Does Marijuana Have Something to Do With Stroke? One Study Indicates So
Is it possible that marijuana has some negative health consequences that we did not know about? One study out of France indicates that there seems to be a strong connection with heavy marijuana use in young people and one type of stroke. Can the study prove that the marijuana use causes stroke? Not exactly. Can the study prove that stroke and marijuana use seem to go hand in hand with young people? Absolutely.
We have long known that, while marijuana is not the deadliest or most dangerous drug out there, there are negative health consequences of consuming marijuana. Carcinogens, smoke in the lungs, a brain-dulling stupor, short-term memory loss, a drop in IQ, these are the more common side effects of marijuana use. But hearing that there is a correlation between marijuana use and incidence of stroke does greatly increase the risk factors of marijuana use.
Study Results on Marijuana Use and Ischemic Stroke
The University Hospital of Strasbourg in France performed a study on three-hundred and thirty-four people under the age of forty-five who had suffered an ischemic stroke. Fifty-eight of the patients were regular marijuana users. While the study could not prove that marijuana use caused the stroke, the study did prove that the marijuana users experienced a stroke in a very specific way.
A narrowing of the arteries in the skull was the cause of stroke in half of the marijuana smokers present in the study. It was the cause of stroke in only fourteen percent of the non-marijuana users. While the study cannot directly prove it, this is highly indicative that marijuana users are more likely to experience a narrowing of the arteries in the brain, which could, of course, lead to a stroke.
For the young people who suffered strokes but who were not marijuana users, they befell a stroke because of blood clots moving to the brain. For marijuana users, this was sometimes the case, but the most common cause of stroke in the marijuana users was this unique constriction of primary arteries in the skull.
The Beginnings of Something Big
This study may be the beginning of a huge research project into a far more serious, potentially fatal risk in smoking marijuana. Just the preliminary results of this study alone indicate that marijuana users were more likely to befall arterial constriction in the skull which of course predisposes stroke. This arterial constriction is not as likely to happen in non-marijuana users.
While scientists have yet to find the link, the last missing piece in the puzzle of why marijuana users are more likely to experience arterial constriction in the skull, this study sets a precedence in what is likely to be a swath of research projects to dive deeper into this phenomena. While marijuana is still not the lethal, tens-of-thousands-dead-a-year drug that opioids or alcohol are, the French study does raise our concern and trepidation about marijuana use.
Healthy Living is Anyone’s Best Bet
What we can be sure of is that healthy living is anyone’s best bet. Even without the above findings, there are unhealthy characteristics to marijuana use, just like there are unhealthy characteristics of smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, eating badly, etc. One’s best chance at a healthy life is to simply live healthily.
The ends do not justify the means with marijuana use, especially with this new study casting even more concern on the risks at hand. One can never go wrong with a life of sobriety. Better to live a life that does not include drug use and alcohol misuse and instead commit to healthy living overall.
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