A randomized crossover trial examined the acute cardiovascular effects of inhaled cannabis among habitual users.There was a significant 9% reduction in premature heartbeats on days participants inhaled cannabis compared with days they abstained.The finding of reduced cardiac ectopy was questionable given major limitations of the trial, but the data did suggest that there was no increase in these heartbeats.
Defying expectations, regular cannabis users had fewer ectopic heartbeats on the days they reached for the joint or vape, a randomized crossover trial showed.
On days using cannabis, there was a significant 9% reduction in these extra or early heartbeats (median 13 per day on cannabis vs 13.8 per day off cannabis; rate ratio [RR] 0.91, 95% CI 0.85-0.98) among habitual cannabis smokers and vapers who had no history of clinically diagnosed cardiac arrhythmias.
While each cannabis inhalation was associated with a 2% reduction in ectopic beats (RR 0.98, 95% CI 0.97-0.99), Gregory Marcus, MD, MAS, of the University of California San Francisco, and colleagues noted that they were still wary of jumping too quickly to claim causality from this randomized trial.
"Given imperfect adherence, possible carryover, heterogeneous exposure, low baseline ectopy burden, and multiple exploratory analyses, the clinical implications remain uncertain," they wrote in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
