
Does marijuana weaken heart muscles? - gm-conspiracy
http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/13/health/marijuana-weakens-heart/index.html
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moftz
"'This is a retrospective study, so we cannot determine causation' between
marijuana and weakening heart muscles, he concluded."

Title should be changed to reflect that only a correlation has been found, not
a causation. Or just change the title of the post to match the actual article
title instead of editorializing it.

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mikeyouse
People; Stop complaining about not having the primary source and spend 1
second looking it up.

Here: [https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-11/aha-
mum11031...](https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-11/aha-
mum110316.php)

The study was previewed at a poster session at the AHA's annual conference
this week. The full paper will be released shortly.

Doctors looked at 33,000 people who were hospitalized with stress
cardiomyopathy (sudden rapid weakening of heart muscle without the typical MI
markers) and found that 210 were activate marijuana users (via interviews or
drug tests). Compared to non-users, marijuana users were found to be younger
and less likely to have high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, or
other cardiac risk factors.

Even without these risk factors, marijuana users were 3x as likely to go into
cardiac arrest and were 4x as likely to require an implanted defibrillator.

There were a number of confounding variables such as marijuana users being
twice as likely to have a history of depression, 3x as likely to have a
history of psychosis, 75% more likely to have a history of anxiety disorder,
and much more likely to use tobacco, alcohol, or multiple drugs. These were
all adjusted for and the heart problems still remained.

Yes, it's a retrospective study without the ability to draw correlations, but
it's definitely concerning and definitely worth following up with further
research.

From my own speculation, stress cardiomyopathy (aka broken heart syndrome,
where a serious emotional trauma can cause literal heart damage) is thought to
be linked to catecholamine-linked muscular dysfunction. There are some older
studies that have shown left-ventricle performance loss and norepi increases
for several hours after smoking marijuana, so it seems like the cardiomyopathy
could just be the chronic result of repeated exposure.

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nyargh
> The lack of regulation makes it difficult for users to know the amount of
> THC, the psychosis-inducing chemical in marijuana, contained in a dose,
> which can be dangerous.

Mmmhmmm

~~~
chillingeffect
Also, In dispensaries I've visited, the percentages are printed right on the
labels as a selling point.

But maybe I only imagined that in my state of total psychosis.

~~~
arpa
You must have been psychotic. On an unrelated note, how come "marijuana" is a
proper scientific term, which is even used in source material? Why not call it
reefer then. That term alone indicates bias.

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thefastlane
without a DOI there's nothing to discuss. these news briefs are not useful; we
need the actual paper.

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gm-conspiracy
Marijuana users in the study accounted for 1% of the sample size?

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erikpukinskis
I've had some health concerns about my heart lately, and following a period of
pretty heavy pot usage. Anecdotal obviously.

Everything in moderation.

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oyebenny
Did I read this right? Only 210 people in the study?.....

