Pot and heart disease?

[BOMBAYCAT]

The news media (CBS, Huff Post, Channel 4) is reporting a link between pot use and heart disease. www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/4/23/marijuana-heart-complication-cardiovascular
This was a small study in France where people who had heart events self reported pot use. Other factors such as tobacco use, drinking etc. were not taken out of the study. I tend not to believe it as I think we would have noticed if all our friends here at IC were dropping like flies.

 

[Runt]

The opposition is clasping at straws

 

[rob feature]

Have you noticed there are lots of these rearing their heads lately? Seems like every week, a new one comes about. The one last week was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

I might be more inclined to lend that last one more credibility were it not lumped with the others.

 

[igrowone]

there's another heart rending link on cnn, think it's titled 'legal mj making it's way to the playground'
i think the vested government anti-MJ lobby is beginning to look just plain ridiculous
which can only be good for us

 

[RoadRash]

There is a minor connection.

If you have a premature ventricular contraction condition, yes Cannabis can make it a little bit more irregular.


NORMALLY there are no complications. I smoke about 1/2 gram a day.


THE ONLY TIME when I have had a serious irregular heartbeat was when I had a super-stressful job as a tech manager at a company that had just gone through a leveraged buy-out that involved a considerable amount of fraud. As a manager it was my job to help 'cover up' the fraud and to 'make it work'.

The irregular heartbeat disappeared the day after I quit that job - even though I was still smoking Cannabis.


Some would say that the Cannabis was a contributing factor to the heart condition.

I would say that Stress & Anxiety were by far the contributing factors.


HOWEVER ... the mainstream media is often (or always) guided by the decisions of their advertisers and Uncle Sam (or is Uncle Shylock ?)

e.g. when they're talking about gun control, they very rarely mention the fact that at least 50% of the shooters are taking SSRI drugs.


So we're left with the 21st century version of Reefer madness. "Children OD'ing on Canna-lollipops in Colorado". It's like a bad-LSD version of the old newspaper saying, "if it bleeds, it leads."


I've lived with the same heart for 50+ years, consumed Cannabis regularly since the mid-80's, and the only time my heart has been a problem was during some times of extreme stress.

It's possible that Cannabis is contra-indicated for SOME heart conditions.

Personally I would rather hear about that from another Cannabis user, than from some "doctor" who is paid to steer patients away from Cannabis (which still happens at federally funded clinics in states with legal medical cannabis.)

 

[BOMBAYCAT]

Hey RoadRash: Are you out of the Tech Manager job that was giving you that much stress? It sounds like that job really would have screwed you up eventually.