this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2023
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An increasing number of studies are showing that marijuana may not be so harmless after all.

In two new studies, to be presented later this month at the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions 2023, researchers found that regular marijuana use increased the risk of heart attack, stroke or heart failure — even after factors like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity were taken into account.

“Prior research shows links between marijuana use and cardiovascular disease like coronary artery disease, heart failure and atrial fibrillation, which is known to cause heart failure,” lead study author Yakubu Bene-Alhasan, M.D., MPH, a resident physician at Medstar Health in Baltimore, said in a statement. “Marijuana use isn’t without its health concerns, and our study provides more data linking its use to cardiovascular conditions.”

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[–] Chainweasel 135 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Funny how both studies focus on smoking though, it's almost as if inhaling smoke isn't healthy 🤯.

[–] kromem 58 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My biggest complaint with most cannabis research is the failure to subgroup results by delivery mechanism.

Do people that don't smoke at all but use oral cannabis have higher heart complication risks, and if so how much are they elevated compared to the norm and compared to the subgroups that smoke?

But no, it's usually just catchy headlines about "cannabis correlated with X" when I get the feeling many times it's really "smoking things correlated with X."

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Study probably paid for by alcohol and police lobbies. Always villainise.

[–] kromem 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Don't attribute to malice what you can attribute to incompetence."

[–] Burn_The_Right 3 points 1 year ago

Except when it's a study that completely ignores very obvious alternative causes for its outcome. In that case, it's reasonable to suspect malice.

[–] FartsWithAnAccent 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm wondering about vaping and CBD/hemp too: I use a dry herb vape with hemp to quit smoking cigarettes. Works great but now I'm a little worried. My resting heart rate is 50 bpm and I get a decent amount of physical activity so hopefully I'm OK.

[–] Uglyhead 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I heard vaping gives you wet popcorn lung and kills you faster than smoke.

/s

Also, drink alcohol it’s way better for you than marijyana

[–] GONADS125 5 points 1 year ago

If you're vaping BHO extracted products/products with added terpenes, then you are doing damage to your lungs. Dry herb vaping and live rosin excluded.

You have to be so careful with the extraction methods and diluent agents when it comes to vaping concentrates (that includes regulated vape carts--not just black market carts).

[Cannabis] extracts are not diluted in propylene glycol or glycerol like nicotine due to their hydrophobic properties. Instead, various forms of oils including vegetable oils, terpenes, and tocopheryl acetate (vitamin E acetate) have been reported as diluents. In most reported cases of EVALI, additional flavoring additives are also added to products.

Although many of these diluent agents and flavorings have been “generally recognized as safe” for oral ingestion by the FDA, recent research shows that when heated to form an aerosol and inhaled, conditions including bronchitis, bronchiolitis, acute hypoxic respiratory distress, lipoid-associated pneumonia, and pneumonitis may result. [1]

The terpenes used in vape carts to dilute and reintroduce flavor and aroma (which is lost in some extraction methods, like BHO) also produces harmful byproducts when vaped. [2]

Another problem with cheap vape pens and e-cigs is the cheap atomizers/coils used. There have been confirmed cases of these coils/atomizers leeching heavy metals into the vapor produced.[3]

It's always important to consider the risk-mitigation approach, but a lot of people don't comprehend that not all vaping concentrates/methods are equal, and some should absolutely be avoided.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Vaping can give you popcorn lung. Its just not as common as everyone says.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's been too many years since I've had this argument to remember the details, but it's linked to specific additives that are usually in specific flavors. IIRC the mitigation is to not buy from sellers who use cheap flavorings and to avoid certain buttery flavors.

[–] SheeEttin 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Well now you've made me google. 🙂

IIRC that's a different problematic component.

The component that causes popcorn lung is diacetyl. https://reason.org/backgrounder/debunking-the-myth-that-vaping-causes-popcorn-lung/

I no longer vape, but when I did it wasn't too hard to find sellers who would provide lab results or other certification that they did not use diacetyl in their flavorings.

Your link also distinguishes between the two:

vape-related injury concerning a teenage boy in Canada has recently gained the media’s attention as well. The 17-year-old boy vaped “intensively,” adding THC to his devices. He initially showed symptoms aligning with bronchiolitis (lung condition normally caused by a bacterial or viral infection), but many patients that have vape-related illnesses in the United States have experienced damage to the alveoli; this type of injury was not found. Instead, his case aligned more with an injury called “popcorn lung,” an ailment most commonly seen in factory workers of microwave popcorn plants nearly 20 years ago. This new vape-related case calls for further exploration into the toxicity of vape liquid, as the patient’s condition could have been caused by the THC added to the vaping devices, or the chemical that affected factory workers in the past - diacetyl. Diacetyl is present in many e-cigarette flavors [14]. The American Lung Association has called for the FDA to require that diacetyl and other hazardous chemicals be removed from e-cigarette cartridges.

[–] GONADS125 3 points 1 year ago

You can look at my comment above.

BHO extracted products and ones that use additional terpenes for flavor/as a diluent agent should be avoided. This does not only apply to black market/vitamin E acetate containing carts. This very much includes mainstream carts available on the shelves of dispensaries.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

THC does cause heart distress, regardless of consumption method.

CBD should be fine.

Either are better than nicotine anyway.

