Marijuana: Now causing cardiovascular health problems?

Summary

          There are many concerns in the health world about the growing movement to legalize marijuana in the United States, but recently, another concern was added to that list that was not previously thought about. While there is not enough evidence to make a solid argument about marijuana's cardiovascular health problems, a recent study performed in France explains "clinical evidence ... suggests the potential for serious cardiovascular risks associated with marijuana risk." In the study, it was found that nearly 2% of 1,979 patients treated for serious health problems associated with marijuana in France were people who were treated for problems with the cardiovascular system. This included heart arrhythmias, heart attacks, strokes, and circulation problems in their limbs.
          Why is it that marijuana seems to affect cardiovascular health? The authors of the study, Drs. Sherief Rezkalla and Robert A. Kloner hypothesized that use of the drug may increase factors that clot the blood, therefore blocking the blood vessels throughout the body. They also suggest the drug may cause changes in small blood vessels so that they can not fully recover from the clot, even after it has been removed. These new discoveries just add to the worries about marijuana as the movement for it's legalization grows stronger than ever.

Connection

          This article contains information about the cardiovascular system that we have studied in class, and introduces a newly-discovered method of harming it. In the article, there is mention of factors that help to clot the blood, and we learned about that in class. Platelets, which are small bits of material that float in the blood, lead to clotting, so we could infer that marijuana somehow increases the production of the platelets in one's blood stream. The article also mentions other diseases or medical conditions that affect the cardiovascular system that we learned about in class or through group presentations, such as heart attacks and arrhythmias. While the article explains itself very well, there are a few more connections that we could make because of our knowledge from the past few weeks of class.

Author: Melissa Healy
Website: LA Times
Link: http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-heart-attack-stroke-marijuana-20140423-story.html