My Heart Feels Weird
First and foremost, if you think you need emergency medical care, please call 911. If you don’t think it’s quite that serious, but would still like to talk to a doctor, please click the “talk to a doc” tab on the home page of this website. If some factual information about the effects of marijuana on the Cardio Vascular System (the heart and blood supply) will help you feel better, please continue reading.
Before we get started, look at the time. Take note of it. write it down if you can. This will be important later.
If you made the mistake of searching the internet with the keywords ‘heart’ and ‘marijuana’ in the same sentence, you are probably freaking out right now.
Let’s start right there. Legally, we cannot provide you with any medical treatment or advice on this website. But… We can give you access to the facts and studies used to determine the information you found on the majority of those “credible” websites. We can also provide you with a breakdown of their findings and conclusions.
The most cited of those studies was completed in 2001 and led by Murray Mittleman, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of public health. It is also absurdly inconclusive and a flawed study at best. But that hasn’t stopped it from being continually referenced by the American Heart Association, Healthline, American College of Cardiology, BBC, ABC News, Market Watch, Harvard Medical School, and the CDC. You can read that study HERE.
If that is too much to process while you’re stoned, have no fear. President and CEO of Radicle Health, Timothy Byars, provides an accurate, easy to follow breakdown of that very study beginning at the 12:00 minute mark in the video below.
Don’t feel like watching? Read the Stoner Notes.
If you’re feeling a little better and want to continue reading, we can talk about how many people have died from a toxic marijuana overdose. It won’t take long… The number is 0. Ingesting marijuana at a toxicity level strong enough to cause death is virtually impossible. If Willie Nelson, Snoop Dog, Cheech and Chong, Seth Rogan and Phoenix Mendoza haven’t managed to smoke themselves to death yet, it’s hard to believe it can be done. That is not to say that people haven’t harmed themselves while being stoned. Or that they haven’t combined marijuana with another deadly substance. But that isn’t the same as a toxic marijuana overdose leading to death.
Combine that knowledge with what you’ve learned about marijuana and heart attacks, and things are looking up. But that doesn’t explain the rapid heart beats and fluttering in your chest. Or the anxiousness…
Anxiousness…
Marijuana is sometimes known for causing acute anxiety. If you want to know what those symptoms look and feel like, click HERE.
Don’t want to read it? Read the Stoner Notes.
Sound a bit familiar? It’s ok. It’s normal.
If you want a little insight as to why this happens from time to time, HERE is a link to a fantastic article that Suzannah Weiss wrote for Vice.
If you don’t want to read it, read the Stoner Notes.
Still with us? Good. So we now know that THC can increase heart rate, which can temporarily lead to a slight increase and/or decrease in blood pressure. This is important to remember if you take any medications. Again, the numbers are on your side. Statistically speaking, you are more likely to die getting struck by lightening while being attacked by a shark. Not sure that has ever happened before… But guess what else hasn’t? A toxic marijuana overdose resulting in death.