Despite the legalization of marijuana (cannabis) in some American states, a new study released on Sunday suggested that marijuana weakens the heart muscle that reduces the ability of the heart to pump, leading to chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness, and fainting. This condition is called stress cardiomyopathy, which temporarily damages the tip of the heart.

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The new study was conducted by researchers from St. Luke's University Health Network in Bethlehem led by Amitoj Singh. It was presented during the annual scientific conference of the American Heart Association in New Orleans. Researchers aimed to examine trends in hospital admissions and effects of adults with transient ventricular regional ballooning (TVRB) in relation to marijuana use.

How the study was conducted?

Researchers used the 2003 to 2011 inpatient sample data from a nationwide hospital database and found 33,343 admissions for stress cardiomyopathy. Men and women of mix ages represented these data and were divided into two groups - marijuana (cannabis) user and non-user.

There were 210 marijuana users who are young and more often male. The study found out that this group had about double the chance of developing the stress cardiomyopathy. This finding was surprising to Singh because stress cardiomyopathy most often occurs in older women.

"Someone who uses marijuana is almost two times more likely to develop stress cardiomyopathy," Signh explained.

Further Investigation

Researchers created a model that excluded all of the known causes of stress cardiomyopathy to see if marijuana use alone could trigger the condition, and they found a statistically significant relationship between the drug and stress cardiomyopathy. However, the report also found that marijuana users were more to suffer from depression and likely to use tobacco and illicit substances than non-marijuana users.

Fans of marijuana (cannabis) maybe shocked with this new study despite the medical benefits and legalization of marijuana in some states. Singh, on the other hand, acknowledged those several benefits in medicine, particularly with treatments such as chemotherapy, and he does not want to underestimate the benefits of medical marijuana.

Sigh said, "Further research is needed to evaluate this study, especially considering the current increase of recreational marijuana in our country."

Tagsmarijuana, cannabis, legalization, Heart Muscles, Cardiomyopathy