Marijuana Linked to Heart Disease and Depression
Chronic marijuana use may affect the heart's health as well as the brain's. A study published yesterday in the journal Molecular Psychiatry found that chronic marijuana users—those who smoke on average nearly every day—may up their risk of both heart attack and stroke. That finding comes on the heels of a government report that linked pot use to psychiatric problems, including depression.
Compared with non-users of the drug, heavy marijuana smokers in the new study had significantly higher levels of a specific protein in their blood known to increase triglycerides, which are fatty molecules linked to vascular and coronary disease risk. Previous studies have tended to focus on marijuana's cognitive, behavioral, and psychoactive effects, including impaired memory and learning deficits. Long-term and chronic marijuana abuse has been associated with adverse effects on the heart, too, says lead author Jean Lud Cadet, a molecular neuropsychiatrist at the National Institutes of Health, but scientists are only beginning to understand how the drug impacts the cardio- and cerebrovascular systems.
The best way to prevent any potential health effects is to refrain from heavy, chronic use, according to George Kunos, an NIH researcher specializing in substance addiction and cardiovascular health, who wasn't involved in the study. He says the increased presence of the protein in heavy marijuana users may also predispose them to metabolic disorders like diabetes. The study did not analyze occasional or recreational use of the drug.
Interventions. Parents who are concerned about possible substance abuse by their teenagers have resources, including these pointers on how to talk with your kids to prevent future use. Though the most recent data show that 4.3 percent of young adults between 18 and 25 use marijuana daily—and only 1.1 percent of teenagers between 12 and 17—understanding peer pressure and social influences on teenage drug abuse can make a world of difference in prevention and treatment. It's also important for parents to be aware of over-the-counter and prescription medicines, like Ritalin, that teenagers may abuse.
Reader Comments
Having read only this "report"
I bet the heavy marijuana smoker who eats a fat-laden, meat-based diet has a higher coronary heart disease risk than the vegan pot smoker. duh...
1 word: Propaganda
"That finding comes on the heels of a government report that linked pot use to psychiatric problems, including depression."
Key words are 'government report'. If you think the government is going to come up with an unbiased, legitimate study regarding marijuana you are extremely naive.
Priorities
I agree w/Propaganda. If marijuana was legal,the government would have to admit being wrong all these years and many drug companies would be out of business. I'm sorry but I'd rather put something in my body that God made than put a substance in my body that man made. It's always grown on the earth, you can do things to it in order to make it better. Other drugs that are 'safely prescribed' everyday, have to be processed in some way in order to use it. Besides, WEED IS ONE of the only drugs out there that you CANNOT overdose on. Almost everything legal like alcohol(1 of the worst drugs ever) aspirin, acetametaphin, etc. have a greater potential for overdose than marijuana. Plus,there's no hangover. We need federal policy to match medical truths. I've never heard or seen anybody hurt anyone or anything after smoking JUST marijuana. Another reason it gets a bad rap is because there are people who get busted w/it along with other harder drugs in their posession. It is NOT a gateway drug! Every drug's reaction to someone ALSO has to do with there personality and/or underlying issues they already have. I am almost 33 years old and I can tell you that it is the only drug that I've ever tried, besides alcohol(hangover, alcohol poisoning, liver diseases,etc.) One more thing, it does not lower your inhibitions like alcohol and many other drugs. I've done more stupid, regrettable things when I was under the influence of alcohol than I ever have when partaking in weed. The government needs to spend more of our tax dollars on drugs like: crack, cocaine, ecstasy, heroine, meth, etc. SO many people are addicted to prescription drugs, and these are supposed to be safe???? Because an Olympic Gold medallist partook in it, everyone is saying, "How are we gonna explain this to our children"? It's no harder than explaining why people abuse drugs that doctors prescribe. Because just as many, if not more, abuse prescription drugs over marijuana. People that have never tried it, don't know as much as they think they do. Experts say that it's more potent today than it was years ago. That's because back then, the government flooded the industry with bunk weed(low/noTHC). There is more product w/higher THC levels today, because the government is no longer increasing the supply with low level THC cannabis. With more states coping with legalizing medical marijuana, I hope it's only a matter of time before the federal government sees it needs to reform it's laws as well.
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