Wednesday, August 28, 2024 -A new study has revealed that smoking cannabis triples the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Scientists in France, who tracked more
than 1,300 patients in intensive care, found people who took cannabis alone had
almost twice the risk of suffering a cardiovascular event.
Experts today urged hospitals to screen all
emergency room patients for recreational drug use.
Scientists have previously suggested the
active ingredient in cannabis, THC, triggers the body's fight-or-flight
response, which raises heart rate and blood pressure.
Over time, this damages the heart and
increases the risk of life-threatening problems like heart attacks.
In the study, researchers tracked 1,392
patients who were admitted to 39 different intensive care units in France over
a two-week period in April 2021.
Among them, 11 percent (157) tested
positive for recreational drug use, including 136 with cannabis.
The other 21 were found to have heroin,
cocaine, amphetamines, or MDMA in their system.
More than a quarter (28.7 per
cent) tested positive for two or more of these drugs.
Over a follow-up of a year, the researchers
discovered seven per cent (94) of patients experienced a serious cardiovascular
event including death.
Of the 713 patients in total
hospitalised for acute coronary syndrome, 96 (14 per cent) had a positive
recreational drug test and 50 (7 per cent) experienced serious cardiovascular
events.
Computer modelling found recreational drug use was 'associated with
a three times higher risk of serious cardiovascular events', the scientists
said.
They also found that among recreational
drugs tested, MDMA had a cardiovascular event risk of 4.1 times that of not
taking any drugs. Heroin stood at 3.6 times and cannabis 1.8 times.
'Other drug types did not have a
statistically significant relationship with serious cardiovascular events,' the
researchers added.
Study author and doctor at Hospital
Lariboisiere in Paris, Dr Raphael Mirailles said: 'Recreational drug use was
associated with a tripling of the risk of a repeat serious cardiovascular event
within one year.'
He added: 'There is an increasing
amount of data regarding the worst prognosis associated with recreational drug
use, not only in cardiac intensive care units but also in conventional
intensive care units.
'Despite the high rate of underreporting of
recreational drug use, systematic screening is not recommended by the current
guidelines.
'It might improve risk stratification of
patients and personalised care to favour drug withdrawal. Therefore, systemic
screening should be considered in intensive care.'
Scientists are still working to unravel
exactly why this cardiovascular risk occurs, though it's thought that THC
activates the body's fight-or-flight response, which typically occurs during
stress or fear.
When fight-or-flight is triggered, it leads
to higher heart rate and blood pressure.
Over time, this causes the heart to need to
work harder to pump blood to the rest of the body.
This can wear away at the heart and lead to
conditions like heart disease and stroke.
The scientists will present their research
on August 31 at the 2024 European Society of Cardiology Congress in
London.
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