Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Marijuana use holds three-fold blood pressure death risk: study

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 110 posts

Re: Marijuana use holds three-fold blood pressure death risk: study

#71

Post by mlvljr »

elif wrote: post #8
nxsynonym wrote: post #4

>> "If marijuana use is implicated in cardiovascular diseases and deaths, then it rests on the health community and policy makers to protect the public." Like how the policy makers protect the public from Alcohol, tobacco, and over-the-counter meds? Also a 1200 person study isn't really enough to draw any major conclusions from. Of course ingesting anything substance of any kind frequently over a period of time is bo…

yea i had a hard time making sense of the paper, probably my fault. it seemed like they didn't control for obesity, and it also seemed like alcohol had a much stronger correlation. I would love to hear from someone that can properly read it though. I also find it interesting that the odds for marijuana users are 1.05 per year but, e.g. marriage is 1.17, alcohol 1.84 etc, yet the conclusion is about marijuana. Bias: I…

>> yea i had a hard time making sense of the paper, probably my fault

>> Bias: I am a ... underweight stoner

I see :V

Re: Marijuana use holds three-fold blood pressure death risk: study

#72

Post by delbel »

code_duck wrote: post #52
delbel wrote: post #38

Hate to say it, but it could be true. I am in an area of heavy heavy marijuana use (DABs, oils, etc 250mg> THC daily) and it is not just me, other people have noticed negative health of these users. They look sick. Another diesease is that they can no longer eat and they lose weight. Apparanetly according to the doctors the stomach is unable to make the right acid to digest food. We also noticed mania, strange behavi…

Huh? I've lived in Oregon and Colorado and work in an industry with the higher amount of cannabis use, and there's no trend of anything like what you're saying in any of the hundreds of people that I know. I know many people who feel like cannabis has benefited their lives a great deal. Saying that cannabis use makes people unable to eat is funny, since one of the uses it's been known for and approved for for a long…

Not trying to invoke confirmation bias or position of authority fallacy, but I am also in the industry. Last year, I spent thousands of dollars on lab tests. We're concerned about the health of our customers. That's why this year we have not used any pesticide at all, and even harvested crops with clear thrichrome to prevent the bad paranoia feeling that happens with THC and GABA inhibitor effect. My observation is not made up, this is asking medical doctors in the area specifically what they see. We have seen drammatic health increase with the heavy heavy heavy smokers/users that quit. The light users do not have this problem. The people I am talking about spend about $60 a day in drugs and use oils,dabs,wax extracts.

Re: Marijuana use holds three-fold blood pressure death risk: study

#73

Post by ageofwant »

tbomb wrote: post #44

They mention smoking it, isn't smoking ANYTHING be harmful to your cardiovascular health? What is the increased risk vs cigarettes vs cigars etc.? How does this hold up for users who smoke it vs. eat it?

Yup, was my first impression too. Smoking tires is bad for you, smoking socks is bad for you, smoking dope is bad for you. Don't smoke.

A double blind study between tire, sock and dope smokers would be more interesting than this study.

Re: Marijuana use holds three-fold blood pressure death risk: study

#74

Post by millzlane »

web_worker wrote: post #49
millzlane wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It looks quite convincing to me, and fairly worrying. That's how propaganda works. I know it's anecdotal, but I've been a 3 or more times a day (everyday) smoker for over 11.5 years and I'm an no where near the risk of my overweight family members. Blood pressure has been fine and I'm an no risk of hypertension. Demand more proof if you're convinced by this. Something smells fishy. I would like to know how Snoop, Wi…

And this is how confirmation bias works. 'Something about this study feels fishy... what about these anecdotes?' You did call yourself out for being anecdotal, so I'm sure you see it. As a fellow daily smoker I very much want to pick holes in this as well.

True and I agree. But I think lifestyle choice has a lot to do with this sickness. I was never conscious about my health until about 3 years ago when I quit "smoking" and began only to vaporize. Maybe that has something to do with it. But I really think a lot of this sickness are results of a sedentary lifestyle. Something we knew was bad when we discovered sitting was the new cancer.

Re: Marijuana use holds three-fold blood pressure death risk: study

#75

Post by dekhn »

CJefferson wrote: post #59
dekhn wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The N of the study isn't the issue here. It's the large collection of other methodological details, such as self-reported survey data, and a lack of dose-response, that invalidate it for policy purposes. When you say it "looks quite convincing", are you qualified to judge it on its merits?

