Marijuana use may increase risk of heart attack – 03/06/2024 – Balance and Health

People who smoke marijuana frequently have a higher risk of heart attack and stroke, according to a study published in February in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The article is an analysis of responses to the US government’s annual survey on behavioral risks from 2016 to 2020.

Respondents answered health questions, including reporting their own health problems related to heart disease.

Approximately 4% of respondents reported daily marijuana use, which researchers suggested increases the chance of a heart attack by 25% and a stroke by 42%. Among those who never smoked tobacco, daily use was associated with a 49% higher risk of heart attack and more than double the risk of stroke, the study indicated.

Approximately three-quarters of those surveyed said that smoking was their primary method of using marijuana. The other quarter consumed by vaporization, edibles or drinking.

“The smoke of Cannabis releases the same toxins and particles as tobacco,” says the study’s first author, Abra M. Jeffers, a data analyst at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She conducted the analysis during her postdoctoral studies at the University of California, San Francisco.

The study is purely observational in its review of survey responses; does not provide conclusive evidence that regular marijuana use causes heart disease.

Still, researchers and experts said they were concerned about its implications, especially since the use of Cannabis has increased in recent years. Thirty-eight US states have legalized the medical use of marijuana, and 24 have begun allowing recreational use.

Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said in an email that as consumption of Cannabis increased, “there has also been an increase in the emergence of adverse health effects, including addiction, respiratory problems, accidents, psychosis and cardiovascular events.”

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is considering whether to follow recommendations from a team of federal Food and Drug Administration scientists who concluded last year that marijuana should be reclassified to a less restrictive category of controlled substances. They cited a lower potential for abuse compared to other drugs, as well as possible medical benefits of marijuana.

But the authors of the new paper warned that frequent marijuana use “could be an important and underappreciated risk factor leading to many preventable deaths.”

“This study demonstrates that smoking Cannabis can be as harmful as smoking tobacco,” said Dr. Salomeh Keyhani, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and senior author of the study.

“A Cannabis is being marketed to the public as a harmless substance that may be good for you,” Keyhani added. “I’m concerned that we are heading towards a public health crisis. Progress in combating smoking could be undone.”

Heart disease is already the leading cause of death in the country. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 695,000 Americans died in 2021 from causes related to cardiovascular disease, such as coronary artery disease.

Other research has documented increases in marijuana use. The percentage of Americans reporting marijuana use rose to 17% last year from 7% in 2013, according to a Gallup poll.

The new study was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. The surveys analyzed came from 434,104 respondents, who were between the ages of 18 and 74. Sixty percent were white, 12% were black, and 19% were Hispanic.

David C. Goff, director of a cardiovascular division at the institute that funded the research, cautioned that comparing the theoretical harms of smoking tobacco versus marijuana was challenging due to different consumption patterns. People tend to consume more cigarettes per day, but marijuana users tend to inhale marijuana more deeply and hold it for longer.

“What we can say is that it’s a bad idea to put smoke in your lungs,” he said.

Even relatively casual marijuana use had an association with heart disease in the new study. Weekly use was associated with a 3% higher risk of heart attack and a 5% higher chance of stroke.