Cannabis and Heart Health
Time for a pulse check: Let’s examine the latest research on how consuming cannabis, particularly through smoking, may impact your heart and cardiac health.
If you’re a regular cannabis consumer, you might already be aware of how smoking cannabis can affect your lungs. But what about its impact on other organs? Current research indicates that smoking cannabis might also have detrimental effects on your heart. Most people who consume cannabis do so by smoking it. Historically, most research on smoking has focused on tobacco. However, with the legalisation of cannabis for adult use across Canada, researchers now have new opportunities to study its effects on the body, including cardiac health.
Studies are investigating how different consumption methods, such as vaping and edibles, and various cannabis products impact the heart. More research is needed to understand nuances like THC potency’s role in cardiac health and how smoking cannabis compares to smoking tobacco. Let’s delve into how cannabis smoke might affect your heart health.
Potential Long-Term Cardiac Impacts of Smoking Cannabis
Despite the limitations of current studies, preliminary evidence has prompted both the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the American Heart Association to caution against smoking or vaping cannabis due to potential cardiac consequences. “Many consumers and healthcare professionals don’t realise that cannabis smoke contains components similar to tobacco smoke,” said researcher and professor Robert L. Page II in a 2020 statement for the American Heart Association. Over 4,000 of the same chemicals are present in both cannabis and tobacco smoke, including ammonia, benzene, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, and tar. Cannabis smokers also tend to inhale more smoke and hold it in their lungs longer than tobacco smokers. These factors may explain why smoking cannabis is associated with higher levels of cardiac events, including chest pain, stroke, heart attack, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, arrhythmias, and cardiac arrest, compared to not smoking cannabis.
Long-Term Effects of Cannabis Consumption
Regular consumption of cannabis and cannabinoids, such as THC, daily or almost daily over a long time, increases the risk of developing long-term effects, including:
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Problematic use patterns or cannabis use disorder
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Long-lasting concentration and memory impairment
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Mental health disorders
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Lung infections and/or bronchitis
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Damaged blood vessels
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Impacts on the brain
Causes of Cardiac Health Effects from Cannabis ConsumptionInhaling smoke is linked with cardiac conditions, but that’s not the whole story. Consuming THC can raise heart rate (tachycardia), increase blood pressure, dilate blood vessels, and cause the heart to pump faster. THC also stimulates the nervous system, implicating the body’s “fight or flight” response, potentially causing fear, paranoia, and anxiety in some users.
These effects can stress the heart, but more research is needed to distinguish the specific cardiac impacts of smoke, THC, and other cannabinoids and to understand how the dose or method of consumption plays a role.
Frequency of Cannabis Consumption and Risk
How often you smoke matters. A 2022 study from Stanford Medicine found that people who smoke cannabis more than once a month have a higher risk of heart disease and heart attack. The American College of Cardiology recently cautioned that daily cannabis smokers are 34% more likely to be diagnosed with coronary artery disease (CAD) compared to non-cannabis smokers, regardless of other factors like tobacco or alcohol use. Those who smoked only monthly didn’t show significantly increased CAD rates. Cannabis use disorder is also linked to an increased risk of heart attacks in people under 50 and a significantly higher risk of cardiovascular disease.
“Our study doesn’t provide enough information to say that cannabis use disorder causes adverse cardiovascular disease events,” said Dr. Anees Bahji, lead author of the Canadian study finding higher cardiovascular disease rates in people with cannabis use disorder. “But we can say that Canadians with cannabis use disorder appear to have a much higher risk of cardiovascular disease than those without the disorder.”
