I ran across an article on K8 news with the headline “Marijuana may be bad for your heart whether smoked or taken as edibles, study suggests” You can view original article here.
This is a deliberately worded headline to pander to the anti-cannabis crowd to give them talking points that aren’t really valid talking points. Once you actually click through and read the article, you find the “study” was only 55 participants. These were not candidates they tracked for their entire usage time. The cannabis users chosen for the study had already been smoking for up to and in excess of a decade or using edibles for for up to and in excess of 5 years.
The study had no baseline starting point. There is no information about the actual development of any heart issues during that time of use. There is no information about their medical histories, lifestyles or any possible underlying issues that may not have been recorded. Even in the authors of the study acknowledge in the limitations section there are variants that could have been the actual causes of the results. You can read the study here: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamacardiology/fullarticle/2834540
There have been various studies over the years on the effect of smoking cannabis on cardiovascular health. Most of these studies are done on very small numbers of people. They also test on mice with purposely raised cholesterol. In general, the public at large knows that high cholesterol is a major contributing factor to heart and circulation issues. There are also various genetic factors that can contribute to risk. As well, it’s common knowledge that smoking anything is a contributing factor to heart and circulation problems.
When you run across headlines like this, look up the studies they refer to. Most of the time you will find they are very small and don’t take into account many side issues that may be affecting their results. When you do find one that is based on very little actual evidence, please share them and let your viewers know they aren’t a real argument against marijuana.
Advocate for REAL studies and tests. In this day and age of both medical and recreational legalization, there isn’t any excuse for these small studies any more. We need more research on the effects of cannabis on all kinds of health conditions – whether it be helpful or harmful to them. There is anecdotal evidence all over the place of people getting off big pharma medications that were doing damage to all parts of the body and brain and actually showing improvement of the conditions they use it for.
When it comes down to it, there is a very personal choice in the risks we take. What are the pros and cons of taking big pharma, drinking, smoking cigarettes vs the pros and cons of using cannabis products?
