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In reply to the discussion: Marijuana use dramatically increases risk of dying from heart attacks and stroke, large study finds [View all]
NNadir
(37,568 posts)I'm sorry you're in pain, and I don't know your position with physicians and medical care or access to medical care, but to be frank, I'm deeply suspicious of self medication. If it works for you, fine. I'm not your doctor, or anyone's doctor, I'm a chemist.
Nightshade contains digitalis and has been used since antiquity for heart disease. A side effect of its use as a botanical was death.
The overwhelming use of marijuana is not for treatment of pain; it's recreational. I believe, and have observed, that it results in intellectual impairment. (Heroin does as well.) It is certainly not as harmful as nightshade, and to my knowledge, no one can overdose on pot, but that said, many of the more than 500 biologically active compounds do have health effects.
I have stated that I am against laws for pot abuse (or use). This is very different than saying I support use. I don't.
I had a major bicycle accident when I was a young man. It was so severe that they ran an EEG to see if they should take my organs for transplants. I was unconscious in an ICU for three days and when I came to, connected to a vast array of wires and tubes, including several connected to my internal organs, I was in extreme pain from wounds and broken ribs. They gave me morphine drips. They killed the pain, but they had an awful side effect, which was that I wanted to listen to the Grateful Dead, even though I understood that they seldom played in tune. In that case, I accepted the intellectual impairment, because the pain would have been worse without it.
The fact that morphine effectively killed my pain, however, did not inspire me to think that people should be able to buy morphine over the counter in self medication scenarios. That said, if I had cancer or severe chronic pain, particularly that which involved a terminal disease, I would probably have no problem with becoming a morphine addict.
The article I cited in my previous post is here: Chandy, M., Jimenez-Tellez, N. & Wu, J.C. The relationship between cannabis and cardiovascular disease: clearing the haze. Nat Rev Cardiol 22, 467–481 (2025)
Excerpts from the full text:
...Robust evidence from basic science and clinical studies supports the association between cannabis use and cardiovascular diseases1,10,11,16,18. Before the legalization and decriminalization of cannabis, only small and retrospective studies suggested that cannabis is linked to myocardial infarction (MI)73. Cannabis has now been shown to be associated with adverse cardiovascular events, and heavier use is associated with a greater risk74. In a cross-sectional study, the adjusted odds ratios for coronary heart disease (CHD), MI and cerebrovascular accident were 1.16 (95% CI 0.98–1.38), 1.25 (95% CI 1.07–1.46) and 1.42 (95% CI 1.20–1.68), respectively, for daily cannabis users compared with non-users74. However, less frequent use of cannabis was also associated with an increased risk of CHD, MI and cerebrovascular accident74. In the YOUNG-MI registry, a retrospective cohort study of young adults (aged ≤50 years) with MI, cannabis users were more likely than non-users to have a premature MI18...
...Arrhythmias
...In a retrospective study from a Danish registry in 5,391 patients with chronic pain who used cannabis, a link was reported between cannabis use and new-onset arrhythmias (atrial fibrillation or flutter, conduction disorders, paroxysmal tachycardias and ventricular arrhythmias)85. Cannabis users had an absolute risk of new-onset arrhythmias of 0.8% (95% CI 0.6–1.1%), whereas non-users had an absolute risk of 0.4% (95% CI 0.3–0.5%)85. The annual risk ratio was 1.36 (95% CI 1.00–1.73)85. Cannabis use disorder, defined as an inability to stop using marijuana despite adverse health effects or social problems, is associated with increased occurrence of atrial fibrillation, hospital admissions for uncontrolled atrial fibrillation and thromboembolic events86,87. Moreover, cannabis use disorder and associated arrhythmias are more common in younger patients86. After cannabis exposure, heart rate transiently increases due to increased sympathetic tone and decreased parasympathetic tone10...
...Cardiomyopathy
Cannabis-induced cardiomyopathy has been described in case reports90. An observational study using the UK Biobank found that cannabis was associated with changes in cardiac structure and function91. Cardiac MRI analyses have revealed that cannabis use is associated with larger indexed left ventricular end-diastolic volume, left ventricular end-systolic volume and impaired global circumferential strain after adjustment for age, sex, BMI, systolic blood pressure, use of cholesterol-lowering medication, diabetes, smoking and alcohol consumption91. In addition, cannabis use has been linked to heart failure, with an underlying ischaemic mechanism92.
Preclinical data suggest that endocannabinoids can cause cardiac dysfunction via CB1 activation, whereas CB2-mediated signalling might mitigate adverse cardiac remodelling...
It seems, as is the case with morphine, and/or fentanyl, which also very effectively kills pain, there are side effects. (This is true with pharmaceutical compounds, but they are generally administered under medical care.)
I'm sorry you're in pain, and I wish you well. If pot makes you feel less pain, I believe you, but none of this makes me feel that I should start applauding the use of pot. The intellectual impairment aspects alone lead me to continue to abhor its use for most people, and yes, I continue to abhor its use in general.
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