Hello people! I have recently (8months back)had an aortic heart valve replacement with a mechanical st Jude valve and also the grafting was done. The reason I’m posting here is that I’m concerned and curious to know that whether
Consuming marijuana (once a week) for recreational purposes can interfere with the inr readings or not and is it safe to do it at all?
Thank you for reading and investing your time here!
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I don't know if it interferes with INR, but it's not a safe drug to take, especially with a heart condition.
Can you show the evidence for your comment?
there are sometimes questions on here that frankly are beyond belief.
Regardless of whether you have a mechanical valve or not your risk of a heart attack increases several fold after using marijuana. It is also a known trigger for AF. Your heart has been repaired to improve your quality of life. Don't go and mess up the surgeon's good work.
Do you have the research for that? I'm asking because my pain consultant wants to prescribe it for me but is concerned about my heart condition. He hasn't seen enough research.
Research is limited because in general cannabis is illegal. There are quite a few references. Here is one of them.
I'm guessing this is a joke.
There are 393 known drug interactions, severe and moderate.
There's much better fun to be had in this world without that stuff in anyone's body!
Any chance of a link to a list of the 393 please?
drugs.com/drug-interactions...
Thank you for sharing it.
That’s a very useful site making money from selling advertising. There’s no way of knowing the accuracy of what they publish or any bias that they have.
But let’s go with the assumption that the info is accurate and they have no overriding profit motive.
Alcohol has 526 drugs known to interact it. 37 major, 478 moderate and 11 minor interactions.
Now of course this is a very crude comparison. Not everyone is also taking all of the other drugs, and not all drugs are the same. Alcohol and Cannabis have different physiological and psychological affects, simply adding up the totals and presenting them isn’t very meaningful.
But, this is the measure you presented and using it along it indicates that the stuff you should avoid having in your body as a priority is booze not cannabis.
This of course has nothing to do with Heart Valves, which I’d guess would prove to be the important thing here.
You can read this reply safe in the knowledge it will be free from any moralising.
The safest thing is to not consume it. You probably avoid rollercoasters now also, right?
That’s the simple answer.
Life tends not to be so simple. Cannabis can be quite effective in reducing alcohol consumption which could be a better approach, for some.
I’m sure we have all on here thought about length of life vs quality of life when trying to work out our lifestyle changes. I’m not sure about you but I’ve been left on my own to work out what “lifestyle changes” actually means.
So, as I open another tin of no salt / no sugar baked beans for breakfast, I may think about all the things that have been taken away from me, which things still need to go and what things will negatively affect my happiness if I lose them vs the risk.
My situation is different from yours. I have plaque build up to consider. You have a valve. I might use something like the list Dingledaw posted to review the drugs I am taking and see that the danger is around low blood pressure. Using Cannabis might make that even lower and I could get dizzy (lol).
You are going to come up with a different answer.
In much of the decision making we do we have to weigh up risk vs reward. There is a risk to taking Statins but it’s much lower than the potential reward.
Same here. With a new valve what are the physiological considerations you have to think about? I have to warm up very slowly before I exercise. What are you concerned about protecting your heart from?
Are you looking to avoid palpitations for eg. (I have no idea btw)?
Are there situations while feeling the effects of Cannabis where you might feel weird for a second and this could affect your heart beat?
Is this situation common or more pronounced than getting a surprise crossing the road, for eg.?
So isolate the heart considerations you are making, identify whether Cannabis could contribute negatively to those to get a sense of the risk.
Weight up the reward to you feel you gain from using Cannabis and you’ll be heading in the right direction.
For eg. MichaelJH makes an interesting sounding claim about AF triggers. Perhaps he might have a link to some research?
There are also secondary aspects to consider.
What type of Cannabis are you fond of, some can be more stimulating than others (allegedly)?
What is the setting and are the activities you are doing after consuming it?
Cannabis is often consumed by smoking it and tobacco is commonly mixed with it. These carry their own, not trivial, risks.
(Edited for grammar - as usual)
Research is limited because in general cannabis is illegal. There are quite a few references. Here is one of them.
Just a thought 70Percent At present cannabis is a class B drug it is illegal to possess, grow or sell it in the UK.
There is limited availability for medical cannabis which is precribed by a doctor.
Unlike the medications and medical cannabis, cannabis hasn't gone through the same clinical trials to show that it is both safe and effective.
Cannabis can trigger coronary vasospasms leading to a heart attack.
I live with vasospastic angina caused by transient constrictions of my coronary arteries, coronary vasospasms.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl....
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
cureus.com/articles/64574-m...
I’m sure VBahl considered the legal position of Cannabis when they originally elected to use it.
They sound like an adult to me, I’m not sure patronising them will help them navigate through this potential lifestyle change.
Your links all show there is a wide spread belief in risk of using Cannabis, as is there is crossing the road, going to work or going on a run.
These are interesting however they are all case studies of 1. The first 1 had also been using LSD and all 3 discuss potent strains of some sort. Given the global popularity of this substance (and heart conditions) this is hardly compelling stuff.
There is a risk, no doubt, as I said before the simple answer is don’t use it. Same as booze, salt, pizza and not doing 150 minutes of excersize each week. We’re all managing the magic 150 right?
However patronising people, rolling eyes, and presenting poor evidence (all responses evident here) does not convince me that this is the best place for this question.
The problem is, due to the legality, there may not be a good place.
With the wealth of experience here its a shame that moralising and patronising is a preferred way of “supporting” someone with a genuine question.
I hope you will not be as offensive to others who give a view that cannabis is potentially harmful to heart patients.
I hope you will become more tolerant.
However that doesn't justify being rude to others?
Do you feel it's okay to take illegal drugs?
I have not been rude.
See gilreid1 ’s post for an example of rudeness.
I am offering a view that you feel is different from yours and you are choosing to be offended.
Very intolerant indeed.
What I feel about the legality of one thing or another is not relevant. This is not a legal forum.
I'm disabled with chronic constant pain. I've also had a heart attack and erratic heart rate. My pain consultant says that the only option he now has for pain relief is CBD but he does not dare to give it to me because of my heart. Simply not enough research has been done on the effect of CBD on the heart. It's too dangerous to risk it.
Hi VBahl ,
Thanks for being part of our community unfortunately some of the content shared throughout this post and it's replies goes against our terms of use on HealthUnlocked and therefore the replies have now been turned off.
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