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Posted by RickJWagner 7 hours ago

Cannabis users face substantially higher risk of heart attack (2025)(www.acc.org)
132 points | 182 commentspage 2
SoftTalker 4 hours ago|
Is there something that can help a habitual cannabis user stop? GLP1s maybe?
NorthSouthNorth 2 hours ago||
You can cold-turkey it. Know daily smokers who (temporarily) quit for multiple reasons, e.g. medical reasons, job, extended travelling.

From what I have seen, there are no side effects at all. They go back to smoking when the opportunity arises, but that's another story.

DANmode 2 hours ago||
> From what I have seen, there are no side effects at all.

You haven’t seen enough.

SoftTalker 2 hours ago||
Yeah I know someone who is having real trouble stopping, he can cold-turkey for a few days but always starts up again. I think he has poor impulse control, which maybe GLP-1s could help, as some studies seem to indicate they help with cravings/impulsive behavior generally. I don't know if any MD would prescribe it for that, he's not obese so could not get it on that basis.
acc_297 3 hours ago|||
It's not addictive along the same pathways (as far as I'm aware) from what I observe in my own life you either smoke casually and could stop whenever you want to (I used to then I stopped no problem) or you are dealing with psychological stress factors that are best treated with the help of a mental health professional.
dv35z 2 hours ago|||
What has worked for me is (1) Buy 4+ boxes of coconut water (2) remove cannabis from your house, (3) drink coconut water whenever you feel like smoking, (4) get some exercise going (swim, push-ups, gym, sports) - whatever the "MVP" of exercise is to start thinking of your body as fit, athletic & strong.
handfuloflight 3 hours ago||
Controlled tapering.
ear7h 6 hours ago||
Some commenters here talking about anxiety, but I think the bigger cause, which many people don't know, is that THC significantly increases your heart rate despite it's usual characterization as a depressant. If I recall correctly (big "if" considering the circumstances hah) my heart rate after smoking would go up by 10-20 BPM (from 65-70 to 80-90) while still feeling relaxed; ~~finding some numbers on this from a reputable source is difficult right now and this symptom is suspiciously missing from the wikipedia page~~.

Edit:

Realized this comment sounds like fear mongering, so decided to dig up some actual sources. The wiki page I needed to find was:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_cannabis

Also, the CDC page mentions it:

https://www.cdc.gov/cannabis/health-effects/heart-health.htm...

And links to this paper (though I can't read past the abstract bc no institutional access):

https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1552-4604.2002.tb06005.x

goodroot 4 hours ago|
There's more going on here than just the substance's effect.

There's a mind body connection that an altered state can throw into disarray.

Under the influence of cannabis, one may be a lot more aware of physical pain, dehydration, and so on. The key word is aware. Suddenly becoming aware of the fact that you are stressed out, you are carrying tension, can lead to something of a latent processing effect of some of these suppressed or physically felt emotions.

However, if you're generally not tense, ingesting cannabis itself does not always raise the heart rate. I can validate this myself right now, given I wear an Apple Watch and can vaporize cannabis. Looking at my historical data, there is no relationship, and my resting heart rate remains in the 40s.

It's anecdotal, but at the same time we need to be careful with something that acts on the physical, the mental, and dare I say it, the spiritual. If we focus too much on one dimension, we lose the important synergy from processing all dimensions.

sscaryterry 3 hours ago||
This. Street weed and medical cannabis are not the same thing.
ranprieur 3 hours ago||
A supplement called genistein mitigates the risk:

https://www.med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2022/04/marijuana...

beezle 4 hours ago||
for the anxiety crowd: don't buy street weed and avoid sativas

about the 'study': I do not trust anything that comes out of meta studies given how many base studies are found to be either garbage or very lacking in controls. And without knowing an accurate life history it is hard to rule out or quantify damages done much earlier in life.

