The research emphasizes the significance of timely and regular screening for individuals who use marijuana.
A study recently presented at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (SCAI) 2023 Scientific Sessions highlights the connection between marijuana use and peripheral artery disease (PAD). The study’s results suggested that marijuana users are significantly more likely to develop PAD compared to those in the broader population.
With nearly 50 million individuals reportedly using marijuana at least once, according to the CDC, its usage has seen a rise in recent years.
While many studies have looked at the impact of marijuana use on health, little research has been done to study the effect of marijuana use on the vascular system. PAD, a condition in which narrowed arteries reduce blood flow to the arms or legs, impacts 6.5 million people in the U.S. and can lead to a loss of mobility, reduced quality of life, heart attack, stroke, and death, if not treated early.
Researchers used de-identified patient data from the National Inpatient Samples (NIS) from 2016-2019 who reported marijuana use and a diagnosis of PAD. Patients were further stratified based on any percutaneous lower extremity vascular intervention. The data was analyzed using SPSS software in a binary logistic regression model, a p-value <0.001 was considered statistically significant, and samples were standardized for comparison using predicted probabilities.
Marijuana Users Face Higher PAD Risk
Of the 30 million patients identified, 623,768 were diagnosed as marijuana users. Patients had an average age of 37.4 years, equal distribution across genders, were more likely to be white and more likely to be elective admissions. Of these patients, 2,424 (0.38%) were also diagnosed with PAD. Marijuana users were at more than three times the risk of developing PAD (OR= 3.68, p<0.001) but had no statistically significant increased risk for mortality or requiring percutaneous intervention (p<0.001).
“With the increase in marijuana use in the U.S., our findings show that users should be aware of the symptoms of PAD such as leg pain while walking, slower or no hair growth, and feelings of coldness in the leg,” said Hirva Vyas, DO, Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, NJ and lead author of the study. “We know PAD is a progressive disease that can drastically impact the quality of life, making ongoing monitoring of this patient population critical.”
Authors note that based on study results, vigilant monitoring for disease screening and progression should be initiated earlier in the outpatient setting in addition to cessation counseling.
Reference: “Impact of Marijuana Use on Prevalence and Interventions in Peripheral Artery Disease” by Hirva Vyas, Harsh Jain and Michael Benz, 18 May 2023, Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (SCAI) 2023 Scientific Sessions.
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31 Comments
Lol. This article sounds like pure B.S. written by Pfizer.
You just had to see it coming. If it has the ability to impair your motorskills; give you a buzz, a high, or set you off to feel nothing but comatose, then you just had to know that it’s long term use would prove to be bad health business.
This article is lacking at best, and just appears to be a Big Headline for the pharmaceutical companies.
This isn’t scientific “research”, it’s a study. Nobody was given cannabis in a controlled setting. This study wouldn’t meet the methodological standards of a grade 5 science experiment. It does meet the needs of prohibitionist politics though.
It wasn’t a randomized controlled trial (which is the gold standard) but it was likely a cohort study which is commonly used in epidemiology.
The study probably would need to be repeated to create more conclusive results but is legitimate science,regardless.
Studies like this were used to identify the harms of alcohol, cigarettes, and other drugs; and still hold true.
What is everyone’s obsession with finding whatever they can possible that’s bad with cannabis? Why not do studies like this on alcohol? That’s normalized in society yet it’s really bad for you to get drunk.
There may be some truth to it. I’m 55, white male. I’m in excellent shape. I eat healthy, I fast often, I cycle 50 miles daily and I smoke several joints a day… sativa or sativa dominant hybrids. Been doing the same things for 25+ years. I feel fine and outwardly look fantastic for a man my age. I have a body that professional athletes half my age have told me they hope to achieve when they are my age. I take it as a compliment. Anyway I just found out that I have PAD. Couldn’t believe it. I never put any faith in all the bulls*** about weed. I knew it would not give me heart disease or Parkinson’s. Never figured it would be PAD. Something to think about. I don’t take any modern medicines. Only thing I take is the occasional aspirin. Other then that weed is my medicine for everything and that will never change til I die..
How many of those pot smokers with PAD also smoke cigarettes and other behaviors? Sounds like BS to me.
Exactly. And how many were pre diabetic anyway? With all the absolute junk that people eat,(partly due to some puffing of the weed) its not surprising they bloodflow isnt so good!
