People who regularly use cannabis might be taking a chance with their cardiovascular health, new research suggests.<\/p>\n
Scientists at Tulane University studied nationally representative survey data, finding that people who reported using cannabis were significantly more likely to also report having had cardiovascular disease, particularly stroke, than those who didn\u2019t use cannabis. This study doesn\u2019t conclusively show that cannabis can cause cardiovascular problems, but it\u2019s the latest bit of concerning data pointing in that direction.<\/p>\n
A concerning link <\/p>\n
Several studies have previously found a connection between cannabis use and cardiovascular disease, though this research hasn\u2019t been entirely consistent. Given that cannabis use has risen substantially in recent years, thanks to increasing recreational legalization, the researchers wanted to get an updated picture of the situation.<\/p>\n
To do so, they analyzed data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System<\/a> (BRFSS), a longstanding annual survey of Americans\u2019 health trends and habits managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They looked at BRFSS data collected between 2020 and 2024, which collectively included nearly a half million adult respondents.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Compared to non-tokers, people who regularly used cannabis\u2014whether once a month or daily\u2014were around 20% more likely to report a history of any cardiovascular issues, the study showed. This added associated risk didn\u2019t differ much between people who used cannabis occasionally (one to five days a month) and heavy cannabis users (16 to 30 days a month). Interestingly enough, however, the risk of stroke in particular was higher among less frequent cannabis users (40% higher) than among heavy users (25% higher). The researchers also did not see a clear link between the amount of cannabis use reported and a higher risk of reported heart attacks.<\/p>\n The team\u2019s findings were presented<\/a> over the weekend at the American Heart Association\u2019s Scientific Sessions, the organization\u2019s annual conference.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were surprised to find that the link between cannabis use and cardiovascular disease was not straightforward. We expected that the chances of heart disease would gradually rise as people used cannabis more often, but that wasn\u2019t the case. Both low-use and heavy-use groups had higher odds of developing heart disease,\u201d said study author Aabha Divya, an assistant professor in the division of cardiothoracic surgery at Tulane University\u2019s School of Medicine, in a statement<\/a> from the AHA.<\/p>\n What to know about this potential risk <\/p>\n The team\u2019s findings are preliminary, meaning they haven\u2019t yet undergone the typical peer review process. And this research can only show a correlation between cannabis and cardiovascular disease, not a definitive smoking gun.<\/p>\n At the same time, multiple lines of evidence have suggested that cannabis isn\u2019t necessarily harmless to our hearts and blood vessels. Just last month, for instance, a study found<\/a> that increasing recreational cannabis legalization in the U.S. was linked to higher rates of hospitalization from cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n There\u2019s still a lot we don\u2019t understand about this potential connection, including whether the form of cannabis you use is relevant at all. In this study, for instance, it didn\u2019t seem to matter whether people primarily used cannabis by smoking it or with edibles, and other studies have suggested<\/a> that either smoking or eating cannabis can negatively affect blood vessel function. Regardless of the unknowns, however, the researchers say that people and their doctors should be aware of the link.<\/p>\n \u201cAs cannabis use becomes more common, it is increasingly important that people and their healthcare professionals include it in conversations about cardiovascular health, just as they discuss tobacco, alcohol and other commonly used substances,\u201d Divya said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People who regularly use cannabis might be taking a chance with their cardiovascular health, new research suggests. Scientists…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":903760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[21768,7199,97,255193],"class_list":["post-903759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-cannabis","tag-cardiovascular-disease","tag-health","tag-strokes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=903759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}