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Marijuana and your Heart!

Zildjian said:
It has a biphasic effect on the autonomic nervous system. Some types of weed, or even depending on the amount of THC in your system, can cause heart rate and blood pressure to go either up or down. During this occurrence, it is to my knowledge that the heart can't get oxygen enough, and in drastic cases, you will pass out. IIRC, the heart will "stress" to get more blood pumping. Especially during times of even light exercise, such as walking, games, sports, etc.

From what I've researched, of course.

EDIT: just found this
Marijuana smoking increases the level of carboxyhaemoglobin, thereby decreasing oxygen delivery to the heart due to which it stresses the work of the heart by forming atheroma.
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Vaporizing, eating, and smoking marijuana causes my blood pressure to go down, and I normally have elevated blood pressure.
 
hobhead said:
i certainly have no axe to grind with cannabis usage .
however i do get chapped with uninformed, nonsensical prattle about it's harmlessness .
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This thread is thus far informative and interesting, unfortunately even as a daily stoner I don't have much to add..my blood pressure is usually normal, pot doesn't seem to mess with it too much (have played around with the blood pressure machines in pharmacies and such). I also get annoyed with post after post from someone really young going on about how it's harmless and they want to prove it's harmless so their parents will "let them smoke". It's still a drug, psychologically addicting, and cost money. Thanks for putting this info out there OP, I didn't know of any specific heart conditions that were aggravated by weed until reading this.
 
yesterday thru out the day i took about 2 mgs of suboxone. at night i ended up smoking a blunt with a few friends. then i felt...different. i felt like i was going to have a panic attack, i felt anxious, and i started getting chills and sweats and just started feeling shitty. then eventually it went away. is this normal at all?
 
Very good of you to post this Zildjian. It's this type of info that is good for people to know. Thank you very much.

So far good info. Anecdotes are where the real field data comes from. :)
 
ejnjgrl822 said:
yesterday thru out the day i took about 2 mgs of suboxone. at night i ended up smoking a blunt with a few friends. then i felt...different. i felt like i was going to have a panic attack, i felt anxious, and i started getting chills and sweats and just started feeling shitty. then eventually it went away. is this normal at all?
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Yes it is, weed is the first drug I got into and now I wouldnt go near the shit, makes me go werid lol. everythink you mentioned and more happens when i smoke it, on sub or not...IMO I think certain people are not suited to smoking weed it just does not agree with them, so no more blunt's for you my friend!

Although looking back how nice it was to smoking a drug as much as you want and not go through hell when you have not got any!
 
I wouldn't say cannabis usually raises the pulse much more than caffeine, but my heart appears to be reasonably healthy and it has made me tachycardic on occasion, even in low doses. I think it raises my blood pressure though I haven't ever properly checked.
Normally I wouldn't worry but when mixed with other drugs, it can get quite scary.
 
Inoxia said:
I wouldn't say cannabis usually raises the pulse much more than caffeine, but my heart appears to be reasonably healthy and it has made me tachycardic on occasion, even in low doses. I think it raises my blood pressure though I haven't ever properly checked.
Normally I wouldn't worry but when mixed with other drugs, it can get quite scary.
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It depends on the dose of cannabis and that of the caffeine.

In the amounts that I consume caffeine (I work at Starbucks), I don't get jitters or racing heart. Just elevated blood pressure.

Marijuana always elevates my heart rate. But so would jogging, or riding a roller coaster. Really, the only people this pertains to are a very very very small minority that already know that smoking marijuana could be dangerous. No one with a serious heart condition is going to come bumbling through here reading about marijuana for the first time.

General rule of thumb: if you can ride a roller coaster, you can smoke marijuana.

Although those things that spin you around make me lose consciousness. You know, they're like UFO's and you get inside and they spin and you stick to the walls and you can get upside down and put your shoes on the wall. Yeah. Those things. They're cool. I'm high right now. This is all relevant.
 
