Study: Marijuana Use May Double Chances Of Heart Attack In Young Adults

By Franca Quarneti via El Planteo

According to a study by the Canadian Medical Association Journal, adults under the age of 45 who used cannabis in the 30 days prior to the research suffered nearly twice as many heart attacks as those who did not use marijuana.

Regardless of the mode of consumption, whether smoked, vaporized, or infused in foods, the study assesses the association between recent cannabis use and history of myocardial infarction (MI) in young adults.

As reported by CNN, researchers analyzed health data from more than 33,000 adults between the ages of 18 and 44, in surveys from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The research yielded that, out of the 17% of people who reported using cannabis in the month prior to the study, 1.3% had a heart attack after the study.

In contrast, 0.8% of non-users of marijuana reported having a heart attack.

Dr. Karim Ladha, lead author of the study, a scientist and anesthesiologist at St. Michael's Hospital and the University of Toronto in Canada, stated, "Some people assume that cannabis use is safe and cannot harm their body, but that is incorrect. There is growing evidence that marijuana could potentially be harmful to people."

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The effect of cannabis on the body

Ladha noted that this is because cannabis can affect a consumer's heart rate. And, in turn, it can limit the amount of oxygen reaching the heart.

"What you end up with is this mismatch between oxygen supply and demand, which fundamentally leads to heart attacks," Ladha said.

In this regard, Robert Page, president of the American Heart Association, added that the marijuana on the market today is much more potent than what was available 50 years ago.

Moving forward, the directors of the research proposed to study the plant's consumers in real-time, instead of examining the results of surveys retroactively. However, this is not so easy, as marijuana is still illegal at the federal level in the US.

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