I had a look, I'm not an expert in the area by any means, but at a reasonable glance it looks like a good study to me. Of course, it could be a giant fiddle (almost any experiment can be), but I try hard not to automatically assume studies which say what I like are good, and ones that say what I don't like are bad. I'm sure there will be more research in this area, now that there is not the threat of jail if people r…

Tell ya what. As a homework assignment, can you do enough stats research to do a reasonable critique of the methodology?

Re: Marijuana use holds three-fold blood pressure death risk: study

#76

Post by ypeterholmes »

gwern wrote: post #70

> The results showed marijuana users had a 3.42-times higher risk of death from hypertension than non-users, and a 1.04 greater risk for each year of use. There was no link between marijuana use and dying from heart or cerebrovascular diseases such as strokes. Huh?

Because the whole thing is bunk. Correlation does not mean causation.

Re: Marijuana use holds three-fold blood pressure death risk: study

#77

Post by mobilemidget »

moxious wrote: post #56
millzlane wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It looks quite convincing to me, and fairly worrying. That's how propaganda works. I know it's anecdotal, but I've been a 3 or more times a day (everyday) smoker for over 11.5 years and I'm an no where near the risk of my overweight family members. Blood pressure has been fine and I'm an no risk of hypertension. Demand more proof if you're convinced by this. Something smells fishy. I would like to know how Snoop, Wi…

Hold on now, picking individual celebrity examples has some serious survivorship bias on its own. We don't hear from the ones who did experience early mortality. Cannabis is a hard topic for Americans to talk about, because it's been so often unfairly demonized in the past, there's a pro-cannabis camp that sometimes won't admit any downside to it, fearing "Reefer Madness" style FUD which has been very common for deca…

and don't rule out all the people that can't publicly state they use marihuana; because of law, etc etc.

Re: Marijuana use holds three-fold blood pressure death risk: study

#78

Post by ams6110 »

millzlane wrote: post #43
CJefferson wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Policy makers do put quite a lot of work into protecting us from alcohol, tobacco and over the counter meds. Also, 1200 people is a fairly huge study, plenty to get some quality statistics from. I'm not sure why you have been so offended by this research. It looks quite convincing to me, and fairly worrying.

>It looks quite convincing to me, and fairly worrying. That's how propaganda works. I know it's anecdotal, but I've been a 3 or more times a day (everyday) smoker for over 11.5 years and I'm an no where near the risk of my overweight family members. Blood pressure has been fine and I'm an no risk of hypertension. Demand more proof if you're convinced by this. Something smells fishy. I would like to know how Snoop, Wi…

If it resonates with your beliefs, it's a convincing study. If it is contrary to your beliefs (wants, desires), it's propaganda.

Re: Marijuana use holds three-fold blood pressure death risk: study

#79

Post by millzlane »

moxious wrote: post #56
millzlane wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It looks quite convincing to me, and fairly worrying. That's how propaganda works. I know it's anecdotal, but I've been a 3 or more times a day (everyday) smoker for over 11.5 years and I'm an no where near the risk of my overweight family members. Blood pressure has been fine and I'm an no risk of hypertension. Demand more proof if you're convinced by this. Something smells fishy. I would like to know how Snoop, Wi…

Hold on now, picking individual celebrity examples has some serious survivorship bias on its own. We don't hear from the ones who did experience early mortality. Cannabis is a hard topic for Americans to talk about, because it's been so often unfairly demonized in the past, there's a pro-cannabis camp that sometimes won't admit any downside to it, fearing "Reefer Madness" style FUD which has been very common for deca…

>picking individual celebrity examples has some serious survivorship bias on its own.

That's true my comment was partly serious and a bit facetious. And I don't think it's surprising that these are the results. We've known for decades smoking cigarettes of any kind are bad and caused hypertension. It's a major reason I quit smoking combustibles like cigarettes. It definitely has the potential to be harmful.

Re: Marijuana use holds three-fold blood pressure death risk: study

#80

Post by FeteCommuniste »

gwern wrote: post #70

> The results showed marijuana users had a 3.42-times higher risk of death from hypertension than non-users, and a 1.04 greater risk for each year of use. There was no link between marijuana use and dying from heart or cerebrovascular diseases such as strokes. Huh?

That is weird. There are many ways to "die from hypertension," strokes and heart attacks among them. If there was no link to those outcomes, then what was the hypertension causing? Kidney disease? Cerebral hemorrhage?
Post reply on HN