulin
levels and were less likely to be Insulin Resistant than non-smokers.
Insulin resistance is a hallmark of
Obesity, Pre Diabetes and Diabetes.
HDL cholesterol is a “good” form of
cholesterol that protects you from heart disease and pharmaceutical companies
have been trying various drugs and combinations of drugs to market. Since a
majority of the westerners have lower levels of this cholesterol and thus
“susceptible” to heart disease. But so far they have not been able to…or failed
in their attempts. Obviously they have been looking at the wrong places.
Ganja users in general were less overweight
and also had higher HDL cholesterol levels in this study, published in the
American Journal of Medicine on May 16, 2013
Previously it had been noted that regular
Ganja users had less obesity and Diabetes but this was the first study to
investigate the relationship between Ganja use and Fasting Insulin, Glucose and
Insulin Resistance.
There are an estimated 17.4 million current
users of Ganja in the USA of whom 4.6 million are regular users.
As an anthropologist I would add yet
another dimension to this.
Stress through its hormonal effects
increases insulin resistance and chronic stress releases hormones, which can
cause Diabetes. Ganja use either in context as in Jamaica or in social usage as
in the Western countries, may decrease these hormones and their damaging side
effects.
This adds yet another Explanatory Model to
our world of doctor patient relationships:
No, Police Officer, I was just trying to
reduce my chances of getting Diabetes. You Know, both my father and mother have
Diabetes and the doctors tell me I have to do every thing to prevent getting
it!
