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Vitality Unleashed: The Functional Medicine Podcast
Welcome to Vitality Unleashed: The Functional Medicine Podcast, your ultimate guide to achieving holistic health and wellness. Created and vetted, by Dr. Kumar from LifeWell MD a dedicated functional medicine physician, this podcast dives deep into the interconnected realms of physical, emotional, and sexual health. Carefully curated medical insights to expand your options, renew hope, and ignite healing—especially when traditional medicine has no answers.
Each week, we unpack the complexities of the human body-mind, exploring topics like hormone balance, gut health, mental resilience, difficult medical conditions, power performance and intimate relationships.
Join us as we bridge the gap between complex medical science and everyday understanding. We transform the latest research and intricate information from the world of medical academia into simple, actionable insights for everyone. Think of us as your Rosetta Stone for health—making the complicated easy to grasp. Enjoy inspiring and practical advice that empowers you to take charge of your health journey. Whether you're seeking to boost your energy, enhance your emotional well-being, or revitalize your sexual health, this podcast provides the tools and knowledge you need.
Embark on this transformative journey with us, and discover how functional medicine can help you live a vibrant, balanced, and fulfilling life. Subscribe to Vitality Unleashed today, and let's redefine what it means to be truly healthy—mind, body, and soul.
Vitality Unleashed: The Functional Medicine Podcast
Cannabis and Your Heart: What New Research Reveals
Cannabis has moved from the fringes to the mainstream, with dramatically shifting perceptions about its safety. But what does cutting-edge research tell us about its impact on our cardiovascular system?
We're unpacking a groundbreaking study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association that analyzed data from over 434,000 adults across 27 states. The findings are striking: daily cannabis users face 25% higher odds of heart attack and 42% higher odds of stroke compared to non-users, even after adjusting for factors like tobacco use, age, BMI, and diabetes.
Most compelling is what researchers discovered when isolating people who never touched tobacco cigarettes. Rather than disappearing, the associations actually strengthened. Never-smokers who used cannabis daily had 116% higher odds of stroke—more than double the risk. This powerful evidence challenges the idea that cannabis cardiovascular risks are merely from concurrent tobacco use.
The study reveals equally concerning findings for younger adults. Men under 55 and women under 65 who used cannabis daily showed significantly increased odds of premature cardiovascular disease, with stroke risk more than doubling among those who never smoked tobacco.
The biological mechanisms are becoming clearer. Cannabis interacts with endocannabinoid receptors throughout the cardiovascular system, and smoking any plant material introduces harmful particulates that damage blood vessels. With nearly 74% of users consuming cannabis through smoking, this delivery method appears particularly problematic.
As cannabis use increases while perceived risks decrease, understanding these potential health impacts becomes crucial. This isn't about judgment, but empowerment through knowledge. Whether you use cannabis or know someone who does, staying informed about all factors affecting heart health allows for smarter, more proactive wellness decisions.
Want to learn more about incorporating the latest research into your personalized health plan? Call 561-210-9999 to start a conversation about your proactive approach to longevity and wellness.
Disclaimer:
The information provided in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your supplement regimen or health routine. Individual needs and reactions vary, so it’s important to make informed decisions with the guidance of your physician.
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Stay Informed, Stay Healthy:
Remember, informed choices lead to better health. Until next time, be well and take care of yourself.
All right, team, let's dive deep. We are tackling a topic that is well, it's everywhere right now, legally available in many places and, honestly, the perception of its risks seems to be shifting pretty dramatically. We're talking about cannabis use.
Speaker 2:It really is. It's a subject that's gone from the fringes to the mainstream in a lot of areas, and you're absolutely right. The source material for our deep dive today points out that over the past couple of decades, the prevalence of cannabis use in the US has gone up significantly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and at the same time the perceived risk has like gone down.
Speaker 2:Exactly Simultaneously gone down.
Speaker 1:Right. So maybe you use it, maybe friends use it, or maybe you're just, you know, seeing it pop up in more conversations. But regardless of how you feel about it? What does the latest science say about its potential impact on something absolutely critical your heart health? That's our mission today. We are unpacking a brand new major piece of research published in the highly respected Journal of the American Heart Association.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this isn't some small observational paper or, you know, a theoretical discussion. The study draws data from the behavioral risk Risk Factor Surveillance System. That's a massive ongoing health survey run by the CDC.
Speaker 1:Okay, brfss yeah.
Speaker 2:This specific analysis looked at information from over 434,000 US adults surveyed between 2016 and 2020 across 27 states and two territories. That's a really big data set.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Which you know can lend significant weight to the findings.
Speaker 1:Okay, 434,000 people, that's a serious sample size. So we're taking this massive study and kind of extracting the absolute most important insights it offers on the connection, or, well, potential connection, between cannabis use and your cardiovascular health. What exactly did they measure in all of these people?