[–] Kbobabob 7 points 1 year ago

Funny how both studies focus on smoking though

But it didn't and even says so.. I'd take this with a grain of salt. It's not very scientific IMO.

A limitation of the study is that it relied on data that did not specify whether the marijuana was inhaled or eaten. According to researchers, how marijuana is ingested may influence cardiovascular outcomes.

[–] GONADS125 125 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Important to note that the population of the study all had a history of cardiovascular health issues, and were not representative of the rest of the population.

Also important to note is the failure to assess a distinction between combustion and non-combustion consumption.

Combusting marijuana results in particulates, carcinogens [1], lack of oxygen, and off-gasses benzene. [2] These are very important factors to control for, and this distinction was not addressed at all.

Definitely in need of further studies on the topic. This is an interesting area to explore, but this study falls a little flat in addressing any causation.

[–] alienanimals 51 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

First, fuck the shitty sellout who came up with the clickbait title. Smoking use was linked to those issues, not marijuana.

Second, are there any studies that show consuming edibles has negative effects?

[–] Mango 3 points 1 year ago

And that is definitely not weed in the picture.

[–] SheeEttin 46 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm on my phone so it's a pain to try and find the original studies, but I see that in one, they didn't account for smoking vs eating edibles, and the other seems to have mostly focused on smoking.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago

No surprise there. My first thought was that this was more correlation than causation - people who take cannabis are more likely to do a range of things that cause heart problems. But you may be onto something with smoking. Smoking breaks things down into all sorts of nasty carbon particulates.

Not that this rules out cannabis damage to the heart or brain, mind, but the phrase "more study is needed" cannot be emphasised enough.

[–] TurboDiesel 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)

In my experience ingestion route doesn't make a difference; smoked or eaten, marijuana definitely makes my heart beat significantly faster and more irregularly and spikes my blood pressure.

I stopped smoking after I got the 'rona, because it totally ratfucked my lung capacity, but I saw the same physiological effects either way (minus smoking-specific ones like coughing and lightheadedness).

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

And due to bad study design, this research will answer exactly 0 of these these very legitimate questions.

[–] bassomitron 7 points 1 year ago

That sounds like an improper dosage issue to me, tbh. I only use a dry herb vape occasionally (maybe once every couple of days, sometimes I go weeks without it), but some strains with higher potency effect me like how you describe. However, I started getting super light strains (<10% THC) from the dispensary and it made a huge difference. Also, if I only take like one puff, I still get a relaxing buzz but none of that heart racing you speak of.

Anywho, worth considering.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

6ish years of pretty decent on/off use only edibles and vape. My BP actually drops during use (I monitor due to previous HBP issues). This is going to be like any medicinal use, everyone will have different sides/severities.

[–] kromem 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It definitely makes a difference.

Given the extensive research around smoking and heart health, a 'placebo' group that was regularly smoking wood chips in blunts (or any kind of burnt vegetation) would be expected to have heart complications.

That smoking isn't the only factor here is probable, but that it isn't a factor at all is extremely unlikely.

Which is why research really needs to break out subgroups based on delivery mechanism.

[–] GONADS125 4 points 1 year ago

Even if BPM is affected by non-combustion, it doesn't mean the carcinogens, particulates, lack of oxygen, and benzene from combustion couldn't play a key role in the cardiovascular health problems in the studies.

[–] DaftWiz 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

IMO, an elevated heart rate after smoking could be a result of some underlying form of anxiety as well. And some strains seem to aggravate the situation.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yay! More bad science for click baity articles

[–] PeterPoopshit 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

All the new marijuana hate junk science articles will stop coming along in such numbers after Ohio's election. Just watch.

[–] Otakulad 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So does tobacco use. If people are going to use this study as a reason to ban marijuana, then shouldn't we ban tobacco as well?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Yes. From a medical standpoint tobacco is terrible, hence regulations make it more difficult to smoke all over the world.

The issue is that there are so many smokers, that they are a force to be reconned with.

If tobacco was introduced now, it would probably be on the same legal status as meth. Same with alcohol.

[–] sizzler 3 points 1 year ago

Uk just did today and your comment has made me realise cannabis will never be legalised in the uk

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Patients with cardiovascular health issues who smoke marijuana more likely to have heart health issues?

[–] Alteon 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I stopped smoking entirely because I was worried about shit like this. I've moved on to edibles and feel sooo much better....but now this has me nervous. Is marijuana in general? Or smoking in particular?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Smoking, this is a pointless article and clickbait

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Given all of the things we as humans consume that are known to be bad for us, (here's looking at you processed sugar) I'm in the who fucking cares camp. Let me burn a doobie and be mellow. I am definitely not trying to live forever.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

themessenger.com

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

As a person who has used pretty much daily since 1966 and who knows many others who have done the same it has not been my experience that people are having ANY health issues due to the use of cannabis. I spend my summers with a bunch of ancient musicians. We drink alcohol, smoke pot and play music most if not all are in good health and mentally capable. We are all in our 70s and 80s. Every year we lose someone but we have not been blaming cannabis for people dying in their 80s.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago
[–] TragicNotCute 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It’s not surprising they had more health problems if they were consuming whenever is spilling out of the pill bottle in the thumbnail.

[–] EmpathicVagrant 2 points 1 year ago

It looks like they got an eighth out of evidence lockers after 15 years and used that for the stock photo

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