The UC San Francisco study discovers a new risk for cannabis for cannabis

UC San Francisco researchers published a study that found disturbing cardiovascular risks on Wednesday use cannabisEven for people who avoided smoking cannabis entirely.

THE study Tested 55 people in the bay region to see if their cardiovascular function was different depending on whether they consumed smoked cannabis, used edible cannabis products or completely abstaining cannabis. Research has revealed that regular cannabis users – edible users and cannabis smokers – had reduced cardiovascular function and increased risk of developing premature heart disease.

The study joins an increasing set of evidence that chronic cannabis consumption could affect the cardiovascular system of cannabis users. A 2024 Study The evaluation of the survey data revealed that daily marijuana consumption was associated with an increase of 25% of the risk of heart attack and with an increased risk of 42%, but it is one of the first studies that measured cardiovascular function in healthy adults who strictly used the Coribles of smoking cannabis, according to the researcher and the main author of the UCSF Leila Mohammadi.

The results that even people only use edible products without smoking have always shown signs of cardiovascular damage have surprised Matthew Springer, an UCSF researcher and another study author. According to a Recommendation 2020 by the American Heart Association.

“When I saw the result of the THC for the first time, I said to Leila:” Scientifically, this result of THC is really interesting, but the boy fucks the public health message “,” said Springer.

The UCSF study tested the cardiovascular function with a two -part test. First of all, they ultrasound an artery in the arm of each subject to see how the blood flow changed after being tightened with a brassard of blood pressure. The ultrasound study revealed that cannabis smokers and edible cannabis users had arteries with lower dilation rates compared to people who did not consume cannabis.

The study then examined the blood serum of test subjects to see how it reacted to endothelial cells, which regulate blood flow. This test revealed that cannabis smokers, but not edible users produced less nitric oxide levels, which is an indicator of cardiovascular health. The drop in nitric oxide levels observed in marijuana smokers was similar to previous research on the effects of smoking tobacco, according to the study.

Springer said the fact that edible users have shown signs of damage to the dilution test but not to the nitric oxide test, while cannabis smokers have shown damage to both tests, shows that THC alone without smoking could directly damage the vascular system. He said it could be proof that smoking marijuana could cause a “double blow” of negative effects on heart health.

The study authors tested all the subjects for exposure to nicotine to ensure that none of the participants used tobacco.

Together, these results indicate that using THC is associated with an increased risk of developing heart disease early, according to the study.

The study has not proven a causal relationship between the consumption of THC and heart disease, but Springer said that because this last study revealed early alert signs of heart disease in healthy subjects that confirm previous studies, “we can be quite confident” that cannabis consumption causes damage to the cardiovascular system.

Benjamin Caplan, a Massachusetts doctor who specializes in the consumption of medical cannabis, said in an email that the study “raises important questions” but does not answer “convincing evidence of cardiovascular damage against cannabis consumption”. Caplan said that the study did not control which subjects of specific cannabis products used or their diet, the body mass index or lifestyle factors and contained only one woman in the edible group, which, according to him, limits her generalization.

“This study says nothing about what is happening when cannabis is used in a thoughtful way, at low doses, under medical surveillance, or as part of a wider care plan,” said Caplan. “This does not reflect the patients I see – older adults shrinking opioids, cancer survivors managing pain or anxious people who finally sleep all night. It is a narrow lens applied to a very wide subject. ”

The subjects of the study were all regular users who consumed cannabis at least three times a week, and cardiovascular damage was stronger for people who used more THC per week, which, according to Springer, is a sign that even the use of less cannabis could save users of the heaviest cardiovascular damage: “It really seems to be, the more take.”