LastTrain 3 hours ago||
Any literature on this or is is just your gut?
zug_zug 3 hours ago|||
What the literature definitely finds is that CBD ratio is crucial for anxiety (higher CBD = less anxiety). Some of the first lab experiments were pure THC and quite intense/unpleasant relative to what you'd get from a plant naturally "full spectrum." If you're ever in california, NY, Maryland, whatever then try something with 1:1 THC:CBD and maybe get some of the other CBs in there too.

[Strain sativa/indica can sort of be an indicator, but going by the dose of each active ingredient is the more scientific approach]

beezle 2 hours ago|||
CBD can definitely defuse an anxiety attack and it is a good idea to keep some available just in case.
spopejoy 42 minutes ago||
CBD gave me anxiety as much as sativa. The only thing I actually enjoy is low-dose indica+hash/resin.

Point being, ymmv.

LastTrain 2 hours ago|||
What literature are you referring to?
jollymonATX 1 hour ago|||
The entire field of statistics is based off not making critical type 1/2 errors (which meta studies are not able to control well) so I would say it is not just his "gut" feeling.
basisword 3 hours ago||
>> for the anxiety crowd: don't buy street weed and avoid sativas

I don't think blanket advice like this is helpful. For me indicas increase my anxiety significantly while sativas do the opposite.

beezle 1 hour ago|||
For clean weed - not laced with anything - sativas are more prone to causing anxiety. I doubt one will find any kind of study proving this, it is anecdotal - myself, friends and the internet at large.

While not universally true, it seems that many of the sativas for sale are very high THC which probably is a primary factor. Other factors are terpenes, though there is still a lot of debate on whether it these are real or imagined effects.

Moderate THC (15-20%) indica or indica dominant hybrid flower, using a flower vape, IMHO, is the best way to go. Always a good idea to read strain reviews prior to purchase (or growing) as people will note those that have caused them to be anxious, sleepy, hungry, horny, etc.

People can also have very different reactions when taking a drug (weed, shrooms, lsd, etc) alone vs with friends, something to consider as well.

lilbigdoot 3 hours ago|||
Agreed. Blending in CBD and other cannabinoids is way more effective than relying on strains. Basically everything out there is extremely high in THC and nothing else. Mixing in high CBD flower reduces anxiety a lot for me
sandcat_ 6 hours ago||
Not really related, but the other thing I found out recently that cannabis can cause is the worst panic attack I have ever experienced: a DPDR (derealization / depersonalization) panic attack. I’ve had regular panic attacks before. I get one a year, roughly, where I get essentially heart attack symptoms. But this was something else. It felt like something was truly, irrevocably broken with my mind and I couldn’t even describe what. Utterly terrifying. I was a heavy user but dropped it the next day.
reeredfdfdf 5 hours ago||
I had a similar experience when I was young. Bought a vape and some Cannabis, which probably had really high THC concentration as it tends to have nowadays. Took a bit, didn't feel anything, then took a bit more, and boom, a panic attack. Might even had some hallucinations, I'm not fully sure what was real and what wasn't.

After the experience I felt kind of weird and "slow" for several days. Later I found out that there is also a genetic risk of schizophrenia in my family. No way I'm going to touch anything with THC ever again. I've tried CBD oil though and that was okay, slightly calming effect. But ultimately I prefer beer over that too.

spopejoy 40 minutes ago|||
I got one of those off of one hit of some absurd resin moonrock preroll. Not fun
goodroot 4 hours ago|||
In social systems or spiritual systems where cannabis is used, this is often called "going clear".

We (general West) have no overarching myth or support system to help people navigate this type of pure madness. We have a psychological framework, and anything that interferes with our capacity to construct an I, a me, an ego in real time is seen in the most ultimately negative terms. And the experience is terrifying, such to support these terms.

Though, if through meditation, through religious constructs, or similar, there is a learned capacity to sit with the experience, it is considered less of a breaking and more of a liberation.

Wouldn't recommend it, wouldn't prescribe it. Though this decoupling of self from experience isn't a universal ill.

ifwinterco 5 hours ago|||
Anecdotally this isn't uncommon among heavy users, I've heard of similar things happen to a few people. You did the right thing stopping, where people really go off the deep end is when they don't listen to the warning signs and keep blazing.

