As marijuana legalization spreads, better understanding of side effects is needed. Using marijuana raises stroke and heart failure risk even after accounting for demographic factors, other health conditions and lifestyle risk factors such as smoking and alcohol use, according to research scheduled for presentation at the American College of Cardiology’s 66th Annual Scientific Session. While previous marijuana research has focused mostly on pulmonary and psychiatric complications, the new study is one of only a handful to investigate cardiovascular outcomes.
The study drew data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, which includes the health records of patients admitted at more than 1,000 hospitals comprising about 20% of U.S. medical centers. Researchers extracted records from young and middle-aged patients – age 18-55 years – who were discharged from hospitals in 2009 and 2010, when marijuana use was illegal in most states. Marijuana use was diagnosed in ~1.5% (316,000) of more than 20 million health records included in the analysis. Comparing cardiovascular disease rates in these patients to disease rates in patients not reporting marijuana use, researchers found marijuana use was associated with a significantly increased risk for stroke, heart failure, coronary artery disease and sudden cardiac death.
Marijuana use was also linked with a variety of factors known to increase cardiovascular risk, such as obesity, hypertension, smoking and alcohol use. After researchers adjusted the analysis to account for these factors, marijuana use was independently associated with a 26% increase in the risk of stroke and a 10% increase in the risk of developing heart failure. “Even when we corrected for known risk factors, we still found a higher rate of both stroke and heart failure in these patients, so that leads us to believe that there is something else going on besides just obesity or diet-related cardiovascular side effects,” Kalla said.
Research in cell cultures shows that cardiac cells have cannabis receptors relevant to contractility, suggesting that those receptors might be one mechanism through which marijuana use could affect the cardiovascular system. It is possible that other compounds could be developed to counteract that mechanism and reduce cardiovascular risk. As the study was based on hospital discharge records, the findings may not be reflective of the general population. The study was also limited by the researchers’ inability to account for quantity or frequency of marijuana use, purpose of use (recreational or medical), or delivery mechanism (smoking or ingestion).
Legalization of marijuana could mean that patients and doctors will become more comfortable speaking openly about marijuana use, which could allow for better data collection and further insights into the drug’s effects and side effects.
http://www.acc.org/about-acc/press-releases/2017/03/09/14/05/marijuana-use-associated-with-increased-risk-of-stroke-heart-failure?w_nav=S
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