Self-Motivation
David Goggins
Former Navy Seal
Career Development
Bryan Cranston
Actor
Critical Thinking
Liv Boeree
International Poker Champion
Emotional Intelligence
Amaryllis Fox
Former CIA Clandestine Operative
Management
Chris Hadfield
Retired Canadian Astronaut & Author
Learn
from the world's big
thinkers
Start Learningfrom the world's big
thinkers
Subscribe to our Sex & Relationships newsletter
Marijuana improves couple intimacy, new research suggests
Couples who use marijuana experience greater intimacy.
- New studies suggest positive benefits of marijuana use by couples.
- Whether one or both use it, relationship intimacy can improve.
- Previous studies found that marijuana boosts sex lives.
Should you toke up to keep the fire going in your relationship? Science says "yes," with moderation, of course. Indeed, research recently published in the journal Cannabis suggests that some amount of marijuana use by couples can lead to greater feelings of intimacy.
The scientists, hailing from the University of Buffalo and the University of Houston, recruited 183 heterosexual couples from the American Northeast for the 30-day study. To qualify, the participants had to be regular users of marijuana (2+ times a week).
For 30 days, the subjects used a mobile app to note every time they used pot or engaged in any intimate event with their partner. If intimacy had occurred, the event would be reported in the morning as an answer to this question: "At any time yesterday, did you have an interaction or meaningful conversation with your partner that involved intimacy, love, caring, or support?"
Checking the data of intimacy events against marijuana use, the researchers found that it was much more likely for intimacy moments to take place within two hours of using marijuana. This held true if both or even just one of the partners partook of weed.
The frequency of marijuana use during this period was one out of every two days.
Such findings indicate that marijuana use can contribute to strengthening intimacy in a relationship. The authors conclude that two different methods of analysis give "robust support for the positive effects of using marijuana at the same time as or in the presence of one's partner on subsequent experiences of intimacy."
This was true for both men and women. What's interesting is that as opposed to studies on alcohol, which found that both partners had to drink go gain benefits in a relationship, ingesting marijuana can bring the same benefits even if only one partner uses it.
Previous research has also found that marijuana users tend to have up to 20 percent more sex than non-users. Women who smoke pot not only experience an increase in libido but have better orgasms, too.
It should be noted as well that marijuana use, besides still not being fully legal in most of the U.S., may lead to substance abuse, which has been linked to lower relationship success, aggression and divorce.
Ending the prohibition of marijuana: An empirical approach
From Your Site Articles
- Which is Worse? Alcohol or Marijuana? - Big Think ›
- Here's how marijuana use affects sex drive - Big Think ›
Related Articles Around the Web
LIVE TOMORROW | Jordan Klepper: Comedians vs. the apocalypse
Join The Daily Show comedian Jordan Klepper and elite improviser Bob Kulhan live at 1 pm ET on Tuesday, July 14!
13 July, 2020
Big Think LIVE
Add event to calendar
<p>
These days, if you don't laugh, you might just scream. Enter comedian and
<em>The Daily Show </em>regular Jordan Klepper! In this Big Think Live session, Klepper will be in conversation with Bob Kulhan, CEO of Business Improv, talking creativity, adaptability and comedy in the age of COVID-19. How does <em>The Daily Show</em> team work remotely? What's it like to brainstorm in real-time on live TV? And what has comedy done for <em>you</em> lately? All this and more at 1 pm ET on Tuesday July 14.
</p><p>
Ask your questions for Jordan Klepper during the Q&A!
</p><p>
<strong>Join Jordan Klepper live on Big Think at 1 pm ET on Tuesday July 14.
</strong></p><p>
STREAMING LINKS</p><p>
<a href="https://edge.bigthink.com/live_streams/102">Big Think Edge</a> | <a href="https://youtu.be/CFQNox-j3wQ">YouTube</a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BigThinkdotcom/posts/10157503083698527">Facebook</a>
</p><p>---</p>
Keep reading
Show less
Popular
Scientists see 'rarest event ever recorded' in search for dark matter
The team caught a glimpse of a process that takes 18,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years.
24 April, 2019
Image source: Pixabay
Surprising Science
- In Italy, a team of scientists is using a highly sophisticated detector to hunt for dark matter.
- The team observed an ultra-rare particle interaction that reveals the half-life of a xenon-124 atom to be 18 sextillion years.
- The half-life of a process is how long it takes for half of the radioactive nuclei present in a sample to decay.
</li></ul>
<p>Scientists have observed an extremely rare particle physics event using a detector that's hunting for dark matter, the mysterious material that physicists have yet to observe.</p><p>In a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1124-4" target="_blank">paper published in </a><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1124-4" target="_blank">the journal <em>Nature</em></a>, researchers with the XENON Collaboration said they'd observed the radioactive decay of a substance called xenon-124, an isotope of the element xenon — a colorless and odorless noble gas found in tiny amounts in the atmosphere. The event — a "two-neutrino double electron capture" — has eluded scientists for decades. </p><p>It happens when "two protons in a nucleus are simultaneously converted into neutrons by the absorption of two electrons from one of the atomic shells and the emission of two electron neutrinos." After this occurs, the event shoots out a predictable cascade of X-rays and Auger electrons that scientists look for using an ultra-sensitive detector, buried about 5,000 feet beneath Italy's Gran Sasso mountain where it's shielded from cosmic rays.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"We have shown that we can observe the rarest events ever recorded," Ethan Brown, a professor of physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and co-author of the study, told <em><a href="https://www.newsweek.com/dark-matter-hunters-observe-rarest-event-ever-recorded-1404823" target="_blank">Newsweek</a></em>. "The key finding is that an isotope formerly thought to be completely stable has now been shown to decay on an unimaginably long timescale."</p><p>How long is that timescale? The team estimated that xenon-124's half-life is about 18 sextillion years — or 18,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years — which is than one trillion times the age of our universe, according to the team. It's the slowest process ever measured directly, the team wrote in a statement. </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"It's an amazing to have witnessed this process, and it says that our detector can measure the rarest thing ever recorded," Brown told <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/dark-matter-rarest-ever-event-xenon-half-life-radioactive-discovery-breakthrough-latest-science-a8884896.html" target="_blank"><em>The Independent.</em></a></p>
<div id="31261" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="F55APY1568274781"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1121097717781028864" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">We are extremely excited to share with you that we have observed the rarest decay process ever measured! It is the… https://t.co/7ILxlSMGUf</div> — XENON1T (@XENON1T)<a href="https://twitter.com/Xenon1T/statuses/1121097717781028864">1556125499.0</a></blockquote></div><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"We designed the XENON1T experiment to look for dark matter, a new kind of matter that makes up 85 percent of the mass of the universe, but interacts so rarely that it's never been observed," Brown said. "This experiment is so sensitive to very rare events that we can make all kinds of other rare physics measurements. One of those is this decay of xenon-124. Although our primary goal was always the discovery of dark matter, we knew there was a good chance we could see this rare decay, so we set out to do so."</p><p>To get that good chance, the team had to expose their detector to a huge amount of xenon atoms by stocking it with 3.2 tons worth of liquid xenon.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"XENON1T is a giant vat of liquid xenon surrounded by light sensors," Brown said. "When dark matter collides in the xenon, or when a radioactive decay occurs inside, we get a tiny flash of light and a little bunch of charge out of the xenon. We measure these with the light sensors and reconstruct everything we can about the original event that caused the light and charge."</p><p>Although the team didn't observe dark matter — which is the primary purpose of the detector — the recent observations could help scientists learn more about neutrinos, one of the least understood fundamental particles in the universe.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"It proves that this XENON detector technology we use for dark matter is much more versatile," graduate student Christian Wittweg, Ph.D student at the University of Münster in Germany, told <em><a href="https://gizmodo.com/dark-matter-detector-makes-incredible-neutrino-observat-1834270148" target="_blank">Gizmodo</a></em>. "We get all these cool analyses... for free after having built an experiment sensitive enough to hunt for dark matter."</p><p>The team plans to use its newer XENONnT detector to continue hunting for dark matter, the elusive material that's estimated to comprise about <a href="https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/scientists-figure-out-how-to-trap-dark-matter" target="_blank">26.8 percent of all the content in the universe</a>.</p>
Keep reading
Show less
LGBTQ+ community sees spike in first-time depression in wake of coronavirus
Gender and sexual minority populations are experiencing rising anxiety and depression rates during the pandemic.
13 July, 2020
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Coronavirus
- Anxiety and depression rates are spiking in the LGBTQ+ community, and especially in individuals who hadn't struggled with those issues in the past.
- Overall, depression increased by an average PHQ-9 score of 1.21 and anxiety increased by an average GAD-7 score of 3.11.
- The researchers recommended that health care providers check in with LGBTQ+ patients about stress and screen for mood and anxiety disorders—even among those with no prior history of anxiety or depression.