If we are comparing caffeine to cannabis, I will add that at 2 cups of coffee, I start to shake. If I continue consuming caffeine, I get crappy ASS side effects... constant pee breaks, sweaty palms, negative attitude, high blood pressure, aggressive. I can smoke bowl after bowl if I can afford it and every side effect is positive. I get hungry and I feel patient. I can listen closely to my friends because I am more able to focus on one thing and tune everything else out. I like to smoke with people and hang out and talk. I go up to the creek with different people a lot, and we talk about the problems in the world. I am the one with the long hair. http://www.flickr.com/photos/60755496@N00/4970082869/
 
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ugly said:
If we are comparing caffeine to cannabis, I will add that at 2 cups of coffee, I start to shake. If I continue consuming caffeine, I get crappy ASS side effects... constant pee breaks, sweaty palms, negative attitude, high blood pressure, aggressive. I can smoke bowl after bowl if I can afford it and every side effect is positive. I get hungry and I feel patient. I can listen closely to my friends because I am more able to focus on one thing and tune everything else out. I like to smoke with people and hang out and talk. I go up to the creek with different people a lot, and we talk about the problems in the world. I am the one with the long hair. http://www.flickr.com/photos/60755496@N00/4970082869/
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I sort of feel the opposite. If I'm super stoned, I can't follow external dialog because my memory can't hold up to long or exceptionally long sentences. I also feel like the threshold for letting sensory information through to the conscious level is lowered. I'm aware of my whole body, not just what I'm focusing on, so focusing has less of an impact than normal.

And even if I am able to focus on a person, usually what they're saying's giving me such random mental imagery that my mind goes off on a tangent and I start to daydream...
 
I usually notice a slight increase of my pulse but were talking a very small increase.

I'm not really worried about it considering that coke or amp increases my pulse rate way more and even caffeine has a larger impact on me than pot.

Compared to those substances, weed is practically harmless. But if I had any cardiovascular problems I would definitely agree with the op to stay away from anything that can pose potential risks.
 
i just dont get why this happens to me. i was smoking about 7 blunts a day then i got into opiates and slowly stopped smoking so much. now i smoke blunts here and there. yesterday like 10-11am i took about 1-2 mg suboxone sublingual then at 830ish pm i did a bag of d and after that i smoked and while smoking i started to blackout. then i sat and was ok eventually. i just dont get whats wrong with me. it really is freaking me out!
 
I have had blood tests done which verified that I have marfan's as well... I know it varies GREATLY in symptom severity as well as prognosis (based on things like rate of growth and base size of various valves) and I'm not sure how severe yours is relative to mine. I was told at a cardiogram years ago that my heart size is smaller than average, which is good, and since then it hasn't changed all too much. It's grown proportionally, but nothing all too alarming. I've smoked weed on and off for the better part of four years and it's never raised any questions with my cardiologist, physician, or anyone else who doesn't know. I'm sorry that your aorta would grow so quickly- and in light of that growth smoking weed has probably become much more dangerous for you- but I don't think the growth can be fairly attributed to the ganja. Also, I'd recommend low impact workout and CoQ10. Obviously neither of us is going out for the track team, but totally stagnating is probably as bad for your heart as overworking it. I've used amphs, psychedelics, RCs, opiates, benzos, and all kinds of other drugs that probably weren't very good for my cardiovascular system, and (as I'm very tall) I have poor circulation which I'm sure none of that helped... But there are estimations that large portions of the NBA are undiagnosed sufferers of Marfan's and only very rarely does one drop dead. Having a condition with symptoms like "increased likelyhood of sudden death" is intimidating and does require monitoring with annual or biannual appointments with a cardiologist, but there are experimental drugs being researched to slow or reverse unusual cardiac growth and there's generally a decent prognosis for anyone who knows they have the condition. Most early deaths are because the person didn't have any clue that they had something to take care of.

