Does Marijuana Help AFib?

Wondering if marijuana might need a soothing impact in your atrial fibrillation? Studies present that medical marijuana may help with signs of some situations like a number of sclerosis, epilepsy, and HIV/AIDS.

But for atrial fibrillation, the consequences are extra of a combined bag.

A Bit of Good, More Bad

“It really depends on what you use it for,” says Uma Srivatsa, MD, medical professor of drugs at UC Davis Health. “If you use it to relieve pain, there may be a benefit because pain can trigger AFib.”

On the opposite hand, she says, low ranges of marijuana flip in your “fight or flight,” or stress response. This means there’s the next likelihood that your racing, irregular heartbeat will worsen. In reality, marijuana can elevate your coronary heart fee for as much as 3 hours after you employ it. It additionally makes stroke and coronary heart illness extra probably. That’s important as a result of in case you have AFib, your likelihood of a stroke is already 5 instances increased than somebody who would not have it.

Marijuana additionally relaxes your blood vessels, which lowers your blood strain. Srivatsa says this may kick off a response out of your coronary heart that is unhealthy information for AFib. When your blood strain goes down, your coronary heart fee can go up. This is very true in older individuals who produce other coronary heart issues.

Another difficult piece of the puzzle is how a lot marijuana is OK to take.

“It’s important to understand that we have legalized marijuana without knowing dose effects,” Srivatsa says. “For instance, we know what a legal blood alcohol level is. But we don’t know what the ‘legal limit’ is for marijuana.

“How do we determine what makes you high vs. calm?”

Olujimi A. Ajijola, MD, PhD, a heart specialist at UCLA Health in Los Angeles, says the overwhelming impact of marijuana in your coronary heart is dangerous.

“We advise against it from a cardiovascular standpoint, in general,” he says. “I would definitely caution against people with AFib using it.”

What the Studies Show

Most of the analysis linking marijuana to coronary heart issues like coronary heart assault and stroke is predicated on individuals who smoke it. Smoke has cancer-causing brokers and different irritants that make it dangerous.

There aren’t as many research but on the guts results of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or cannabidiol (CBD), two of the energetic components in marijuana. Ajijola says that’s probably a part of the rationale why there aren’t any official pointers on marijuana use from American College of Cardiology or the American Heart Association but.

But he is fairly positive they’re coming.

“Inevitably, people will study this,” Ajijola says. “I think guidelines won’t come out until there’s enough data to suggest one way or another, or enough people ask that the society make a statement.”

One factor he says is obvious, although, is that smoking — of any form — is dangerous to coronary heart well being.

“Any sort of smoking includes risk factors for cardiovascular disease,” Ajijola says. “Smoking marijuana carries many of the same cardiovascular health hazards as smoking tobacco.”

One current research appeared to recommend that marijuana would possibly truly decrease your threat of AFib. But Srivatsa

says it’s essential to look extra intently on the folks within the research and the way the researchers discovered their outcomes. “I don’t think we can generalize this study to all populations,” she says.

Ajijola agrees.

“It’s a very specific study looking at people who have just suffered a heart attack in the hospital,” he says. “The marijuana users were younger, mostly male, and they didn’t have the usual risk factors that caused people to have heart attacks.”

They fared higher after their coronary heart assaults, however Ajijola says that’s probably as a result of they’d fewer threat elements for coronary heart issues within the first place.

“I think the marijuana use is just helping identify with lower risk factors and people who are younger.”