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A new study has uncovered a sobering link between marijuana edibles and early heart disease. The study on the effects of marijuana on cardiovascular health showed some results that even surprised the researchers and brought up important questions for further research.
The data suggest that people who use marijuana chronically have lower vascular function and a higher risk of premature cardiovascular disease than those who don’t. But what was most surprising is that people who used edible marijuana experienced these risks more than those who smoked marijuana.
Marijuana Edibles and Early Heart Disease Risk
This was a small study that analyzed the health of 55 people who use cannabis at least three times per week for at least a year, whether they used medical marijuana or used it recreationally.
Researchers found that their vascular function was about 50% lower than people who don’t use marijuana chronically. Low vascular function is a major risk factor for heart disease and complications associated with it like heart attacks and strokes.
Interestingly, people who smoked marijuana had a 42% reduction in vascular function compared to the 50% reduction among people who used edible marijuana. In other words, edible forms of the drug might be worse for heart health, and this took researchers by surprise.
The cannabis users in this study had similar cardiovascular risks to people who smoke or vape tobacco. Researchers did note that they screened the study participants to ensure that none of them smoked or were often exposed to secondhand smoke.
Correlation, Not Causation
The study’s senior author Matthew Springer, a professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco, made sure to explain that this study found a correlation between cannabis edibles and early heart disease, but the study didn’t determine that the cannabis use causes the vascular issues.
As he explains, the study found that “cannabis users have poor vascular function, not that cannabis use causes poor vascular function.”
It’s possible that the people in the study had lower vascular function because of other lifestyle factors that often go along with marijuana use, like low physical activity or an unhealthy diet. They can only determine if marijuana use causes cardiovascular problems through much more extensive medical research. Still, this study certainly brings up a possibility that’s worth exploring.
Why It Matters
Marijuana use has been widespread for decades and it was previously thought to be fairly safe. So why are we just now finding possibly significant health risks?
The way marijuana was classified and managed as a controlled substance for so many years made it nearly impossible to study, and it especially made it difficult to study people who used it routinely because that use was largely hidden. Now that it has been legalized in so many areas, it opens the door for more research to be able to identify potential risks and other unknowns.
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