I'm thinking I'll start a thread about Marfan's and drug use.
 
Leftisright;

When you say you had blood tests done - do you mean a DNA test to find the fibrillin mutation? I didn't know you could tell someone had Marfan's by examining the blood - aside from the "hints" like anemia or low oxygen.

I'd love to speak with you over AIM or messaging - I've never encountered another person with marfan's and a taste for psychedelic adventures, maybe we could learn from one another. Also, you are a mad man for the amph use. If that wouldn't kill me the anxiety would! i got nervous on each LSD come up about my heart. Also a bad trip was instigated because I thought too much about my heart :p


here's an update!

I dropped atenolol, 25mg daily from my medicine as my doctor advised and only continued Cozaar, 50mg daily. I smoked and vaporized marijuana, daily, while "somewhat" taking my Cozaar. I'd say I took my cozaar every one to three days.. I was lazy and stupid I know. I continued my daily weed use then added various psychedelics, (psilocybin, lsd) to my substance of use list periodically for about 4 of those months. All the while I had been lazy on my heart medicine. Just a week ago I had my annual echo-cardiogram, expecting to find that my aorta was a day from an aneurysm or dissection, but it had actually gotten better. It was 3.2 last year, and now 3.1 this time. That means a millimeter was subtracted from the diameter, (although this millimeter could have been a product of mismeasurement, it is possible). Even so, that meant my aorta was stable, which shows that it wasn't weed that caused the spurt a while back. I now believe this was just the pubertal growth, as I did attain a bit of height and weight alongside the aortic growth. I was suprised not even the LSD or shrooms caused problems.. I now believe that the overall lowering of blood pressure does more good than harm.

Zildj
 
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@Zildjian
I have recently been diagnosed with Marfans. I'm very much into my psychedelics (shrooms,lsd etc) but have had to stop them as a result of all the heart issues and such. I however,do love to smoke weed and find it very hard to stop. Is smoking it out of a vaporizer or eating it still going cause a lot of damage?
 
I'd talk with someone in the medical marijuana industry and locate a strain that lowers blood pressure. I've had luck with indic a strains in terms of keeping heart rate / BP in check. Eliminate toxins from entering your lungs as their tissue is affected by the disease as well, so use a vaporizer. It's easier on your body and heart. As far as shrooms/LSD go, I've done them but my heart raced when I got real anxious so i'd stay away.. Many a bad trip were started by just awareness of my heartbeat
 
I have Marfan's and have smoked weed for 6 years, im 24 now. In the past 6 years, my aorta has grown at a normal pace (compared to my early teens, when it grew faster). There have been long periods when I lit up multiple times every day, and I even (stupidly!) smoked cigarettes for a while. For a couple years I was really into hallucinogens and other drugs (never coke or any downers). In my case, I don't think that marijuana contributed at all negatively to my symptoms of Marfan's.

I am a very active person, and no doctor has ever told me that I shouldn't run or play sports (not contact sports, of course, or weight lifting etc). "Just know your limits" is all they say. People with Marfan's should be extra careful about heart health, and I think real exercise is a very important factor in that. If all that marijuana does to the heart is make it work a bit harder, shouldn't that be a good thing?? Not in excess, or in conjunction with other risky things of course...but a little bit of ganja can be a good thing, if it inspires you (or as a painkiller, or for fun). Just know your limits.

Granted, I probably don't have as severe of a case as you do, zildjian. My dad and granddad are tall and thin, but not diagnosed. I got the symptoms by fluke. I was diagnosed at 13 when they discovered the weird lenses in my eyes, and my extra-large aorta. I grew up super lanky and thin, and way taller than my dad. I ended up pretty lucky, though, because my symptoms seemed to stop developing out of control when I finished puberty. I attribute that partly to exercise, good diet, and not letting my condition control my life. I lead a healthy lifestyle, and marijuana happens to be part of that. peace
 
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