A recent study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that marijuana is linked to strokes in users.
Cannabis sativa, containing delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the most commonly used illicit drug in the US. As its popularity grows so the interest of side effects of this herb.
The study examined the difference in stroke occurrences between marijuana users and non-users. The cohort was comprised of patients who were admitted to the University Hospital of Strasbourg in France with ischemic stroke from 2005 to 2014. Out of 334 patients pooled, 58 were marijuana users. The study found that in marijuana users there is a greater risk of arterial stenosis leading to an increased risk for strokes. Arterial stenosis was found in 45 percent of the marijuana-use participants as oppose to only 14 percent in non-users. A confounding variable was that they also had other lifestyle factors that could have contributed to this increased risk. Future studies could show the source through better matching of subjects to eliminate these limitations.
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