San Diego, CA: A history of marijuana use is not associated with an increased risk of either high blood pressure or hypertension, according to data published in the American Journal of Hypertension.
Researchers affiliated with the University of California at San Diego assessed the relationship between cannabis consumption and blood pressure/hypertension in a nationally representative sample of nearly 10,000 middle-aged adults.
They determined that those with a history of using cannabis for the past year had no higher risk of either high blood pressure or hypertension as compared to non-users.
The study’s authors concluded: “A history of monthly cannabis use for more than one year was not independently associated with either increased blood pressure or prevalent hypertension in a study using a nationally representative sample of middle-aged US adults. Moreover, no significant associations were observed for duration of monthly use, recency, or frequency of recent use. The lack of association found in the present study contributes to the observational evidence suggesting frequent cannabis use over decades may not be associated with increased blood pressure or hypertension in middle aged US adults.”
A prior analysis of over 91,000 French subjects, published in February in the journal Nature: Scientific Reports, reported that both current and lifetime cannabis use is associated with lower blood pressure. Israeli data, published in the European Journal of Internal Medicine, reported that the use of medical cannabis products was associated with decreases in hypertension among elderly subjects.
Full text of the study, “Trends in cannabis use, blood pressure and hypertension in middle-aged adults: Findings from NHANES: 2009-2018,” appears in the American Journal of Hypertension. Additional information on cannabis and hypertension is available from NORML’s publication, Clinical Applications for Cannabis & Cannabinoids.