Investigating the Link between Marijuana Usage and Cardiovascular Disease
|
Reviewed by Dat Tien Nguyen, B.A, ScM.
Translated by Nhi Phuong Quynh Le, B.A |
Posted on August 29th, 2025
|
With the usage of marijuana becoming more prevalent, it is important for healthcare professionals to understand the risk and benefits of the substance. There had been studies that linked easing anxiety, chronic pain, and others. However, there had also been others that found marijuana to increase the risk of other health conditions. To address this knowledge gap, the United States National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute had sponsored a study to investigate the association between marijuana and cardiovascular health.
The cross-sectional study was conducted in the United States between 2016 and 2020 with data collected from 400 thousand individuals. Of them, 23 thousands reported that they have a habit of using marijuanna, and 12 thousands are daily users. The researchers found that participants who use marijuana have a higher odds of experiencing myocardial infarction and stroke. Subgroup analyses found that his association holds true for participants who have never smoked tobacco cigarettes. Furthermore, the researchers reported a dose-response relationship with patients who reported more cannabis usage have a higher risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes. However, there are several limitations to this study; both cannabis usage and cardiovascular health were self-reported, which is subject to bias. Additionally, the study did not assess and control for other contributing factors such as participants’s blood pressure, concurrent medical usage, lipid profile, etc.
The cross-sectional study was conducted in the United States between 2016 and 2020 with data collected from 400 thousand individuals. Of them, 23 thousands reported that they have a habit of using marijuanna, and 12 thousands are daily users. The researchers found that participants who use marijuana have a higher odds of experiencing myocardial infarction and stroke. Subgroup analyses found that his association holds true for participants who have never smoked tobacco cigarettes. Furthermore, the researchers reported a dose-response relationship with patients who reported more cannabis usage have a higher risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes. However, there are several limitations to this study; both cannabis usage and cardiovascular health were self-reported, which is subject to bias. Additionally, the study did not assess and control for other contributing factors such as participants’s blood pressure, concurrent medical usage, lipid profile, etc.