Share on Pinterest Two new studies highlight the potential risks to heart health among young adults who use cannabis. Olena Bondarenko/Getty Images A retrospective study found that cannabis users were six times as likely to have a heart attack compared to non-users.
A meta-analysis of 12 previous studies showed that cannabis users had a 50% higher risk of a heart attack than non-users.
Both studies lacked sufficient information to determine whether the risk was different for inhaled cannabis versus ingested products.
As legal use of cannabis in the United States has increased in recent years, so have concerns about potential negative health effects.
This includes the impact on the heart. Two new studies found that people who use cannabis are more likely to have a heart attack compared to people who do not use the drug.
These findings are from a retrospective study that will be published in the journal JACC Advances and a meta-analysis of 12 previously published studies being presented on March 29 at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session.
In the retrospective study, researchers found that cannabis users under the age of 50 were more than six times as likely to have a heart attack compared to non-users. The meta-analysis showed that cannabis users had a 50% increased risk of a heart attack.
The meta-analysis included 12 previous studies, with over 93,000 cannabis users and 4.5 million non-users. This is the largest pooled study of its kind to date.
“Asking about cannabis use should be part of clinicians’ workup to understand patients’ overall cardiovascular risk, similar to asking about smoking cigarettes,” study author Ibrahim Kamel, MD, clinical instructor at the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, said in a news release .In addition, “a fair warning should be made so that the people who are consuming cannabis know that there are risks,” he said in the release. Effects of cannabis use on heart health The retrospective study used patient data from TriNetX, a global health research network that provides access to electronic medical records.Researchers followed patients for an average of over three years. […]
Two Studies Link Cannabis Use to Substantially Higher Risk of Heart Attack