Speaker 2:So they used a population-based cross-sectional design. Now, cross-sectional basically means they took a snapshot in time.
Speaker 1:Right, like a single point.
Speaker 2:Exactly. They looked at all these people at one moment and asked them two main things, both self-reported First, how often did they use cannabis in the past 30 days? And second, had a health professional ever told them they had coronary heart disease, had a heart attack, myocardial infarction or had a stroke?
Speaker 1:Got it. So it's relying on people accurately reporting their own health history and their cannabis habits.
Speaker 2:That's right. It's pretty standard for these huge surveys. But yeah, it's good to keep in mind.
Speaker 1:Definitely.
Speaker 2:And a crucial part of the analysis was adjustment. You know, to try and isolate the potential effect of cannabis, they crunched the numbers, accounting for a whole range of other factors known to affect heart health. Like what Things? Like age, sex race, education, BMI, whether someone had diabetes, alcohol use and, significantly, tobacco use.
Speaker 1:Ah, the tobacco piece always key.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Controlling for these. Is vital to see if cannabis still shows an independent link.
Speaker 1:All right, let's get to the headline findings, then. What did this study reveal when they looked at the big picture, all adults included in the survey ages 18 to 74?.
Speaker 2:Okay, so for this general population, when they compared people who reported using cannabis daily to those who reported using it not at all, they found statistically significant associations with several major cardiovascular events.
Speaker 1:Okay, give us the number and let's try to break them down, simply for everyone listening.
Speaker 2:Sure, the adjusted odds ratio, or AOR. Think of it as a measure of how much higher the odds are for myocardial infarction. A heart attack right For daily users, compared to non-users, was 1.25.
Speaker 1:Okay, 1.25. So that means daily users had about a 25% higher odds of having had a heart attack compared to non-users, even after they did all that adjusting for other risks. Correct, a 25% higher odds isn't like a guarantee you'll have one, but it's a statistically significant jump. What about stroke?
Speaker 2:For stroke, the association was actually stronger. The AOR was 1.42.
Speaker 1:Wow, 1.42. That's a 42% higher odds of stroke for daily users compared to non-users. That's a pretty notable difference.
Speaker 2:It is. And when they looked at a composite outcome, basically lumping together coronary heart disease, heart attack and stroke, the AOR for daily users was 1.28.
Speaker 1:So a 28% higher odds of experiencing any of those serious events.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Now.
Speaker 1:I noticed in the study and you mentioned coronary heart disease that while there was an association there, it didn't quite hit that statistically significant mark in this overall group analysis.
Speaker 2:That's right. The AOR was 1.16, so it suggested a trend towards increased odds of CHD. But the p-value was 0.09, just slightly over the typical 0.05 cutoff for statistical certainty. But you know, the links for MI stroke and that combined outcome were clearly statistically significant. The study authors are pretty confident these links aren't just due to random chance.
Speaker 1:And what's really telling, I think, is they didn't just look at daily versus non-use, they looked at the frequency right. Did using it more often show a stronger link?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. That's a key point. They treated the number of days per month cannabis was used as a continuous measure and they reported a clear dose-response relationship, meaning the more often someone reported using cannabis, the heavier the use. Essentially, the higher the odds of experiencing these adverse cardiovascular outcomes tended to be. That kind of gradient really strengthens the argument that the use itself is tied to the risk.
Speaker 1:Okay, Okay, Now we have to address the elephant in the room. The big question for any discussion about cannabis and smothering risks is this just because people who use cannabis also often smoke tobacco Right For years that's been the main counter argument, or at least a major confounding factor. This study seems to provide some powerful new data to really try and isolate that question.
Speaker 2:This is where the study truly offers a unique and, I think, critical insight. They performed a separate, specific analysis, focusing only on the group of respondents who reported they had never, ever, used tobacco cigarettes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the never smokers.
Speaker 2:Exactly, this is the cleanest way really to see the association of cannabis use when you remove that confounding factor of tobacco smoking history.
Speaker 1:And what happened when they looked only at that never tobacco smoker group? Did the associations just disappear?
Speaker 2:Not at all, not even close. In fact, daily cannabis use was still significantly associated with increased odds of adverse cardiovascular outcomes in this group.
Speaker 1:Really, what were the numbers there?
Speaker 2:For myocardial infarction, the AOR was 1.49. For stroke, it jumped to a remarkable 2.16.
Speaker 1:2.16.
Speaker 2:Yep and for the composite outcome, the AOR was 1.77. Outcome the AOR was 1.77.
