New York, NY: Cannabis smoke exposure is not positively associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction, according to data published in the journal Cureus.
A pair of researchers with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City assessed the association between a history of cannabis smoking and heart attack in a cohort of over 500,000 subjects from the United Kingdom.
Researchers identified an inverse association between cannabis use and incidences of myocardial infarction, and they found no correlation between marijuana consumption and heart attack severity.
“With marijuana use, MI [myocardial infarction] decreased,” authors concluded. They further acknowledged: “The association of marijuana use with reduced risk of MI is not entirely in accord with current assumptions about the cardiac effects of marijuana. … Further studies are warranted.”
Studies assessing the association between cannabis use and cardiovascular health have been inconsistent, with some studies finding an increased risk of stroke and other cardiovascular diseases among marijuana consumers while others report either no risk or provide evidence of possible cardioprotection.
Full text of the study, “Marijuana and myocardial infarction in the UK Biobank cohort,” appears in Cureus.