Daily use of marijuana increases risk of heart disease, study finds

CNN
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A new study reveals that daily marijuana users may raise their risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) by a third compared to those who never use it.

“There is growing evidence that cannabis is not completely harmless and can actually cause cardiovascular disease,” said lead investigator Ishan Paranjpe, PhD, a resident physician at Stanford University. . The yet-to-be-published study will be presented Sunday at the American College of Cardiology annual meeting.

“Therefore, the decision to use cannabis should be carefully weighed against the potential for serious heart disease,” Paranzipe said.

Coronary artery disease is caused by plaque buildup on the walls of the arteries that supply blood to the heart. CAD, also called atherosclerosis, is the most common type of heart disease. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Symptoms of the condition include: angina, or chest pain, weakness, Dizziness, upset stomach, or shortness of breath. However, “for some people, the first sign of CAD is a heart attack.” CDC said on its website.

The study drew data on those who participated in All of Us Research ProgramThis program, administered by the National Institutes of Health, is designed to collect health information from 1 over time. a million Or more people.

When enrolling in the study, participants completed a survey about cannabis use. The research team used that information to classify respondents into her five categories. daily users (4,736), weekly users (2,720), monthly users (2,075), those who used him once or he twice in three months (8,749), and those who never used. (39,678 people). The researchers then compared those categories to the participants’ medical records years later.

They found that people who used cannabis daily were 34% more likely to be diagnosed with coronary artery disease than those who never used cannabis.

The study found that people who used weed less than once a month had no significant risk.

The results allowed the researchers to rule out other potential causes of coronary heart disease, including age, gender, and major cardiovascular risk factors (hypertension, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, obesity, smoking, and alcohol consumption). Even afterward it was true.

The study used Mendelian randomization (MR) to determine risk, which has not been used in other studies on the topic, Paranjpe said in an email. MR methods measure genetic variants known to be associated with modifiable risk factors to determine risk factor causality.

“Although other studies have also associated cannabis with CAD, there are several potential confounders that explain this relationship. suggests,” said Paranjpe.

Why does marijuana seem to damage the heart and blood vessels? First, heart rate and blood pressure increase immediately after each use. CDC.

“Marijuana smoke carries many of the same substances that researchers have found in tobacco smoke, which are harmful to the lungs and cardiovascular system,” the agency said.

In 2020, the American Heart Association warned that people should avoid smoking any substance, including cannabis, or e-cigarettes because of the risk of harm to the heart, lungs, and blood vessels.

AHA’s guidance released, pointing to studies that found that heart rhythm abnormalities such as tachycardia and atrial fibrillation can occur At the inner hours after weed Smoked cannabis containing delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). (THC is the part of the marijuana plant that produces the high.)

Other studies have shown that smoking weed causes heart attacks and increases the risk of stroke and heart failure in people with underlying heart disease.

especially, The new study was unable to determine whether different types of cannabis use (for example, eating edibles versus smoking weed) make a difference in the risk of developing CAD. However, because THC reaches the brain faster when smoked, researchers argue that future studies should investigate different ways of using it and its effects on the heart.