Speaker 1:Wait, wait, let me just process that You're saying. The odds ratios, the measure of increased risk for MI stroke and the composite outcome were actually higher in the group of people who never smoked tobacco compared to the analysis of the overall group that just adjusted for tobacco use.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's exactly what the study found. It's pretty striking. For instance, remember, the odds of stroke were 42% higher for daily users in the overall group. That was AOR 1.42. Yeah, but in the subset of people who had never touched a cigarette, the odds were 116% higher. The AOR was 2.16. Wow.
Speaker 1:That's a huge difference. That kind of flips the script on the idea that the risk is solely, or even primarily, driven by tobacco use alongside cannabis.
Speaker 2:It really does. This study is providing strong evidence for an independent risk from cannabis itself.
Speaker 1:So cannabis on its own seems to carry risk.
Speaker 2:It appears, so the study authors explicitly concluded, based on this data, that smoked cannabis and smoked tobacco might actually carry, and I quote, similar independent additive risks.
Speaker 1:Meaning using either one, especially smoking, it adds its own separate layer of risk and they can stack up.
Speaker 2:That's the implication. Using either substance appears to contribute its own risk to your cardiovascular health.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's shift gears slightly to another finding that many listeners might find particularly surprising the association found in younger adults. We often think of heart attack and stroke, as you know, issues for older folks.
Speaker 2:Right, that's a common perception. The study honed in on a specific group they defined as younger adults. This included men under 55 and women under 65.
Speaker 1:Why those ages?
Speaker 2:Because these are the age groups typically considered to be at risk for what's called premature cardiovascular disease, they ran separate analyses just for this population segment.
Speaker 1:And were the links still there, even in these younger people?
Speaker 2:Yes, and they were significant across the board. In this younger group, Daily cannabis use was significantly associated with coronary heart disease AOR 1.30.
Speaker 1:Okay, so CHD was significant in this group, unlike the overall population.
Speaker 2:Correct. Also myocardial infarction AOR 1.30. Stroke AOR 1.56. So the link holds even in younger adults.
Speaker 1:And did they look at the never tobacco smokers within this younger group too?
Speaker 2:They did and, just like with the overall analysis, they drilled down into the subset of these younger adults who had never used tobacco cigarettes.
Speaker 1:The inter-soy.
Speaker 2:Pretty much. Once again, the associations persisted and were often even stronger. In this never tobacco subgroup, for example, the stroke AOR jumped to 2.40 in younger never smokers using cannabis daily 2.40.
Speaker 1:So more than double the odds of stroke. The implication is pretty stark, then. These findings suggest frequent cannabis use isn't just linked to heart events later in life, but it might be a significant risk factor for premature heart disease in younger people.
Speaker 2:Exactly Younger individuals who maybe otherwise wouldn't be considered high risk. Yet it challenges the idea that this is solely an issue for later life or only for those with a bunch of other major risk factors already piled up.
Speaker 1:So thinking biologically, why might this be happening? Did the study touch on potential mechanisms? Briefly, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:The source mentions a couple of possibilities. First, our bodies have endocannabinoid receptors scattered throughout the cardiovascular system.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Compounds in cannabis interact with these, which suggests a direct biological pathway for effects. Second, thc, the main psychoactive component, is known to have immediate effects on hemodynamics, basically how blood flows, heart rate, blood pressure.
Speaker 1:So it can actually change how your heart and vessels are working, at least temporarily.
Speaker 2:blood pressure, so it can actually change how your heart and vessels are working, at least temporarily, right, and these acute effects could potentially contribute over time to the observed cardiovascular events.
Speaker 1:And the method of use seems really important here too, doesn't it? You mentioned smoking earlier.
Speaker 2:Absolutely critical. The study points out that smoking was by far the predominant method of cannabis use. Among the people they surveyed, nearly 74 percent reported smoking it. And that matters, because Well, they note that inhaling particulate matter and toxins from any burning plant material, whether it's tobacco or cannabis, can damage blood vessels and increase cardiovascular risk. It's the smoke itself potentially Makes sense. They even did a sensitivity analysis looking specifically at smoked cannabis use and it showed very similar significant associations for MI AOR 1.26, stroke AOR 1.50, and the composite outcome AOR 1.30.
Speaker 1:So that reinforces that the act of smoking, it is likely a major contributor to this observed risk.
Speaker 2:It certainly appears that way, based on this data.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's bring this all back to you, the listener. It certainly appears that way, based on this data. Okay, let's bring this all back to you, the listener. Why is this deep dive, this specific information from this big study, important for your life, for your health awareness right now?
Speaker 2:Well, the study itself sets the stage perfectly. As we said at the start, cannabis use is increasing and the perception that it's completely harmless seems to be growing.
