St3ve
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2013
- Messages
- 621
I'm just gonna add some things to this discussion here...
My dad has a benign arrythmia and was able to smoke weed daily for years without any problems. One time he got high and had an atrial fibrillation, he was taken to the hospital and given some heart pills if he were to have another one. He quit smoking weed for a year and a half and smoked again one time thinking it was unlikely he'd get another fibrillation. Guess what, he did. After that he went off it for good. This to me is what this study kind of shows (although the sample sizes are pretty pathetic). If you have a pre-existing heart condition use of cannabis can lead to complications. Now, benign arrythmias like my dad has are pretty common among the population. However, a lot of people may not know they have one because they've never experienced problems. As a doctor you're not going to make a patient take an ECG unless you have a reason to do so.
If you look at the supplemental data (http://jaha.ahajournals.org/content...DC1/jah3473-sup-0001-SupplementalMaterial.pdf) provided with the original publication you get an overview of the patients who died from cannabis/suffered complications. There were several patients found dead at home or somewhere else and tested positive for cannabinoids. This is hardly indicative that it was the weed that killed them, just a correlation. Some of the cases are more convincing as they died under medical supervision after having recently smoked. Of the ones who died quite a few of them were overweight (BMI >25), which might be an important co-factor. Also most of the ones who supposedly died from cannabis are quoted as "cannabis only" in the medical file. I'll also point out this is a French study and as in most of Europe people will smoke cannabis in a joint mixed with tobacco in France. To my knowledge people who smoke pure in Europe are uncommon. It seems likely to me that these 8 people would've also smoked tobacco joints. With many of the ones suffering heart complications but not death you can see that they are listed as being heavy tobacco users /drinkers /occasional cocaine users, some also had known pre-existing heart conditions or family members who had them.
Let's not forget that while unusual, heart attacks and sudden death events do happen in young people that were otherwise perfectly healthy. All in all, this study tells us very little new information and holds very little power to suggest that cannabis can have a significant effect on cardiovascular health.
My dad has a benign arrythmia and was able to smoke weed daily for years without any problems. One time he got high and had an atrial fibrillation, he was taken to the hospital and given some heart pills if he were to have another one. He quit smoking weed for a year and a half and smoked again one time thinking it was unlikely he'd get another fibrillation. Guess what, he did. After that he went off it for good. This to me is what this study kind of shows (although the sample sizes are pretty pathetic). If you have a pre-existing heart condition use of cannabis can lead to complications. Now, benign arrythmias like my dad has are pretty common among the population. However, a lot of people may not know they have one because they've never experienced problems. As a doctor you're not going to make a patient take an ECG unless you have a reason to do so.
If you look at the supplemental data (http://jaha.ahajournals.org/content...DC1/jah3473-sup-0001-SupplementalMaterial.pdf) provided with the original publication you get an overview of the patients who died from cannabis/suffered complications. There were several patients found dead at home or somewhere else and tested positive for cannabinoids. This is hardly indicative that it was the weed that killed them, just a correlation. Some of the cases are more convincing as they died under medical supervision after having recently smoked. Of the ones who died quite a few of them were overweight (BMI >25), which might be an important co-factor. Also most of the ones who supposedly died from cannabis are quoted as "cannabis only" in the medical file. I'll also point out this is a French study and as in most of Europe people will smoke cannabis in a joint mixed with tobacco in France. To my knowledge people who smoke pure in Europe are uncommon. It seems likely to me that these 8 people would've also smoked tobacco joints. With many of the ones suffering heart complications but not death you can see that they are listed as being heavy tobacco users /drinkers /occasional cocaine users, some also had known pre-existing heart conditions or family members who had them.
Let's not forget that while unusual, heart attacks and sudden death events do happen in young people that were otherwise perfectly healthy. All in all, this study tells us very little new information and holds very little power to suggest that cannabis can have a significant effect on cardiovascular health.
