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Are marijuana users prone to dementia
Research shows that regular users of marijuana are at risk for serious conditions, including strokes, heart attacks, cardiac arrhythmias, heart failure and myocarditis, which is an inflammation of the heart muscle.Now, an increased risk of dementia can be added to the list, according to a large study of more than 6 million people published April 14 in the journal JAMA Neurology.“Someone who has an emergency room visit or hospitalization due to cannabis has a 23% increased risk of dementia within five years compared to someone who was at the hospital for another reason. They have a 72% greater risk compared to the general population,” said study coauthor Dr. Daniel Myran, an assistant professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Ottawa in Canada.“Those numbers have already factored out other reasons for dementia, such as age, sex, mental health or substance use, and whether or not you have chronic conditions such as diabetes or heart disease,” Myran said.
Earlier research shows marijuana users are nearly 25% more likely to need emergency care and hospitalization than nonusers.“However, this is not a study that anyone should look at and say, ‘Jury’s in, and cannabis use causes dementia,’” Myran said. “This is a study that brings up a concerning association that fits within a growing body of research.”The study is a red flag for health professionals who should be screening for cannabis use disorder, said Dr. Robert Page II, a professor of clinical pharmacy and physical medicine at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Aurora. “People with cannabis use disorder are unable to stop using even though they encounter health or social problems from use,” said Page, who chaired the medical writing group for the American Heart Association’s 2020 scientific statement on marijuana.
Researchers looked at medical records between 2008 and 2021 for more than 6 million people between the ages of 45 and 105 without dementia who lived in Ontario. Of those, over 16,000 had been seen due to negative responses to marijuana.“While this study was done in Canada, it should apply to all of North America including the US,” he added, pointing to a May 2024 study that shows daily or near daily use of marijuana surpassed alcohol by 2022.If the connection between cannabis use and dementia does turn out to be causal, just how might marijuana trigger cognitive decline in regular users? One possibility is that daily or near daily use of marijuana changes neural connectivity in the brain, Myran said.“There’s certainly a pathway where there’s potential inflammation and microvascular damage from marijuana,” he said. “It could be that regular cannabis use causes people to develop other risk factors for dementia, such as depression, social isolation and lower educational attainment. And it could be that people who regularly use cannabis are more likely to have major trauma to the brain such as a motor vehicle collision.”
Research shows that regular users of marijuana are at risk for serious conditions, including strokes, heart attacks, cardiac arrhythmias, heart failure and myocarditis, which is an inflammation of the heart muscle.Now, an increased risk of dementia can be added to the list, according to a large study of more than 6 million people published April 14 in the journal JAMA Neurology.“Someone who has an emergency room visit or hospitalization due to cannabis has a 23% increased risk of dementia within five years compared to someone who was at the hospital for another reason. They have a 72% greater risk compared to the general population,” said study coauthor Dr. Daniel Myran, an assistant professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Ottawa in Canada.“Those numbers have already factored out other reasons for dementia, such as age, sex, mental health or substance use, and whether or not you have chronic conditions such as diabetes or heart disease,” Myran said.
Earlier research shows marijuana users are nearly 25% more likely to need emergency care and hospitalization than nonusers.“However, this is not a study that anyone should look at and say, ‘Jury’s in, and cannabis use causes dementia,’” Myran said. “This is a study that brings up a concerning association that fits within a growing body of research.”The study is a red flag for health professionals who should be screening for cannabis use disorder, said Dr. Robert Page II, a professor of clinical pharmacy and physical medicine at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Aurora. “People with cannabis use disorder are unable to stop using even though they encounter health or social problems from use,” said Page, who chaired the medical writing group for the American Heart Association’s 2020 scientific statement on marijuana.
Researchers looked at medical records between 2008 and 2021 for more than 6 million people between the ages of 45 and 105 without dementia who lived in Ontario. Of those, over 16,000 had been seen due to negative responses to marijuana.“While this study was done in Canada, it should apply to all of North America including the US,” he added, pointing to a May 2024 study that shows daily or near daily use of marijuana surpassed alcohol by 2022.If the connection between cannabis use and dementia does turn out to be causal, just how might marijuana trigger cognitive decline in regular users? One possibility is that daily or near daily use of marijuana changes neural connectivity in the brain, Myran said.“There’s certainly a pathway where there’s potential inflammation and microvascular damage from marijuana,” he said. “It could be that regular cannabis use causes people to develop other risk factors for dementia, such as depression, social isolation and lower educational attainment. And it could be that people who regularly use cannabis are more likely to have major trauma to the brain such as a motor vehicle collision.”
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