Marijuana Smokers More Likely To Develop Lung Disease Than Cigarette Smokers: Study
While some marijuana smokers contend that using marijuana is healthier than smoking tobacco, numerous studies have revealed evidence to the contrary.
OTTAWA (CANADA): A recent source revealed that marijuana smokers are more likely to develop lung illness than cigarette smokers.
Nowadays, smoking's harmful effects are pretty well documented, but the distinction between marijuana and tobacco is still a subject of intense discussion.
While some marijuana smokers contend that using marijuana is healthier than smoking tobacco, numerous studies have revealed evidence to the contrary.
A recent study from the University of Ottawa in Canada found that people who smoke marijuana are at a higher risk of developing lung disease than people who smoke tobacco cigarettes.
In some cases, it may even be more harmful.
Researchers compared the results of chest CT scans performed on 56 marijuana smokers, 57 non-smoking controls, and 33 tobacco-only smokers in the study, which was just published in Radiology, a magazine of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
In contrast to 67 percent of tobacco-only smokers, they discovered that 75% of marijuana smokers had emphysema, a lung disease that affects breathing and can cause shortness of breath.
Paraseptal emphysema, which affects the tiny ducts that connect to the air sacs in the lungs (alveoli), was the most prevalent subtype of the disease in marijuana smokers compared to the tobacco-only group.
Emphysema was shown to be present in 5% of non-smokers, in contrast.
As an assistant professor and cardiothoracic radiologist at the University of Ottawa, Giselle Revah, MD, the study's author, put it: "Smoking affects the lungs, as we all know. The effects of smoking cigarettes on the lungs have been thoroughly investigated and proven. Almost nothing is known about marijuana."
The team also discovered that marijuana smokers were more likely to experience airway inflammation than tobacco smokers or non-smokers and that marijuana users were also more likely to experience gynecomastia, or enlarged male breast tissue brought on by hormonal imbalance, at a rate of 38 percent versus 11 percent.
"The extra results of airway inflammation/chronic bronchitis in our marijuana smokers, some of whom also smoked tobacco, suggests that marijuana has additional synergistic effects on the lungs above tobacco," stated Revah.
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