Does marijuana help AFib?

I wonder if marijuana It can have a calming effect on yours atrial fibrillation? Studies show that medical marijuana can help with the symptoms of some conditions such as Multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, i HIV/AIDS.

But for atrial fibrillation, the effects are more mixed.

A little good, more bad

“It really depends on what you’re using it for,” says Uma Srivatsa, MD, a clinical professor of medicine at UC Davis Health. “If you use it for relief pain, can be beneficial because it can cause pain AFib. ”

On the other hand, she says, low levels of marijuana activate your “fight or flight”, or stress answer. That means there’s a better chance of your racing, irregular heartbeat it will get worse. In fact, marijuana can elevate yours heart rate up to 3 hours after use. It also does stroke and heart disease more likely. This is significant because if you have AFib, your chance for a stroke it’s already five times bigger than someone who doesn’t have it.

Marijuana also relaxes yours blood vessels, which lowers your blood pressure. Srivatsa says this may trigger your response heart that’s bad news for AFib. When your blood pressure drops, your heart rate may rise. This is especially true for older people who have others heart problems.

Another tricky part of the puzzle is how much marijuana is okay to take.

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

“How can we determine what makes you high in relation to calmness?”

Storm A. Ajijola, MD, PhD, a cardiologist at UCLA Health in Los Angeles, says the huge effect of marijuana on your heart is harmful.

“We don’t advise it in general from a cardiovascular standpoint,” he says. “I would definitely warn people with AFib not to use it.”

What studies show

Most research linking marijuana to heart problems like heart attack and stroke is based on people smoking it. There is smoke Cancer-causes and other irritants that make it harmful.

There are not yet many studies on the effects of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on the heart or cannabidiol (CBD), two active ingredients in marijuana. Ajijola says this is probably one of the reasons why there are no official guidelines on marijuana use from the American College of Cardiology or the American Heart Association.

But he’s pretty sure they’re coming.

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

Yet one thing he says is clear is that smoking – of any kind – is harmful to heart health.

“Each type of smoking includes risk factors for cardiovascular disease“, Says Ajijola. “Smoking marijuana carries many of the same dangers to cardiovascular health as smoking tobacco. ”

One recent study seems to have suggested that marijuana could actually reduce the risk of AFib. Ali Srivatsa

says it is important to take a closer look at the people in the study and how the researchers found their results. “I don’t think we can generalize this study to all populations,” she says.

Ajijola agrees.

“It’s a very specific study that deals with people who have just suffered a heart attack in a hospital,” he says. “Marijuana users were younger, mostly men, and did not have the usual risk factors that caused a heart attack.”

They fared better after heart attacks, but Ajijola says this is likely because they had fewer risk factors for heart problems at all.

“I think marijuana use only helps identify with lower risk factors and people who are younger.”