Cannabis May Increase Risk of Heart Disease

Regular consumption of cannabis could give you a heart attack, according to a new study. Those who smoke weed or eat edibles daily are up to one-third more likely to develop coronary artery disease (CAD) in later life. One of the most extensive studies of the long-term effects of cannabis on the heart indicated that the more you smoke, the more heightened the risk.

CAD is the most typical form of heart disease – cholesterol constricts the arteries providing blood to the organ. This results in chest pain, shortness of breath, tiredness and, at its most extreme, heart attack. The substantial risk remained despite the ingestion method or whether users smoked tobacco, drank alcohol or had other major cardiovascular risk factors. Age and sex also did not limit the risk.

Cannabis has continually ranked as the most popular drug in England and Wales, with 7.4 per cent of 16 to 59-year-olds using it in the last 12 months. Cannabis use disorder is an acknowledged psychiatric disorder involving how often people use weed and how dependent they are.

Researchers have called for the public to know that smoking weed may not be as risk-free as initially believed. 

Researchers added that their advice would be to let their doctors know if they use cannabis to monitor their heart health. The study proves that there are likely, specific harms from using cannabis that were not recognised before that should now be considered.

"We have found that cannabis use is linked to CAD and that there seems to be a dose-response relationship in that more frequent cannabis use is associated with a higher risk of CAD"—Dr Ishan Paranjpe, a physician at Stanford University and lead study author.

It's not all bad news; however, from a scientific standpoint, these findings are compelling because they indicate new drug targets and mechanisms that can be explored to take control of this pathway moving forward.

 The weed smoking habits of 175,000 participants were compared with the number of CAD diagnoses in the group versus the more generic US population. A genetics-based approach to pinpoint a link between using cannabis and developing CAD was then applied.

Those who smoked weed daily were found to have 34 per cent more likely to suffer from CAD in the future.Prior studies disclosed the psychoactive cannabinoid that gets users "high", THC, works on receptors in the central nervous system, the heart and blood vessels. THC's interaction with blood vessels may inflame the tubes, allowing plaque to build up and leading to CAD.

Scientists would not expect to see the same effects from CBD due to its non-psychoactive effects. Nevertheless, as worrying for some as this information may be, understanding the risks of cannabis to the heart could help doctors develop new interventions that could be useful.