XPost: alt.politics.marijuana, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics
XPost: alt.dementia, alt.society.liberalism

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/20/health/marijuana-dementia-wellness

Sunday is 420 day, when lovers of marijuana get together to celebrate
their fondness for weed. Yet 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.”

A red flag
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.

“When they stop using it, they either have withdrawal symptoms or have
very bad mental health symptoms,” he added. “They might have quite severe depression, or they might have anxiety, all of which can send them to the hospital.”

The potency of weed has skyrocketed over the years, which can heighten
health risks and is leading to a global rise in marijuana addiction as
well as cannabis use disorder, according to a 2022 study.

Addiction to marijuana can happen to about 30% of people who use cannabis, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The
disorder also comes with a higher risk of attention, memory and learning problems, the CDC finds.

“The other takeaway from this study is that many people believe marijuana
to be natural and therefore safe,” Page said. “It is a psychotropic
medication, so it’s going to have psychotropic effects. If you have
underlying psychiatric issues, realize that you need to be transparent
with your provider and let them know if you’re using this medically or recreationally.”

Rates of hospital screening are rising
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.

“Within five years of an emergency room visit or hospitalization for
cannabis, 5% of people were diagnosed with dementia, and within 10 years,
19% of people were diagnosed with dementia,” Myran said.

Rates of emergency room visits due to marijuana increased fivefold in
adults between the ages of 45 and 64 and nearly 27-fold for people 65 and
older during those 13 years, according to the study.

“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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November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
forward to America being great again.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.

Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.

Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama
/ Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

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