Pubdate: Sat, 04 Mar 2000 Source: Orange County Register (CA) Copyright: 2000 The Orange County Register Contact: P.O. Box 11626, Santa Ana, CA 92711 Fax: (714) 565-3657 Website: http://www.ocregister.com/ Author: Daniel Q. Haney, The Associated Press POT LINKED TO HIGHER RISK OF CORONARY HEALTH: The increased risk is small,but babyboomer users with other risk factors should take note. SAN DIEGO - Warning to middle-age potheads: Smoking marijuana may be bad for your middle-age hearts. In the first study to find a link between pot and heart trouble, Harvard researchers reported Thursday that the risk of a heart attack is five times higher than usual in the hour after smoking a joint. Until now, marijuana has not been much of an issue in heart disease, since older folks do not typically smoke pot. However, this could change as baby boomers take their pot smoking habits into middle age and beyond. The researchers said that for someone in shape, marijuana is about twice as risky as exercising or having sex. The study was conducted by Dr. Murray Mittleman of the Harvard School of Public Health and Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He presented the findings at a conference in San Diego of the American Heart Association. The researchers questioned 3,882 heart-attack victims - men and women - at 62 locations across the country about their habits and found that 124 were marijuana users. While pot was uncommon among the elderly heart patients, 13 percent of those under age 50 said they smoke it. Among those questioned, 37 had their heart attacks within a day of using marijuana, and nine within an hour afterward. The researchers calculated that someone's risk of a heart attack is five times higher during the hour after using marijuana. After an hour, the risk falls to twice normal. It soon returns to the usual level. Whether a fivefold increase is a worry depends on whether someone has other risk factors, such as high blood pressure or diabetes. The increased risk is probably insignificant for a 20-year-old, whose chance of a heart attack is small anyway. "With baby boomers aging, more people in 40s and 50s are smoking marijuana than in prior generations," Mittleman said. "The risk of coronary artery disease increases with age." In any case, the risk of a heart attack from any single session of marijuana smoking is likely to be low. Mittleman said that for an otherwise healthy 50-year-old man, it is about 10 in 1 million. Marijuana typically makes the heart speed up by about 40 beats a minute. Whether this is how it contributes to heart attacks is unclear. Mittleman noted that while marijuana doesn't contain nicotine, the smoke is otherwise similar to cigarette smoke. In general, the marijuana smokers in the study were more likely than other heart attack victims to be overweight and sedentary, but they were less apt to have diabetes, high blood pressure or badly clogged arteries. "My advice on marijuana is, 'Don't.'" said Dr. Lynn Smaha of Sayre, Pa., president of the heart association. "If they have heart disease, I'd tell patients they are playing a dangerous game if they smoke marijuana." Mittleman said the possibility of triggering a heart attack should be considered when deciding whether to smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes, such as to relieve the nausea of chemotherapy. Chuck Thomas of the Medical Marijuana Policy Group, which advocates legalizing pot for medical treatment, noted that many prescription drugs can also have dangerous side effects. "If someone has such a bad heart that they can't run upstairs, they probably should not smoke marijuana, either," he said. "But that decision should be left up to the doctor and not the criminal-justice system." - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D