Marijuana use may increase the chances of developing an often temporary but still frightening heart condition, suggests new preliminary research presented this week at the annual American Heart Association Meeting.
Researchers analyzed records from the country's largest database on hospital stays, called the National Inpatient Sample (NIS). They looked at over 33,000 people hospitalized with stress cardiomyopathy, better known as "broken heart syndrome," from 2003 to 2011. When they focused on the 210 patients who reported using marijuana soon before they experienced its telltale symptoms, which closely resemble a heart attack, they found noticeable differences between them and the typical sufferer. Not only were these patients often younger men instead of older women, but they had fewer known risk factors for the condition, like high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes. They were also slightly more likely to go into cardiac arrest and require an implanted defibrillator to prevent later cardiac events (2.4 percent vs 0.6 percent).
These differences could indicate that marijuana alone can increase the risk of stress cardiomyopathy, the researchers concluded. After accounting for other known factors, they estimated that users were nearly twice as likely to develop it than non-users.
(Score: 2) by Zz9zZ on Wednesday November 16 2016, @06:32PM
Like every drug marijuana can be bad, but it is one of the few that has real medical uses and its negative effects can be mitigated by not directly burning it. Of all the drugs I'd choose for a society to have a problem with, marijuana would probably be the one.
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday November 16 2016, @09:49PM
Marijuana smells like dead skunk. Give me the tears of the poppy instead.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 16 2016, @10:12PM
Good only for killing pain. Phoenix I know you took the election hard, but c'mon poppy-products are not the answer!