I think weed should be legal and for the majority of people used in moderation it's going to be fine, but at the end of the day it's a psychoactive drug. It's probably not optimal to use it daily and in particular waking and baking every day is asking for trouble.

Also a case to be made that modern strains are worse. I fully believe that the risk of losing the plot is higher when you're smoking some lemon sherbet bubblegum flavours every day instead of old fashioned moroccan hash

Noaidi 4 hours ago|||
THC increases glutamate release[1], which is most likely the source of this panic. I have psychotic episodes even with a a few big hits but then again I have schizoaffefctive disorder. Glutamate is my arch enemy.

[1] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s42238-025-00277-9

joemazerino 5 hours ago||
Can relate to this experience. How old were you?
laybak 3 hours ago||
quite a few people I know consume edibles as the main form of cannabis. but it seems underrepresented in all the studies I've seen so far. as several others have pointed out, you would think the act of smoking would itself have nontrivial effects on health
beezle 1 hour ago||
One can also use vapes. I avoid the cartridge types as I don't want to guess what was used to process them. Instead I use a simple flower vape which on the face of it should be less bad than say smoking from a joint or bong.

Gummies and other edibles though require processing in the liver before they become active in the body (they are converted to a slightly different form of THC) so you would need to consider whether there are any negative effects on liver health from edibles and then compare to the various 'inhaled' methods.

General friendly advice - for anything not flower, try to get things that are made by live rosin (not resin) as they are the cleanest and should not involve the use of any hydrocarbon solvents for extraction. Live resin would be next, though it does use hydrocarbons. Distilliates which are often in vape cartridges are almost always made with hydrocarbons. While the production method shouldn't matter if everything is done 100% properly, it does require trust that all the butane, etc has been fully removed from the final product.

dubeye 30 minutes ago|||
i researched and experimented with edibles after beign diagnosed with CVD.

i don't beleive edibles are any safer

zug_zug 3 hours ago||
I wonder if they're doing these studies, finding no significant effect, and just dropping them.
reilly3000 3 hours ago||
The data is from EMR records. The researchers stated themselves ~ “people should be more forthcoming with their doctors.” I don’t think anything meaningful can be concluded other than most people don’t like having the fact that they have done cocaine on their medical records.
stego-tech 3 hours ago||
I mean, it's good that we have data showing some sort of connection between heart attacks and cannabis, but I appreciate the callout toward the end more:

> Since both studies were limited by their retrospective nature and the meta-analysis was limited by the challenges inherent in pooling data from multiple studies, researchers said that additional prospective studies would help to confirm the findings and determine which groups may face the highest risk.

Here's the thing that both the alarmists and the naysayers keep ignoring: all this data is new, it's recent, and decades of effective global prohibition have meant the only sources of reliable data came from either post-war/pre-prohibition studies (often by Defense Departments) or from "anecdata" gathered retrospectively among large cohorts. We still lack a substantial amount of direct, quality, long-term data on drug use and Nth-order impacts on the body, and these studies are the first steps towards getting more data from higher quality research to draw better conclusions from.

If anything, I try to be quite open with my Doctors about my own use precisely because I know that data is thin and dated, and any contributions from patients in an honest manner is going to help draw better conclusions for healthcare guidance tomorrow. Letting alarmists use these thin precursors as justification for a return to total prohibition is the wrong move.

ascotan 2 hours ago|
correct. the push for dispensaries has been financial not medical. now that we are getting large scale trials there will be more real evidence to show the public health effects. my guess: it will go the way of smoking eventually. realization around public health effects -> cost of those effects on public services -> taxes and costs go up. I'm curious as to why heart attack and not stroke. seems like bp isn't the only thing at play.
warumdarum 4 hours ago||
He who attacks the munchies..
jkuli 2 hours ago|
Is this really the largest factor they found in all our medical data?
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