cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Linked to Heart Attacks Marijuana Linked to Heart Attacks Posted by FoM on March 02, 2000 at 08:04:44 PT By Patricia Anstett, Free Press Source: Detroit Free Press Marijuana may trigger heart attacks in middle-aged and elderly people, a new study says. The research, to be presented today at an American Heart Association seminar in San Diego, is believed to be the first to document the increased risk of heart attacks in marijuana smokers. It raises questions about whether marijuana should be approved for pain relief, the authors said. Marijuana causes the heart to increase by 40 beats a minute. It also causes a person's blood pressure to increase when lying down then fall quickly when standing up, said Dr. Murray Mittleman, director of cardiovascular epidemiology at Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.Mittleman studied marijuana use in 3,882 patients who had heart attacks. About 124 were current marijuana users, and 37 smoked pot within 24 hours before their heart attack. Of the 37, 9 used it within one hour before experiencing heart symptoms."We found that during the first hour after use, the risk of a heart attack is 4.8 times higher than during periods of non-use," Mittleman said. "In the second hour, the risk drops to 1.7 times higher. The short-term risk is considerable, especially for older patients with other risk factors, and we now have millions of baby boomers who are reaching the age when the risk of coronary heart disease increases for both men and women."Published: March 2, 2000 © Copyright 2000 Detroit Free Press Related Medical Marijuana Search, Articles & Archives:Multiple Sclerosis Study Aided by Marijuanahttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4933.shtmlMarijuana Ingredient Kills Rat Brain Tumors http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4900.shtmlThe Sorry Politics of Medical Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread1418.shtmlhttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtmlhttp://www.alltheweb.com/cgi-bin/asearch?type=all&query=cannabisnews+medical Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #4 posted by mota20 on March 03, 2000 at 02:12:50 PT heart attack most heart attacks happen in the morning after brushing your teeth, so i guess that means that you should not get out of bed and never brush your teeth. I always love the way they do these studies, they can find any thing they want if thats what they decide in advance to look for. peace mota20 I going to fire up a joint and wait for my heart attack, hell i'm over 50 its my choice to go happy. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Wabo on March 02, 2000 at 12:20:50 PT This just in... 100% of babies given birth to by marijuana smokers are born NAKED!!Film at 11 [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by CongresssmanSuet on March 02, 2000 at 10:33:08 PT Excellent job, Observer... Many studies can be picked apart because of improper controls and/or subjective observation, etc...but what you did here was mathematically prove the flaws in the study, using their own data to point to a possible lowered risk of heart attacks! Now, how do we get this info into the right hands.... [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by observer on March 02, 2000 at 10:14:47 PT MJ Smokers Underrepresented?? > Mittleman studied marijuana use in 3,882 patients who had heart attacks. About 124 were current marijuana users,Hey wait a second ... that's about 3.19 percent. But wait a second, doesn't this mean that marijuans smoker are underrepresented among heart attack victims?http://www.norml.org/facts/index.shtml :''18 million [US Citizens] have smoked marijuana within the last year, and ten million are regular marijuana smokers.''Let's see, there are about 274,943,494 (2000) people in the US ... 10 million is an estimated 3.6% of the population ...http://www.ask.com/main/askjeeves.asp?ask=What+is+the+population+of+the+U.S.+%3F&origin=&site_name=Jeeves&metasearch=yesSo why were there are there only 3.19 instead of 3.6 percent as we would expect?And the study never addresses cause and effect ... there are certain times of the day when, statistically, one is more likely to have an attack than at other times. Are these the same times people also tend to other things? The study never addresses this important variable. Neither does it tell us who paid for this research (which leads me to suspect that it was NIDA, an agency with a mission to "prove" that marijuana is bad bad bad). [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: