February is American Heart Month, an event made for reminding Americans to take care of their hearts and spreading this message to their friends, family and the community encouraging them on doing the same. Proclaimed by President Lyndon B Johnson on December 30 of 1963, and established in 1964, the date is federally designated.
More than half of the deaths in the US, at the time the American Heart Month was proclaimed, were caused by cardiovascular disease along with stroke being the biggest cause of deaths killing more than 17 million every year. This number is unfortunately expected to grow to 23 million people in 2030. 2,300 Americans die every single day of cardiovascular disease, being approximately one death every 38 seconds. American Heart Month was created so we can call attention to heart diseases and help prevent them from happening.
How to Prevent Heart Diseases
The good news: With a healthy lifestyle and a great diet, controlling your cholesterol and sugar levels, the risk of having a heart attack lowers 80 percent. There are many ways of changing your routine to prevent heart diseases, such as not smoking tobacco, manage blood pressure, practicing exercises every day, walking, dancing, taking the stairs instead of the elevator and many other things to include on your daily habits.
The website Go Red for Women has various articles on how to prevent heart diseases, including diet tips so you can take a better care of your heart and if you cook for your family, their hearts too.
Marijuana and the Heart
Marijuana and its relationship with the heart is a big question mark to people. Is it good for the heart? Or is it bad? Marijuana is known as a great vasodilator, the fact that has been proven. The plant has shown to lower the user’s blood pressure, and high blood pressure is one of the causes of heart attacks.
However, after some time after a person consumes cannabis, heart rates can increase in different levels depending on the person, making some people anxious with the heart racing more than the usual. The heart rate doesn’t increase forever, some studies have shown that this only happens with new consumers and with time the person ends up creating a tolerance. Coffee and energy drinks have also shown to increase the heart rate just like cannabis, but unlike cannabis they also make the blood pressure higher, creating a big risk of heart attack after consuming.
The British Journal of Pharmacology published a review saying that CBD reduced vascular tension, inflammation associated with diabetes, and protects the arteries from getting damaged because of the sugar. All these making the risk of a heart condition drops. Of course, there aren’t many studies concerning marijuana and heart conditions so if you have predisposition to have a heart condition you probably should be more careful. This is only a warning sign if you have some type of risk if not, marijuana has minimal risks to someone with no predisposition.
Clearly, there is no consensus on what the consequences of marijuana and heart conditions are. In the US no state allows the use of marijuana for treating cardiovascular diseases but some states like California, Nevada, will consider allowing that conditions indicated for treatment by a physician can be treated with medical marijuana.
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