Smoking, vaping or eating marijuana is linked to a significantly higher risk of heart attack and stroke, even if a person had no existing heart conditions and did not smoke or vape tobacco, a new study found.

While both daily and non-daily users had an increased risk of heart attack and stroke compared to nonusers, stroke risk rose 42% and the risk of heart attack rose 25% if cannabis was used daily, the study found. The risk climbed as marijuana use time accumulated.

“Cannabis smoke is not all that different from tobacco smoke, except for the psychoactive drug: THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) vs. nicotine,” said lead study author Abra Jeffers, a data analyst at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston who researches tobacco and smoking cessation.

“Our study shows that smoking cannabis has significant cardiovascular risks, just like smoking tobacco. This is particularly important because cannabis use is increasing, and conventional tobacco use is decreasing,” Jeffers said.

The study’s findings mirror other research that has found daily use of marijuana is linked to an increase in coronary heart disease, heart attack and stroke, said Robert Page II, a professor of clinical pharmacy and physical medicine at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Aurora, Colorado.

“The findings of this study have very important implications for population health and should be a call to action for all practitioners, as this study adds to the growing literature that cannabis use and cardiovascular disease may be a potentially hazardous combination,” Page said in a statement.

The study, published last week in the Journal of the American Heart Association, analyzed data on 430,000 adults collected from 2016 through 2020 through the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a national phone survey performed each year by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People in the survey ranged in age from 18 to 74, with an average age of 45. Nearly 90% of adults did not use marijuana, while more than 63% had never used tobacco. Among current marijuana users, nearly 74% reported smoking as the most common form of consumption; 4% were daily users, while 7% used less than daily. Nearly 29% of daily marijuana users and 44% of non-daily users never used tobacco cigarettes.

Younger adults — defined as men under 55 and women under 65 years old — who used marijuana had a 36% higher risk of coronary heart disease, heart attack and stroke regardless of whether they also used traditional tobacco products.

The American Heart Association advises people to refrain from smoking or vaping any substance, including cannabis products, because of the potential harm to the heart, lungs and blood vessels.

(SD-Agencies)

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【吸电子烟】xī diànzǐyān vape inhale and exhale vapor containing nicotine produced by a device

【大麻】dàmá cannabis hemp, marijuana

一项新研究发现，即使一个人不吸烟也不患有心脏病，吸大麻、吸入雾化或直接食用大麻都与心脏病发作和中风的风险显著升高相关。

研究发现，与完全不吸的人相比，每天或者时而吸食大麻的人心脏病发作和中风的风险都会增加。如果每天吸食大麻，中风的风险会增加42%，心脏病发作的风险增加25%。随着吸食大麻时长的累积，风险也在攀升。

研究主要作者、波士顿马萨诸塞州总医院烟草和戒烟研究数据分析师阿布拉•杰弗斯说：“大麻与烟草并无太大区别，只是含有的精神活性药物不同：前者是大麻素，后者是尼古丁。”

杰弗斯说：“我们的研究表明，大麻与烟草一样对心血管造成严重危害。认识这一点尤为重要，因为传统烟草使用减少的同时，吸食大麻正在增加。”

位于科罗拉多州奥罗拉市的科罗拉多大学斯卡格斯药学和制药科学学院临床药学和物理医学教授小罗伯特•佩奇说，这项研究的结果印证了此前的其他研究，认为每天吸食大麻与冠心病、心脏病发作和中风的增加有关。

佩奇在一份声明中说：“研究结果对民众健康具有重要意义，应该呼吁所有医药从业人员采取行动，因为这项研究再次佐证了此前的文献，发现使用大麻和心血管疾病可能是一对潜在的危险组合。”

上周发表在《美国心脏协会杂志》上的这项研究分析了2016到2020年间通过健康习惯因素监测系统收集到的43万名成年人的数据，该系统是美国疾控预防中心每年开展的一项全国性电话调查。

调查对象从18岁到74岁不等，平均年龄为45岁。调查发现近90%的成年人不吸食大麻，63%以上的人从不吸烟。在吸食大麻的人群中，近74%的人称点燃直接吸是最常见的做法；4%的人每天吸，7%的人每天吸不止一次。近 29%每天吸食大麻和44%不是每天吸食的人从不吸烟。

无论是否吸烟，吸食大麻的非老年人群（55岁以下的男性和65岁以下的女性）罹患冠心病、心脏病和中风的风险比不吸的人要高出36%。

美国心脏协会建议人们不要吸食或雾化吸入任何物质，包括大麻，因为可能会对心脏、肺部和血管造成损害。

(Translated by Debra)