When it comes to heart risks, a UCSF study found that smoking marijuana is the same as smoking cigarettes.

March 17, 2024 – By Victoria Colliver – The heart risks of smoking marijuana are similar to those of smoking cigarettes, according to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco. They warn that health problems may increase.

The study found that daily cannabis users had a 25% increased risk of heart attack and a 42% increased risk of stroke compared to non-users.

Cannabis has become even more popular due to its legalization. Recreational use is currently allowed in 24 states, and as of 2019, nearly 4% said they used it daily and 18% said they used it annually. This is a significant increase since 2002, when 1.3% said they used it daily and 10.4% said they used it annually.

“Cannabis use is increasing in both prevalence and frequency, while traditional smoking is decreasing,” said Salome Keehani, MD, professor of medicine at UCSF and senior author of the study. . American Heart Association Journal. “Cannabis use itself may become a more important risk factor over time.”

Heart risks for people who have never smoked

Researchers studied the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a national cross-sectional survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to examine the association between cannabis use and adverse cardiovascular outcomes such as coronary heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. data was used.

They investigated whether cannabis use was associated with coronary heart disease, acute myocardial infarction, and stroke among the general adult population and people who had never smoked.

Of the 434,104 respondents, approximately 4% use marijuana daily, 7.1% use it non-daily (about 5 days per month), and 88.9% have used marijuana in the past 30 days. There wasn’t. Among current users, about three-quarters said they primarily smoked.

The study found that cannabis use was independently associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes, with the odds increasing with the number of days per month a person used cannabis.

The study also looked at the effects on people who had never smoked or vaped, and found that smoking cannabis alone was associated with both stroke and the combination of coronary heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. It turns out that there is something.

“This is an important public health discovery, especially given our continued efforts to reduce the burden of heart disease in this country,” said Dr. said David C. Goff, MD. , the Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health.

We need to change our perception of risk

People who smoke marijuana are often reluctant to disclose it to their doctors, in part because they believe it is less harmful than smoking cigarettes, and many states, such as California, were among the first to make marijuana medically available. Approved for this purpose. The researchers noted that changing these attitudes will be an uphill battle.

“There’s a multi-billion dollar cannabis industry, and there’s a market for cannabis that’s not just harmless, it’s good for you,” Keehani said. “It can be difficult to discuss this with patients because there is evidence that cannabis has therapeutic benefits. But as this study suggests, there are also significant cardiovascular risks with cannabis use. ”

Co-author: Other UCSF co-authors include Stanton Glantz, Ph.D., and Amy L. Byers, Ph.D., MPH.

Funding: NHLBI 1R01HL130484-01A1 and the National Cancer Institute (grant T32 CA113710).

Disclaimer: The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Source: UCSF