Speaker 1:Right, but the science might be telling a different story, or at least a more nuanced one. Exactly and, up until recently, getting really large, clean data on its link to heart health specifically independent of tobacco has been challenging, but this massive recent study gives us a clearer picture than perhaps we've had before. The main takeaway feels pretty undeniable Frequent cannabis use, particularly daily use, is strongly linked to a significantly increased odds of serious cardiovascular events like heart attack and stroke.
Speaker 2:And critically. This study provides powerful evidence that this link appears independent of tobacco use. It's not just the tobacco, the cannabis itself seems to be a factor, especially when smoked.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that finding that these risks are seen even in younger individuals, the risk for premature cardiovascular disease that's particularly impactful, I think.
Speaker 2:Definitely, the study's clinical implication is quite direct. Patients should be screened for cannabis use and advised to avoid smoking cannabis to reduce their risk of premature cardiovascular disease and cardiac events. That's pretty clear guidance based on their findings.
Speaker 1:So, armed with this new information from the study, what do you do? I mean, it really underscores how important it is to consider all the factors influencing your health, doesn't it? Especially when it comes to preventing serious issues like heart attack and stroke? And, you know, managing your overall well-being for longevity Absolutely Understanding potential risks like these from reliable research is just a crucial step in taking a proactive approach to your own health journey. That's actually a big part of what we focus on in a wellness context.
Speaker 2:It really is Navigating the latest research, understanding these potential risks and then creating a personalized plan for health, wellness and longevity based on solid data. That's key. It's all about being informed and having expert guidance to make the best choices for your body and your future health.
Speaker 1:Now, this is one very large and significant study, but, like any research, it's important we acknowledge its limitations, right? What are a couple that the authors themselves pointed out?
Speaker 2:Sure, as we mentioned earlier, it's cross-sectional. It shows an association At one point in time cannabis use linked with reported outcomes, but it doesn't prove direct cause and effect like, say, a randomized controlled trial could.
Speaker 1:Right Correlation not necessarily causation.
Speaker 2:Exactly, although the authors argue that reverse causality, like someone having a heart attack and then starting daily cannabis use, is pretty unlikely for these outcomes. But they do acknowledge that prospective studies following people over time are needed for definitive proof of causation.
Speaker 1:And the other big one is it relies on self-reported data right Both for the cannabis use and the health outcomes.
Speaker 2:Yes, and there's always potential for bias with self-report. Maybe people under-report their use or they don't quite remember their health history accurately, sure. However, self-reported cardiovascular disease has been validated against medical records reasonably well in other studies. And, importantly, if people were under-reporting cannabis use if the actual use is higher than reported?
Speaker 1:Then the real link could be even stronger.
Speaker 2:Exactly. It would likely make these findings more conservative than they are Meaning. The true associations could potentially be even stronger than what this study managed to detect.
Speaker 1:Okay, so putting it all together, then, the evidence is certainly growing, seems much stronger now.
Speaker 2:It really is. This large study adds significant weight to the understanding that frequent cannabis use, especially when smoked, is independently associated with serious cardiovascular risks like heart attack and stroke.
Speaker 1:And that risk appears tied to how often it's used. That dose response thing you mentioned.
Speaker 2:Correct, and the findings related to younger individuals and the potential for premature cardiovascular disease are particularly eye-opening.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:As the study authors conclude, it's really crucial for patients, health care providers and even policymakers to be fully informed about these potential risks, particularly given the rapidly evolving landscape of cannabis use and public perception.
Speaker 1:This research really highlights how valuable it is to stay informed about all potential factors impacting your health and well-being. It's not about judgment at all. It's just about knowledge and making empowered choices for your long-term health goals.
Speaker 2:Couldn't agree more Knowledge is indeed power when it comes to building a foundation for longevity and vitality.
Speaker 1:So, with these findings in mind, the link between frequent cannabis use and heart events independent of tobacco, even showing up in younger adults what questions does this raise for you, the listener, about your own health choices, about conversations you might want to have with a health care professional focused on wellness and longevity? Understanding potential risks like these is just a key part of a truly comprehensive approach to health. If you're looking for guidance on navigating health information like this, understanding the nuances and maybe creating a personalized wellness plan that considers everything, well, that's exactly what a place focused on health, wellness and longevity can help with.
Speaker 2:Taking action based on good information is absolutely key. Exploring what the latest research means for your specific health situation and building a proactive plan that really includes understanding potential risks like these that's just a smart step toward longevity.
Speaker 1:Definitely, and if you're interested in starting that conversation, maybe diving deeper into your own health and wellness journey, considering all the factors that contribute to longevity, you can call 561-210-9999 to learn more about taking that proactive approach. Again, that's 561-210-9999. To learn more about taking that proactive approach Again, that's 561-210-9999. It really is about being proactive and informed when it comes to your health.