Marijuana plus cigarettes boosts lung disease risk
It has been well known for a while that cigarettes increase the likelihood of developing lung disease, but new studies show smoking marijuana may have an effect too. As almost everyone knows, smoking tobacco increases your risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and many believed smoking marijuana has no severe effect. This is partially true. Studies failed to show a strong link between smoking marijuana by itself and developing COPD. It is when both tobacco and marijuana are habitually smoked by a person that issues develop. Most researchers believe the link is a result of marijuana smoking sensitizing the lung airways, which in turn makes them more vulnerable to the effects of smoking tobacco.
In this specific study, researchers surveyed 878 Canadian adults (ages 40 and above). Of this 878, 53.1% had ever smoked cigarettes, and 45.5% had every used marijuana. When comparing the smokers to the non-smokers, researchers discovered that people who smoked cigarettes were 50% more likely to suffer from frequent respiratory symptoms and 2.7 times more likely to have COPD. These numbers, though drastic and eye-opening, came as no surprise to researchers. It was the results from the marijuana smokers that surprised them.
The men and women who smoked both marijuana and tobacco were more than twice s likely (compared to non-smokers) to suffer from frequent respiratory symptoms. Researchers further found that if they'd had more than 50 joints over a lifetime, their risk of developing COPD was nearly 3 times higher than non-smokers.
Researchers said their findings don't mean that smoking marijuana by itself has no impact on the risk of COPD. Though it was very minor, the risk of developing COPD was increased in correlation to marijuana use.
To further elaborate on their findings, researchers would need to continue with a new surveying group, one larger and more narrow, such as marijuana-only smoking groups. So before you pick up that pipe or cig, think twice, especially if you're mixing the two.
(Alyssa Terestre, Group C)
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE53C5ZA20090413
posted by PWH @ 10:00 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Alyssa
It's so important that people know the effects of tobacco and marijuana on our bodies. It's obvious that tobacco and marijuana both have a strong effect on our lungs thus meaning both of them together couldn't be any better. I wish more people could see this blog and learn about what they do to their bodies.
Crystal Cabral
alyssa,
thanks for the info, i'm sure people don't even think of them ans different things and that marajuana with smoking makes their risk higher, if they did they moght think twice so i hope this blog makes some think about stopping smoking marajuana or cigaretts and especially the two tegether. any reserch on second hand smoking and COPD?
Samantha DeBiasio
very interesting. I wonder if this relationship would exist for other types of (smokable) drugs. I'm not totally clear on what sensitizing the lung airways means. How does it make them more vulnerable to pulmonary disease?
Jane de Verges
Did the article mention anything about smoking a splif (mix of marijuana and tobacco) together. Also, what about marijuana's beneficial herbal effects. there have been many medicinal benefits and there are even doctors that will prepare foods made with THC (from marijuana) so it does not affect the lungs.
Rachael Carlavale
Cigarettes are such a bad thing. All they do damage your health. This study does not surprise one bit, because anything combined with smoking will be harmful to one's health. I also like the picture you chose for the article. Do you think that they will ever legalize marijuana so that Marlboro can sell it with tobacco?
-Calin Darabus
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