Yes, you read that right—despite concerns about marijuana’s potential effects on heart health, the green stuff might just have some surprising benefits.
“The findings of our study reveal a paradox,” researchers wrote. “Among patients aged 18–80 years admitted to the hospital with [acute myocardial infarction] between 2001 and 2020 in the United States, cannabis use was associated with lower risks of complications, such as cardiogenic shock, acute ischemic stroke, cardiac arrest, and [percutaneous coronary intervention] use, as well as lower in-hospital mortality despite correcting for several confounding factors.” In other words, cannabis users were less likely to suffer the worst outcomes—and that’s a head-scratcher for everyone involved.
“This highlights how cannabis remains a poorly understood substance,” the authors added. It’s like the plant is playing hard to get, revealing just enough to keep us intrigued but still holding on to some of its secrets.
The study, published in the Archives of Medical Science – Atherosclerotic Diseases, took a deep dive into data from the National Nationwide Inpatient Sample, which covers more than 97% of the U.S. population. The research team, a diverse group hailing from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Mauritius, expected to find evidence supporting the idea that cannabis might not be the best thing for your heart. After all, other studies have suggested that marijuana use could increase the risk of developing coronary artery disease.
But as it turns out, cannabis had a trick up its sleeve. The most surprising finding? Marijuana users had lower odds of dying in the hospital after a heart attack than those who didn’t partake. “The most startling finding of our study is that cannabis use is associated with reduced in-hospital mortality post-AMI,” the authors noted. It’s the kind of surprise you’d expect from a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat—not from a study about heart attacks.
So, what’s going on here? The researchers have a few theories. For starters, cannabis users in the study were generally younger than non-users, with an average age of 51 compared to 62.7 years. And we all know that with age comes a higher risk of things like hypertension, diabetes, and other heart-related woes. But even after adjusting for these factors, cannabis users still seemed to have a survival advantage.
Another possibility is that cannabinoids might have some kind of heart-protective properties. The researchers floated the idea of “cardioprotection modulated by activation of cannabinoid receptor type 2,” which sounds fancy but basically means that maybe cannabis is doing something good for the heart. Mouse models have shown some promising results, but there’s still a lot we don’t know.
Of course, it’s also possible that the heart attacks suffered by cannabis users were just different. The study pointed out that the typical heart attack caused by atherosclerotic plaque disruption might not be what’s happening in cannabis users. Instead, their heart attacks could be triggered by different mechanisms, possibly linked to the effects of cannabis on the nervous system.
The researchers are quick to acknowledge that their study isn’t without its limitations. For one, there could be some underreporting of cannabis use or documentation errors in the hospital records. Plus, they couldn’t determine exactly how much or how recently the participants had used cannabis—so, for all we know, some of these patients might have had their last puff back in the Clinton era.
Interestingly, this “cannabis paradox” echoes something called the “smoker’s paradox,” where smokers seemed to have better short-term survival rates after a heart attack. It’s a head-scratcher for sure, but it’s a reminder that the human body—and its interactions with various substances—can be wonderfully complex and sometimes downright confusing.
This study adds to a growing body of research exploring the effects of cannabis on health. For instance, another recent study found that medical marijuana use in older adults might help with things like sleep, mood, and pain. As more and more seniors turn to cannabis for relief, researchers are trying to keep up with this trend and figure out exactly what’s going on.
In the meantime, it seems that cannabis might just be the ultimate wild card in the world of heart health—surprising, confounding, and definitely deserving of more research. Stay tuned, because this story is far from over.
