Cannabis users face substantially higher risk of heart attack (2025) • Hacker News Board

Re: Cannabis users face substantially higher risk of heart attack (2025)

#141

Post by stringfood » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 4:44 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #128

teekert wrote: post #27

I wonder about all the confounding effects. In my country (famous for cannabis to be easy to come by (for decades already), and I saw many smoke from age 16 up as I grew up in 90's, 00's). I have always felt that the heavy cannabis smokers had something to compensate; stress, unrest, impending depression, friction with parents. It was never the healthy sporty types with fulfilling relationships, good grades or a nice…

I’m not from a place where cannabis use was common, but it was present. Growing up I definitely knew some people who had their demons who turned to drugs. However we also had a lot of people who were in good situations who picked up drugs for purely recreational reasons. One of my friends at the time even boasted that drugs were actually more appropriate for people like him who were educated, in good situations, and…

I feel by your logic, no one should ever use drugs or alcohol lest they become addicted to how good they make them feel. An abstinence approach. very modern!

Re: Cannabis users face substantially higher risk of heart attack (2025)

#142

Post by NorthSouthNorth » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 4:48 PM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #87

Is there something that can help a habitual cannabis user stop? GLP1s maybe?

You can cold-turkey it. Know daily smokers who (temporarily) quit for multiple reasons, e.g. medical reasons, job, extended travelling.

From what I have seen, there are no side effects at all. They go back to smoking when the opportunity arises, but that's another story.

Re: Cannabis users face substantially higher risk of heart attack (2025)

#143

Post by iwontberude » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 5:00 PM UTC

hbcdbff wrote: post #123

goodroot wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, the rationale for why saunas and heat stress is good for you is specifically because it raises the heart rate.

Sauna raises HR without increasing blood pressure though (modulo some possible initial short spike at the beginning), because your blood vessels dilate.

Cannabis causes dilation of blood vessels and elevated HR, it’s the same effect. If you take a big dab you can definitely feel your blood pressure drop and muscles relax even though your heart rate has increased.

Re: Cannabis users face substantially higher risk of heart attack (2025)

#144

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 5:01 PM UTC

newaccountman2 wrote: post #119

Teever wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it interesting how many people come out of the wood work to make disparaging comments about people who use cannabis whenever the subject of cannabis use comes up on HN. Having lived in a country where cannabis has been legal for about a decade now it's quaint seeing this kind of casual disrespect levelled by a stranger. I wonder if this kind of mindset is still common here and people just don't vocalize it any…

Tech at some point shifted way too far to the right because the money started attracting the wrong crowd.

[deleted]

Re: Cannabis users face substantially higher risk of heart attack (2025)

#145

Post by KellyCriterion » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 5:01 PM UTC

teekert wrote: post #55

KellyCriterion wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> stress, unrest, impending depression, friction with parents Well, Id guess these are reasons for any case of substance missuse?

True.

Esp the last wording: "friction with parents" (which is by the way are very noble wording here, I have to state)

I have not met ANY regular drug user (regardless which drugs), who didnt had "frictions with parents" early in their life. (and some for which its still persisting into their 40ies)

Re: Cannabis users face substantially higher risk of heart attack (2025)

#146

Post by iwontberude » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 5:01 PM UTC

dempedempe wrote: post #89

kranner wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edible forms of cannabis raise heart rate and blood pressure substantially as well.

Yeah it raises heart rate and blood pressure bc it dilates your blood vessels. The raised HR/BP are to counter that so you keep pushing the same amount of O2 per unit time.

Dilation lowers blood pressure

Re: Cannabis users face substantially higher risk of heart attack (2025)

#147

Post by iwontberude » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 5:04 PM UTC

teekert wrote: post #27

I wonder about all the confounding effects. In my country (famous for cannabis to be easy to come by (for decades already), and I saw many smoke from age 16 up as I grew up in 90's, 00's). I have always felt that the heavy cannabis smokers had something to compensate; stress, unrest, impending depression, friction with parents. It was never the healthy sporty types with fulfilling relationships, good grades or a nice…

In my country, California, we have so much cannabis use and it’s by basically everyone. People with spouse and children, fulfilling careers and exercise regimes. The culture of a place really can change the outcomes. It’s part of why Silicon Valley beat Route 128.

Re: Cannabis users face substantially higher risk of heart attack (2025)

#148

Post by iwontberude » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 5:05 PM UTC

dyauspitr wrote: post #132

teekert wrote: post #27

I wonder about all the confounding effects. In my country (famous for cannabis to be easy to come by (for decades already), and I saw many smoke from age 16 up as I grew up in 90's, 00's). I have always felt that the heavy cannabis smokers had something to compensate; stress, unrest, impending depression, friction with parents. It was never the healthy sporty types with fulfilling relationships, good grades or a nice…

Definitely. The healthy sport academic types stay pretty far away from any kind of mind altering drugs.

Not really, it more depends if you are east coast or west coast. East coast has stigma associated with loss of control. They have a stick up their ass basically.

Re: Cannabis users face substantially higher risk of heart attack (2025)

#149

Post by iwontberude » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 5:06 PM UTC

e584 wrote: post #58

teekert wrote: post #27

I wonder about all the confounding effects. In my country (famous for cannabis to be easy to come by (for decades already), and I saw many smoke from age 16 up as I grew up in 90's, 00's). I have always felt that the heavy cannabis smokers had something to compensate; stress, unrest, impending depression, friction with parents. It was never the healthy sporty types with fulfilling relationships, good grades or a nice…

In American collegiate and professional athletic circles almost everyone uses marijuana. I was a nationally ranked junior tennis player and even in that sport almost every other top junior I knew smoked weed.

These nerds that have to biohack and optimize to be physically fit are coping by claiming that jocks don’t get high. Sporty types are genetically different and have plenty of capacity for cannabis use.

Re: Cannabis users face substantially higher risk of heart attack (2025)

#150

Post by somenameforme » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 5:09 PM UTC

tyjen wrote: post #70

Noaidi wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people have had cardiologists say they have perfectly fine hearts go on to have heart attacks months later. My brother was one of these people. He was going in for spinal surgery, cardio said his heart was fine. Two weeks after surgery he was short of breath. Turns out he needed a triple bypass. And that was a physical change. Heart attacks happen because of electrocardiac issues as well.

Information asymmetries are a bane in the medical doctor market. Trust doctors with a grain of salt. There are many bad doctors that market themselves as good doctors, but are in reality terrible providers. I recently had a scare, where I was encouraged by two separate general practitioners to seek immediate care with an ophthalmologist. I visited the ophthalmologist who I was referred to and they said everything was…

It comes down to the old saying for doctors, "when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras." Rare and dangerous things often manifest in ways that look really similar to relatively harmless and common things. Go forward with the most probable explanation and you're not only going to be right the overwhelming majority of the time, but also keep costs and stresses down for patients. Only when somebody does show up with a genuinely serious condition (or otherwise had significant red flags) do you jump to zebras.

This is likely even more true in modern times with such high rates of anxiety and other similar disorders paired alongside the internet - there's going to be a lot of hypochondriacs suddenly thinking, and subsequently claiming, that they have every symptom of [something awful].

Doctors have very little in the way of legal protections, but malpractice has to actually be malpractice. A recent study on the topic found that in low risk occupations, 75% of doctors end up getting sued for malpractice over their career, and in high risk it bumps up to 99%. [1] When people don't like the outcome, they sue, but in most cases the outcome was largely unpreventable even with a high standard of care.

[1] - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-doctors-idUSTRE77G5YS2011...