An increasing number of studies are showing that marijuana may not be so harmless after all.
In two new studies, to be presented later this month at the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions 2023, researchers found that regular marijuana use increased the risk of heart attack, stroke or heart failure — even after factors like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity were taken into account.
“Prior research shows links between marijuana use and cardiovascular disease like coronary artery disease, heart failure and atrial fibrillation, which is known to cause heart failure,” lead study author Yakubu Bene-Alhasan, M.D., MPH, a resident physician at Medstar Health in Baltimore, said in a statement. “Marijuana use isn’t without its health concerns, and our study provides more data linking its use to cardiovascular conditions.”
Funny how both studies focus on smoking though, it’s almost as if inhaling smoke isn’t healthy 🤯.
My biggest complaint with most cannabis research is the failure to subgroup results by delivery mechanism.
Do people that don’t smoke at all but use oral cannabis have higher heart complication risks, and if so how much are they elevated compared to the norm and compared to the subgroups that smoke?
But no, it’s usually just catchy headlines about “cannabis correlated with X” when I get the feeling many times it’s really “smoking things correlated with X.”
I’m wondering about vaping and CBD/hemp too: I use a dry herb vape with hemp to quit smoking cigarettes. Works great but now I’m a little worried. My resting heart rate is 50 bpm and I get a decent amount of physical activity so hopefully I’m OK.
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I heard vaping gives you wet popcorn lung and kills you faster than smoke.
/s
Also, drink alcohol it’s way better for you than marijyana
If you’re vaping BHO extracted products/products with added terpenes, then you are doing damage to your lungs. Dry herb vaping and live rosin excluded.
You have to be so careful with the extraction methods and diluent agents when it comes to vaping concentrates (that includes regulated vape carts–not just black market carts).
[Cannabis] extracts are not diluted in propylene glycol or glycerol like nicotine due to their hydrophobic properties. Instead, various forms of oils including vegetable oils, terpenes, and tocopheryl acetate (vitamin E acetate) have been reported as diluents. In most reported cases of EVALI, additional flavoring additives are also added to products.
Although many of these diluent agents and flavorings have been “generally recognized as safe” for oral ingestion by the FDA, recent research shows that when heated to form an aerosol and inhaled, conditions including bronchitis, bronchiolitis, acute hypoxic respiratory distress, lipoid-associated pneumonia, and pneumonitis may result. [1]
The terpenes used in vape carts to dilute and reintroduce flavor and aroma (which is lost in some extraction methods, like BHO) also produces harmful byproducts when vaped. [2]
Another problem with cheap vape pens and e-cigs is the cheap atomizers/coils used. There have been confirmed cases of these coils/atomizers leeching heavy metals into the vapor produced.[3]
It’s always important to consider the risk-mitigation approach, but a lot of people don’t comprehend that not all vaping concentrates/methods are equal, and some should absolutely be avoided.
Funny how both studies focus on smoking though
But it didn’t and even says so… I’d take this with a grain of salt. It’s not very scientific IMO.
A limitation of the study is that it relied on data that did not specify whether the marijuana was inhaled or eaten. According to researchers, how marijuana is ingested may influence cardiovascular outcomes.
Important to note that the population of the study all had a history of cardiovascular health issues, and were not representative of the rest of the population.
Also important to note is the failure to assess a distinction between combustion and non-combustion consumption.
Combusting marijuana results in particulates, carcinogens [1], lack of oxygen, and off-gasses benzene. [2] These are very important factors to control for, and this distinction was not addressed at all.
Definitely in need of further studies on the topic. This is an interesting area to explore, but this study falls a little flat in addressing any causation.
First, fuck the shitty sellout who came up with the clickbait title. Smoking use was linked to those issues, not marijuana.
Second, are there any studies that show consuming edibles has negative effects?
And that is definitely not weed in the picture.
I’m on my phone so it’s a pain to try and find the original studies, but I see that in one, they didn’t account for smoking vs eating edibles, and the other seems to have mostly focused on smoking.
No surprise there. My first thought was that this was more correlation than causation - people who take cannabis are more likely to do a range of things that cause heart problems. But you may be onto something with smoking. Smoking breaks things down into all sorts of nasty carbon particulates.
Not that this rules out cannabis damage to the heart or brain, mind, but the phrase “more study is needed” cannot be emphasised enough.
In my experience ingestion route doesn’t make a difference; smoked or eaten, marijuana definitely makes my heart beat significantly faster and more irregularly and spikes my blood pressure.
I stopped smoking after I got the 'rona, because it totally ratfucked my lung capacity, but I saw the same physiological effects either way (minus smoking-specific ones like coughing and lightheadedness).
That sounds like an improper dosage issue to me, tbh. I only use a dry herb vape occasionally (maybe once every couple of days, sometimes I go weeks without it), but some strains with higher potency effect me like how you describe. However, I started getting super light strains (<10% THC) from the dispensary and it made a huge difference. Also, if I only take like one puff, I still get a relaxing buzz but none of that heart racing you speak of.
Anywho, worth considering.
It definitely makes a difference.
Given the extensive research around smoking and heart health, a ‘placebo’ group that was regularly smoking wood chips in blunts (or any kind of burnt vegetation) would be expected to have heart complications.
That smoking isn’t the only factor here is probable, but that it isn’t a factor at all is extremely unlikely.
Which is why research really needs to break out subgroups based on delivery mechanism.
Even if BPM is affected by non-combustion, it doesn’t mean the carcinogens, particulates, lack of oxygen, and benzene from combustion couldn’t play a key role in the cardiovascular health problems in the studies.
IMO, an elevated heart rate after smoking could be a result of some underlying form of anxiety as well. And some strains seem to aggravate the situation.
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So does tobacco use. If people are going to use this study as a reason to ban marijuana, then shouldn’t we ban tobacco as well?
Uk just did today and your comment has made me realise cannabis will never be legalised in the uk
I stopped smoking entirely because I was worried about shit like this. I’ve moved on to edibles and feel sooo much better…but now this has me nervous. Is marijuana in general? Or smoking in particular?
Smoking, this is a pointless article and clickbait
Patients with cardiovascular health issues who smoke marijuana more likely to have heart health issues?
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Nah.
It’s not surprising they had more health problems if they were consuming whenever is spilling out of the pill bottle in the thumbnail.
It looks like they got an eighth out of evidence lockers after 15 years and used that for the stock photo
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