<p>In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, anxiety and depression rates are spiking in the LGBTQ+ community, especially in individuals who hadn't struggled with those issues in the past, say researchers. </p><p>"What I was hearing at the beginning of the pandemic was that people who were already anxious were more anxious than ever, and we didn't find that," <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-07-06/coronavirus-ups-anxiety-depression-in-the-lgbtq-community" target="_blank">said researcher Annesa Flentje</a>, an assistant professor in the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing, in a university press release. "In looking at averages across the LGBTQ+ population, we found the greatest changes in anxiety were among people who weren't anxious prior to the pandemic." </p>
Study findings
<p>For the study, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-020-05970-4" target="_blank">published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine</a><em>, </em>Flentje and her team evaluated survey responses from nearly 2,300 individuals who identified as being in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) community. Most of the participants were white, while nearly 19 percent identified as a racial or ethnic minority. Multiple genders were represented with cisgender women (27.2 percent) and men (24.6 percent) making up a majority of the participants. Sixty-three percent had been assigned female at birth. For the most part, participants identified their sexual orientations as queer (40.3 percent), gay (36.5 percent), and bisexual (30.3 percent).</p><p>The JGIM study participants were recruited from the 18,000-participant <a href="https://pridestudy.org/" target="_blank">PRIDE Study</a> (Population Research in Identity and Disparities for Equality), which is the first large-scale, long-term national study focusing on American adults who identify as LGBTQ+. It conducts annual questionnaires to understand factors related to health and disease in this population. </p><p>Participants filled out an annual questionnaire (starting in June 2019) and a COVID-19 impact survey this past spring. Flentje noted that on an individual level, some people may not have experienced a big change in anxiety or depression levels, but for others there was. Overall, depression increased by a <a href="https://patient.info/doctor/patient-health-questionnaire-phq-9" target="_blank">PHQ-9 score</a> of 1.21, putting it at 8.31 on average. Anxiety went up by a <a href="https://www.mdcalc.com/gad-7-general-anxiety-disorder-7" target="_blank">GAD-7</a> score of 3.11 to an average of 8.89. Interestingly, the average PHQ-9 scores for those who screened positive for depression at the first 2019 survey decreased by 1.08. Those who screened negative for depression saw their PHQ-9 scores increase by 2.17 on average. As for anxiety, researchers detected no GAD-7 change among the study participants who screened positive for anxiety in the first survey, but did see an overall increase of 3.93 among those who had initially been evaluated as negative for the disorder. </p>Risks among gender and sexual minorities
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="fc3fd1ae68b77bbbf58a6995638d6d65"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EnUqDjCqg0A?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>The LGBTQ+ community is a vulnerable population to mental health concerns because of their fear of stigmatization and previous discriminatory experiences.</p> <p>Previous research by the Human Rights Campaign has found "that LGBTQ Americans are more likely than the <a href="https://medicalxpress.com/tags/general+population/" target="_blank">general population</a> to live in poverty and lack access to adequate medical care, paid <a href="https://medicalxpress.com/tags/medical+leave/" target="_blank">medical leave</a>, and basic necessities during the pandemic," said researcher Tari Hanneman, director of the health and aging program at the campaign.</p> <p>"Therefore, it is not surprising to see this increase in anxiety and depression among this population," Hanneman said in the release. "This study highlights the need for <a href="https://medicalxpress.com/tags/health+care+professionals/" target="_blank">health care professionals</a> to support, affirm and provide <a href="https://medicalxpress.com/tags/critical+care/" target="_blank">critical care</a> for the LGBTQ community to manage and maintain their mental health, as well as their physical health, during this pandemic."</p>What should health care providers do?
<p>The authors of the study recommend that health care providers check in with LGBTQ+ patients about stress and screen for mood and anxiety disorders in members of that community—even among those with no prior history of anxiety or depression.</p><p>As cases of COVID-19 continue to mount, the sustained social distancing, potential isolation, economic precariousness, and personal illness, grief, and loss are bound to have increased and varied impacts on mental health. Effective treatments may include individual therapy and medications as well as more large-scale coronavirus support programs like peer-led groups and mindfulness practices. </p><p>"It will be important to find out what happens over time and to identify who is most at risk, so we can be sure to roll out public health interventions to support the mental health of our communities in the best and most effective ways," said Flentje.</p>
Keep reading
Show less
The mind-blowing science of black holes
What we know about black holes is both fascinating and scary.
13 July, 2020
Videos
- When it comes to black holes, science simultaneously knows so much and so little, which is why they are so fascinating. Focusing on what we do know, this group of astronomers, educators, and physicists share some of the most incredible facts about the powerful and mysterious objects.
- A black hole is so massive that light (and anything else it swallows) can't escape, says Bill Nye. You can't see a black hole, theoretical physicists Michio Kaku and Christophe Galfard explain, because it is too dark. What you can see, however, is the distortion of light around it caused by its extreme gravity.
- Explaining one unsettling concept from astrophysics called spaghettification, astronomer Michelle Thaller says that "If you got close to a black hole there would be tides over your body that small that would rip you apart into basically a strand of spaghetti that would fall down the black hole."
Surprising Science
Space travel could create language unintelligible to people on Earth
A new study looks at what would happen to human language on a long journey to other star systems.
Scroll down to load more…
