Is smoking weed bad for your heart or is it just the part of smoking that is bad for your heart?

Cannabis has been the target of decades of PR efforts that portrayed it as a gateway drug, a drug that promotes a careless attitude, and schizophrenia, a substance said to lead to a life of crime. As cannabis becomes legal in more and more states, many people no longer take these arguments seriously. And as more people use cannabis responsibly, the discussion has shifted to the less alarming of cannabis’ unique health benefits and downsides.

Cannabis contains cannabinoids that increase heart rate and make it work harder. It increases the heart rate and makes the heart beat faster. Some studies have shown that smoking cannabis, like smoking cigarettes, can increase your susceptibility to heart disease. Although your heart is likely to work harder when using cannabis, more research is needed to know for sure what exactly cannabis does to your heart health.

Cigarette smoking is widely recognized as a leading cause of heart disease. And as more states join the cannabis legalization bandwagon and more people smoke cannabis, it’s worth considering how it resembles cigarettes. Although data on marijuana’s effects on the body is limited, here’s what we can gather about its effects on the heart.

How cannabis affects the heart

Marijuana is full of cannabinoids, or psychoactive chemicals specific to the plant. A cannabinoid called delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the primary cause of a person’s psychoactive effects when ingesting or smoking the plant.

Cannabinoids increase the resting heart rate and make the heart pump faster than normal. As shown in a 2019 study, the literature collected on cannabis says it has three significant effects on the heart:

cannabis arteritis – Heavy use of cannabis can cause arteries to swell, blood vessel walls to deteriorate and blood flow to organs to decrease.

Cannabis-Induced Vasospasms: The contraction of the muscular wall of an artery, causing the artery to narrow and reducing the amount of blood that can pass through it, is called vasospasm.

Platelet aggregation: At this point, the tiny blood cells called platelets start to form clots that block blood vessels and reduce blood flow.

Smoking cannabis likely has more adverse effects on your heart than edibles.

A cardiologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Nav Bajaj, MD, says smoking cannabis may be worse for your heart than ingesting it in other ways, such as smoking. B. through edibles. When you smoke marijuana, it breaks down into a variety of compounds that, in addition to cannabinoids, can have adverse effects on the heart and blood vessels, Bajaj added. However, he cautions that more research is needed to be certain.

Smoking cannabis has been shown to expose you to the same irritants, toxins, and carcinogens as smoking cigarettes. In addition, when smoking cannabis, consumers often inhale more deeply than tobacco smokers, resulting in greater tar exposure.

While Bajaj agrees that smoke of all types can destroy the heart and arteries, there simply isn’t enough comprehensive research to accurately monitor how cannabis will affect heart health compared to cigarettes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cigarette smokers are two to four times more likely to develop coronary artery disease than non-smokers.

Marijuana and heart disease

Cannabis may lead to increased susceptibility to heart disease, a 2019 systematic review found. Of the 33 people involved in the study, 28 found that cannabis use can increase the risk of acute coronary syndrome and cardiovascular disease, which is characterized by a sudden rupture of plaque in the coronary artery that can lead to a heart attack.

Additionally, not long ago, Bajaj and his team published a study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology examining how cannabis affects people with cardiovascular disease. An estimated 2 million people with cardiovascular disease use cannabis, although Bajaj cautions that the number is likely understated.

Cannabis can be harmful to people with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, or those associated with the buildup of plaque in the arteries, by raising blood pressure and heart rate and exciting the sympathetic nervous system, which in turn controls the stress response for flight or fight regulated.

According to the study of Bajaj, this reaction can lead to an increase in the amount of oxygen needed by the heart. Associated with other factors of heart disease, such as B. the build-up of plaque in the heart arteries, this can lead to risky heart diseases. For example, low oxygen levels in the heart along with a blocked heart artery can lead to a heart attack.

bottom line

There is still a lot of conflicting information about the relationship between marijuana and some cardiovascular problems, particularly cardiac arrhythmias. For example, some research has found that marijuana use is associated with a greater risk of arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia, and ventricular fibrillation. However, other people have suggested that cannabis has no effect on ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia and that it may even reduce the risk of atrial fibrillation.

Additionally, some professionals say that cannabis use poses no serious threat to people at very low risk of heart disease. However, another study found that young people who smoke cannabis more than 10 days a month are two and a half times more likely to have a stroke than non-users, even if they do not use tobacco products.

Many of these studies have yet to establish a causal relationship between cardiovascular disease, cannabis use, and the occurrence of an association that does not necessarily mean that marijuana is responsible for causing a stroke or arrhythmia. While we still have a lot to discover about cannabis and cardiovascular health, Bajaj points out where the early data is pointing, saying that while it’s known that there is evidence of some harm, it needs to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

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