Idk why we, as cannabis smokers want to pretend its impossible to harm us.That’sridiculous and anyone with a brain
knows it,gaslighting or propaganda is what that’s called.Most people smoke it right? So right there common sense dictates that would probably be unhealthy. If you don’t smoke it,would be much better off,smoking anything is going to give issues. Peopl3 try to pretend that this weed can’t h u rt them and it’s just ignorant to believe that. Someone asked why they don’t do tests on alcohol,guessing you are super young or never read or both.Idk, but they have for almost 100yrs. Jfc,I like weed too but not to wh we tr I’d be celusilbal about it. Or purposely delusional which seems more the case. They say the prohibitionists come out with this stuff but meanwhile y’all throw propaganda out there yourselves.
Is it the marijuana itself? Or is it the act of smoking the marijuana that’s causing this? Does it still happen if you ingest it ?
Weed smokers have lower levels of the good cholesterol. You can get good cholesterol (that eats the bad cholesterol) from red wine pills. I buy mine from Walmart. Life is a balancing act my friend. Enjoy
Red wine pills helped my father’s cholesterol. He takes two in the morning and two at night. He’s 6’6 and his regular pills didn’t work.
That should help with this as well. Red wine has good cholesterol that eats the bad cholesterol.
Pretty useless summary: does not mention how much or how often those with the diagnoses used m in what form for how long; whether they were mire or less likely to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol or suffer from or preexisting conditions; no age breakdown; no mention of confounding factors and mention of how if it was considered.
You are speaking the truth and blessed balance to you
Lets just blame something other than all the vaccines we just forced most of the population to take.. Hey its all the weed everyone is smoking that causing all these recent heart problems! Look over here.. Standard smoke and mirrors. These people are the sick ones. Love all these “new” studies against something that has been around forever. Not covering anything up.. Hopefully most people see through this. Real eyes Realize Real Lies!!
Cannabis used to be widely used medically, before government prohibition. Some even think cannabis may have been the first agricultural crop.
Now with government grants a group of scientist have found what the government paid them to find.
We need to repeal the 16th amendment and end this nonsense.
OK, and what does alcohol do??! All in moderation is the key right!
This is totally BS there is no complete there is no substantiated proof of any of these claims they’ve made I’ve been using since I’ve 12 years old I’ve raised kids two of my wishes score in a genius range and IQ and I’m not a dummy either I’m 65 years old used daily since 12:00 give me a break break
I call compost on this and 1 study $$$ supported by Pfizer. Big pharma is constantly looking for ways to malign MMJ and Recreational. What next CBD? So the treatment for this is a PHARMACEUTICAL which has how many sides effects which then must be treated???
Amen to all of you! Publicly villianizing a “substance is the first step to controlling public opinion, followed by efforts to restrict access, and finally criminalizing its use. Marijuana or Cannabis has many medicinal properties, from relieving nausea, to stimulating appetite, to aiding sleep, relieving pain, to reducing swelling. Big Pharma does provide some good products that do help many folks. But they have no right to restrict access to a plant that exists on this planet for a purpose. After all, medicinal plant are where pharmaceuticals get many of their “raw” ingredients to make their “drugs.” Responsible use of Cannabis is the right of ever human on this Earth. Thank you for listening and sharing. God bless.
What if they were self-medicating that issue?
