Marijuana use may be a cause of high blood pressure, a new study reports.
Researchers studied 332 deaths among 1,213 people participating in a larger health study, of whom 57 percent were marijuana users. They had used marijuana for an average of 12 years, and the longer they used it, the more likely they were to have hypertension. The study is in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
After controlling for many health and behavioral variables, including a prior diagnosis of high blood pressure, they found that compared with nonusers, marijuana users had more than three times the risk of death from hypertension-related causes.
The researchers acknowledge the difficulty of measuring frequency and quantities of marijuana use, and the likelihood that illegal use is underreported. The lead author, Barbara A. Yankey, an epidemiologist at Georgia State University, urged caution in interpreting what she called “an exploratory study.”
Still, she said, “There is a possibility that marijuana use is related to deaths with hypertension as an underlying cause. People who use marijuana should have regular medical checkups to assess their cardiovascular health.”
credit:420intel.com
