Did marijuana cause my arrhythmia? New study provides answers

Through Nina Zdinjak

According to a new UCSF study published in the European Heart Journal, substances like cocaine, opiates, methamphetamine, and even marijuana are linked to the most common type of cardiac arrhythmia — atrial fibrillation, often referred to as AF or AFib.

Researchers examined 10 years (from 2005 to 2015) of diagnostic code data from hospital admissions, emergency room visits and medical procedures in California and showed that cannabis users were 35% more likely to develop atrial fibrillation, KRON4 News reported.

“To my knowledge, this is the first study to look at marijuana use as a predictor of future atrial fibrillation risk,” said study leader Gregory Marcus, MD, MAS and professor of medicine in the Department of Cardiology at UCSF.

What is AF exactly?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, atrial fibrillation is an abnormal heart rhythm in which the heart beats too slowly, too fast, or irregularly. “When a person has atrial fibrillation, the normal beat in the upper chambers of the heart (the two atria) is irregular and blood does not flow as well as it should from the atria to the lower chambers of the heart (the two ventricles).” This can be a permanent condition or occur from time to time.

The condition can be serious as it can lead to blood clots in the heart. It also increases the risk of stroke, heart failure, and other heart-related complications.

In the United States, more than 150,000 people die each year from atrial fibrillation-related strokes.

Photo by Khwanchai Phanthong/EyeEm/Getty Images

Study Highlights

About a million people were identified in this study who did not have pre-existing atrial fibrillation but later developed it. Among the patients examined in the database:

• 132,834 have used marijuana
• 98,271 have used methamphetamine
• 48,700 used cocaine
• 10,032 opiates used

“Despite a weaker association with atrial fibrillation than the other substances, cannabis use still showed a similar or greater association with risk factors such as dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney disease. In addition, subjects who used cannabis had a similar relative risk of atrial fibrillation as those who used traditional tobacco,” the study authors reported.

It is important to note that research has also confirmed that while cocaine or methamphetamine are known to cause sudden cardiac death due to disruption of proper electrical signaling and pumping in the heart, this has not been confirmed for cannabis.

The study concluded that of all the drugs studied, methamphetamine posed the greatest risk of AF.

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been republished with permission.