1.3% of marijuana users (61 out of 4,610) compared with 0.8% of non-users (240 of 28,563).
The small total number of heart attacks prompted Mitch Earleywine, a professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Albany, to question the power of the potential effect marijuana might really have on heart health.
“Let’s keep in mind the fact that it’s very easy to double a number if it’s very small in the first place,” Earleywine, an advisory board member of NORML, which promotes marijuana legalization says. “Truth be told, the absolute difference is literally 0.5%.”
However, the researchers found an association between pot use and heart attack even after controlling for other things that put heart health at risk, including smoking, drinking and chronic illnesses.
READ: 8 Surprising Factors That Could Be Putting Your Heart At Risk
Previous studies have shown that THC can increase heart rate and cause irregular heartbeat, Ladha notes.
“That increases the amount of oxygen your heart needs to function. When it goes fast, it needs more oxygen,” he shares.
There’s also some evidence that THC can interfere with oxygen delivery to the heart muscle, according to Ladha.
“You get this mismatch between oxygen supply and demand, which fundamentally leads to a heart attack,” he says.
Ladha notes that today’s increasingly potent pot could be