I’m definitely uneducated when it comes to parsing medical study results, but I’ve seen a few news stories that cite this publication released by the AHA that concludes cannabis use “has strong, statistically significant associations with adverse cardiovascular outcomes independent of tobacco use and controlling for a range of demographic factors and outcomes.”
I was wondering if you could provide any insight into the stated conclusion and if your opinion of recreational cannabis use would change in relation to ASCVD risk given the evidence here.
The study you linked suggests that regular use of marijuana may be associated with increased risk of heart disease. The directionality of the effect (e.g. harmful or preventative) seems to point towards harmful, though the size of the effect appears quite small, if true. It’s an observational study, so causality cannot be determined. The study is also limited by subjects self reporting MJ use (not weird) and heart disease incidence (more weird). This is more of a hypothesis-generating study than something instructive in my opinion.
It’s also not universally supported, as this meta analysis of 183 million subjects found no relationship. Conflicting data isn’t unusual, but it’s hard to feel confident there’s a big effect without converging lines of evidence.
My suspicion is that MJ use is associated with other behaviors that may increase risk of heart disease. I also feel confident in saying that smoking pretty much anything likely increases risk. Other methods of ingestion may be different.
The study you mentioned suggests that using marijuana might increase the risk of heart disease, but since it’s based on self-reported data, it can’t prove cause and effect.
The study you mentioned suggests that using marijuana might increase the risk of heart disease, but since it’s based on self-reported data, it can’t prove cause and effect.
The study you mentioned suggests that using marijuana might increase the risk of heart disease, but since it’s based on self-reported data, it can’t prove cause and effect.
The study you mentioned suggests that using marijuana might increase the risk of heart disease, but since it’s based on self-reported data, it can’t prove cause and effect.
The study you mentioned suggests that using marijuana might increase the risk of heart disease, but since it’s based on self-reported data, it can’t prove cause and effect.
Honestly, there are other studies out there that show no major connection, so the whole thing feels a bit unclear. What does seem solid, though, is that smoking anything—whether it’s weed or something else—probably isn’t great for your heart.