MARIJUANA AFTER AGE 45 HARDER ON HEART THAN SEX
2001-06-12 14:25 (New York)
New York (dpa) - Smoking pot after age 45 puts more stress on the
heart than strenuous sex, leading to a five-fold increase in the
likelihood of a heart attack for about an hour afterwards, Canadian
and U.S. scientists said in media reports Tuesday.
They recommended that people older than 45 avoid marijuana, the
Globe and Mail newspaper in Toronto reported.
``That's a good age to give it up,'' Narold Kalant, professor at
the University of Toronto, was quoted as saying.
Marijuana use in the over-45 age group has been on the increase in
the over-45 age group, risky behaviour because it coincides with the
climbing likelihood of a heart attack, said Murray Mittelman, director
of the cardiology department at Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in
Boston.
The study was based on surveys and physical examinations of 4,000
heart attack survivors, including 124 regular marijuana users.
Marijuana causes the heart to beat up to twice as fast as normal,
and the blood pressure to rise. Younger hearts are less open to damage
because they are stronger, the study said.
Several of the heart attack patients said they had both smoked dope
and had sex before they were stricken. But the numberr was too small
to prove that a combination of sex and drugs increases the heart
attack risk.
Mittelman said that marijuana is less dangerous than cocaine, which
can raise the likelihood of a heart attack up to 25 times that of
normal. dpa tb pr |
