Study: Cannabis Use Associated With Increased Survival Rates in Heart Attack Patients

Study: Cannabis Use Associated With Increased Survival Rates in Heart Attack Patients

Those with a history of marijuana use who suffer a heart attack are less likely to die during hospitalization than those who don’t have marijuana in their system, according to a new study published in the journal PLOS One, and epublished by the National Institute of Health.

For the study researchers analyzed the hospital records of over 3,854 heart-attack patients who acknowledged that they’ve recently consumed cannabis or had tested positive for it, and compared the data with 1,273,897 individuals who were similarly matched but hadn’t recently consumed marijuana. Researchers found that cannabis use was not associated with adverse short-term health outcomes; this was found after they controlled for potential confounders such as tobacco use.

In addition, “marijuana-using patients were significantly less likely to die, experience shock, or require an IABP (intra-aortic balloon pump) post AMI (acute myocardial infarction) than patients with no reported marijuana use”, states the study. “These results suggest that, contrary to our hypothesis, marijuana use was not associated with increased risk of adverse short-term outcomes following AMI.”

Researchers state that “these findings suggest that additional study is warranted to further investigate these discoveries and to identify potential mechanisms by which marijuana is associated with improved short-term outcomes following AMI.”

The full study can be found by clicking here.