Inhalation of marijuana associated with increased chances of developing asthma

If you are looking to reduce your chances of developing pulmonary diseases, say experts in UC San Francisco, then it may be smart to avoid cannabis inhalation.

A new study in Journal of General Internal Medicine He found that inhalation of marijuana every day is associated with a 44% increased likelihood of asthma development. It also increases the chances of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by 27%.

The risk of COPD can be underestimated, as the disease lasts decades to develop and the researchers had no detailed information on how long people in the study had used cannabis.

In defining the concept of inhalation, the researchers included smoking, inflatable and so -called “dabbing”, which includes breathing on the vapor of concentrated marijuana.

The study found a correlation between increased dangers in a person’s lungs and doing some of these things with hemp even for those who had never smoked cigarettes.

For this group, the inhalation of marijuana was connected to 51% increased likelihood of asthma development. The correlation with COPD was also increased, but it was not statistically significant.

The study is still the biggest to examine the association between cannabis inhalation and the risks to respiratory health between people who have not smoked cigarettes. Of the 380,000 adult participants, almost 222,000 had never smoked tobacco. The data comes from the behavioral risk surveillance system, a national research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Experts say that the widespread legalization of marijuana in much of the country and the perception that it is healthier than tobacco has led people to minimize the dangers.

The message about smoking tobacco that is bad for you has taken out there, but for hemp, is much less clear. ”

Alison Rustagi, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor at UCSF and first paper writer

“If people try to reduce the chance of developing a chronic pulmonary disease, they should not start using hemp,” he said. “And if they already smoke hemp, they should do it less often.”