The discomforts from or the anxiety… what if it’s the anxiety that gave them p a d i mean that would make more sense wouldn’t it? Anxiety causes an increase in cortisol production this definitely causes problems with valves in the Heart It causes problems with all kinds of s*** actually it can actually make you go deaf I’ve lived with it my entire life and it’s never been something that I felt even okay medicating because for some reason my mind tells me it’s there for a reason but then again my irrational anxiety has always been associated with syringes not pain not shots necessarily but specifically syringes so unfortunately that doesn’t help my argument but I can tell you that cortisol affects the hairs in the ears and this can lead to the craziest tonight as you can imagine sometimes yep and then let’s see it also causes significant problems later things like ra yeah that’s another one because if you think about it if you stay in a state of anxiety very heightened anxiety for too long you’re basically staying in a state of fight or flight and whatever your body is telling you you need to get in that situation or to get out of that situation is what it’s going to be calling to you and then then you add in all the other effects of everything okay you add in you know is there an addiction is there something we’re replacing exercise with this exercise with Catatonia exercise with a drug or is there a time where replacing nutrients for you know alcohol or nutrients with whatever it is you know for whatever reasons money addiction relationship problems a pandemic I mean you name it you got to ask yourself why is it they didn’t shut down the alcohol establishments because they knew if they did that they would be enough people that have problems with you know the detoxes you know that that can be very deadly we have to admit that’s that’s very true you know people can have seizures and I when they come off of alcohol so they couldn’t dare let that happen so they had to make sure that that stayed accessible because it would inundate the hospital system and that was said multiple times maybe not you know to most people unfortunately but I don’t know hopefully it was cuz therefore you know are we not you know understanding just how much they restrict us when they want to and they allow it when they want to because they know the details about it and they’re not treating it like they should why is it they can seem to be doing drugs for some reason as far as the White House seems to be concerned but yet you and I go to prison and things like that because heaven forbid I can grow it on my own and not have half of the effects as some of these goddamn psychiatric meds I’ve had to be on for you know at least 20 years of my life and you know I thought it was cool that I could say I was crazy first considering I wouldn’t psycho first and then I started using drugs but you know you get tired of hearing this is going to help you and it just makes it worse so you know eventually start taking s*** into your own hands and that might not be the greatest but it’s definitely a lot cheaper sometimes if you ask me especially in terms of insurance Jesus
What a predictable string of comments: “Any criticism of my favorite drug is false, period!” And the standard: “Why not alcohol?” There literally tens of thousands of studies on the negative effects of alcohol and daily warnings all over the media. It just has no relevance to this and most of you probably drink alcohol as well.
Getting butt hurt over a very real warning can only mean a couple of thongs: either you’re really immature or you’re addicted to the drug and will defend it at all cost.
Did each one of them report what they ate after smoking? Also if they’ve been smoking for years, then they’ve had the munchies for years. How many already had a family member w/PAD? Our DNA is something we just can’t get around either. I’ve lost 2 sisters to cancer, neither smoked pot, died at 47 & 48 yrs old. I’ve had a double mastectomy due to breast cancer. Smoked pot all the way thru chemo, only got sick twice & was able to eat & 13 yrs later I’m still here. My dad died at 54 from a heart attack, never smoked pot. I had a heart attack at 63 yrs old & I’m still here. So you can’t tell me DNA isn’t a big part of what happens to us. Also I’m totally convinced I made it thru cancer bc the pot allowed me to be hungry enough to nourish my body. My sisters couldn’t eat & you don’t live long that way. Just watch the drug companies change their minds when they are allowed to make dollars off of pot. Those articles will read different then.
Willie Nelson is 90 year’s old and still touring
Just saying
The more studies with scientific proof that marijuana causes assorted long term or even permanent cognitive damage, arterial damage, lung damage, impairment damage – with related increases in accidents, injuries and death…. THE MORE I’LL SUPPORT LEGALIZATION!!!!!
Pretty predictable responses from the wacky weed crowd…. Users believe it cures everything from the common cold to cancer. 30 million people who were voluntarily responding about weed use and had a higher incidence of arterial disease. Researchers noticed a correlation and y’all go nuts. Personally,I’m suspect of any drug in my body which is why I try to limit them ALL. Not you folks though… The act of breathing in ANY kind smoke is a foreign to the body, but you folks somehow think it’s healthy…such blind support is common in cults. Maybe put down the fat boy long enough to let your brain detox. Or, take another hit… I wouldn’t care except you folks are trying to normalize a drug that is slowly destroying the fabric of our society and you’re too stoned to see it.
I smoked for the good part of my life and I’m 66 . There’s problems I suppose with anything you put in your body. But we’re all going to expire from something.
Wow, look at all the potheads unwilling to consider their religion– oops, I mean their herb of choice, might not be 100% risk free.
Instead of getting mad at a study, maybe keep your mind open, wait to see what further research comes out on the subject, and continue to make informed decisions based on the best available information. No?
Not everything you don’t like is propaganda.
The comments from drug users, or maybe drug industry shills trying to protect their profits, are sadly predictable because they make the same comments on every new study that shows the harms of this drug. You have to wonder if there’s something in cannabis that makes people irrational. Seems like the regular users I know are very emotional, erratic, and defensive, and also prone to believing conspiracy theories.
I support legalization, regulation, and taxation of this drug but easy availability of high quality product at low prices is causing some people to use too much, too frequently, and a growing body of research shows why that’s a bad idea.
But weed smokers will still live longer than non weed smokers because we are much less stressed than you.