Cardiovascular disease is a major health issue around the globe. In fact, it’s responsible for more annual deaths around the world than any other disease.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it kills an estimated 17.9 million people each year.
WHO defines cardiovascular diseases as, “a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels and include coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, rheumatic heart disease and other conditions.”
Various factors contribute to a person developing a cardiovascular disease.
What Causes Cardiovascular Disease?
One of the biggest contributing factors to the development of heart complications is an unhealthy diet.
Foods that are high in fat, cholesterol, and sugar contribute to people being overweight, having high blood pressure, and/or diabetes, all of which raise the risk of developing the heart disease.
A lack of physical activity goes hand-in-hand with an increased risk of someone being obese, which in turn, also increases the chances of someone developing the disease.
Two big factors that also contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease is the consumption of tobacco and/or excessive alcohol consumption.
But what about cannabis? Does cannabis use contribute to this disease?
Recent Cannabis Use Research
A team of researchers at the Florida International University’s Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine recently explored the relationship between cannabis use and cardiovascular disease.
The study conducted by the researchers involved a cohort of 57,000 adults, and while the cohort was from the United States, the results of the study provide insight worldwide.
“After controlling for several confounding variables, we found that there was a decrease in the prevalence of cardiovascular events with marijuana use (Odds Ratio: 0.74),” researchers stated.
The study’s authors concluded, “Our study found that there is no link to marijuana use and an increase in cardiovascular disease. Furthermore, there may be a link between marijuana use and lowered risk of cardiovascular disease, but the data was not statistically significant when adjusting for confounding variables. This study does, however, implicate the need for future studies with other methods and/or larger sample sizes to provide more insight into this potential association.”
