According to research published Tuesday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, adults under the age of 45 who used cannabis for the past 30 days suffered nearly twice as many heart attacks as adults who did not use the drug.
The researchers analyzed health data from more than 33,000 adults ages 18 to 44 included in U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveys in 2017 and 2018. Of the 17% of adults who reported consuming cannabis during the previous month, 1.3% later had a heart attack while only 0.8% of non-cannabis consumers reported the same.
Some people assume that cannabis use is safe and cannot harm your body, but that is incorrect, said the study’s lead author, Dr.
“There is growing evidence that this can be detrimental to you, both in the short and long term,” he said.
It can create an irregular heart rate
The study did not investigate how cannabis affects heart health, Ladha said, but noted that previous research showed that the drug can affect a user’s heart rate.
When someone’s heart rate becomes irregular, it can increase the amount of oxygen the heart needs, Ladha explained. At the same time, cannabis can also limit the amount of oxygen supplied to the heart, he added.
“What you end up having is this mismatch in oxygen demand and supply that leads fundamentally to heart attacks,” Ladha said.
Modern cannabis is extremely potent
Cannabis sold on the market today is also much more potent than cannabis sold in the last 50 years, said Robert Page, president of the American Heart Association’s scientific statement on cannabis. Page did not participate in the study.
“That’s not what your grandfather smoked in Woodstock; it’s very potent,” he said.
Many people are not aware that cannabis can have negative interactions with other drugs, Page added.
Like most other drugs, cannabis is metabolized through the liver, which means it can interact with many cardiovascular drugs such as anticoagulants, he said.
AHA research also details the potential benefits of using cannabis to relieve pain and other medical purposes, but the negative consequences should not be ignored, said study co-author Dr. David Mazer, anesthesiologist at St. Michael and Professor in the Departments of Anesthesia and Physiology at the University of Toronto in Canada.
Both cannabis users and their health care providers should “balance the risks and benefits of cannabis in their own specific context,” Mazer said.
Page AHA does not recommend smoking or smoking cannabis in any amount. His researchers noted a potential association with stroke and vaping has been associated with lung damage, he said.
In the future, Ladha said he wants to study cannabis users in real time instead of looking back at survey results.
He noted that it is difficult to do this type of study because cannabis is not legal in all states or at the U.S. federal level.