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Two Studies on Cannabis and Heart Disease Reveal New Findings

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Two new studies shed light on the effects that cannabis can have on patients with heart disease.

Presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions, which is an annual conference that has since gone digital due to COVID-19, two new studies are helping to fill in the unknown gaps regarding how cannabis may affect those who suffer from heart disease. Some findings were negative, such as increased risk of stroke or bleeding after surgical procedures. However, the studies revealed that those who use cannabis were also less likely to encounter issues with sudden kidney failure as well.

“Marijuana is becoming more accessible, and patients should be aware of the increased risk after [angioplasty],” said Dr. Sang Gune Yoo, an internal medicine resident at the University of Michigan and lead author of one of the studies. “While these are risks to be aware of, they shouldn’t deter patients from obtaining this lifesaving procedure.” Yoo and his team examined information on 113,477 Michigan patients, 3,970 of which said that they consumed cannabis. Researchers paired nearly 3,903 cannabis consumers with non-users to find a pattern regarding which group experienced more bleeding and strokes. Ultimately, results showed that 5.2 percent of cannabis consumers experienced bleeding, and 0.3 percent experienced a stroke (non-users were reported at 3.4 percent bleeding and 0.1 percent strokes, respectively).

The other study analyzed national data from patients who went through artery-cleaning procedures following a heart attack. Researchers found that cannabis consumers had an increased chance of subsequent heart attacks over those who don’t consume cannabis (7.2 percent versus 4.5 percent). However, they also discovered that risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol were significantly lower in cannabis consumers. “I have spent the last 25 years studying the effects of marijuana and THC [the psychoactive component in cannabis], and I think the Yoo study raises some important questions, especially since we’ve seen more and more reports of cardiovascular events occurring in the context of marijuana,” said professor of psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine, Dr. Deepak Cyril D’Souza. “This is an interesting paper.”

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