Cannabis and diabetes – be aware of the cardiovascular risks.
If you travel to Canada this summer you will smell cannabis smoke on almost any city street corner. Don’t be surprised that it’s out in the open as Canada legalized cannabis use for medicine and recreation in 2018.
While we started a company to help people grow better cannabis, and have reported over the years that cannabis can help epilepsy, cannabis can help autism, it solves pain for people with cancer, and it can help PTSD and other disorders, cannabis doesn’t help all people all of the time. It’s individual. In some cases cannabis or marijuana use can be harmful, especially to children.
Now researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have found a significant increase in cannabis use among adults with diabetes in the United States, and they wonder what this might mean for health outcomes.
The new study, which analyzed nationally representative data from the 2021 to 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), estimated that 9.0 percent of adults with diabetes used cannabis in the past month, with a 33.7 percent increase in prevalence—from 7.7 percent to 10.3 percent—between 2021 and 2022.
The findings raise concerns about the health consequences of cannabis use among people with diabetes. Previous studies have found cannabis use to be associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes, to which people with diabetes are already vulnerable.
The researchers note that the use of cannabis among adults with diabetes may be driven by its perceived therapeutic benefits, including insomnia and pain relief for neuropathy. Additionally, the legalization of cannabis in multiple states has resulted in increased access to cannabis products, leading many people with chronic illnesses to turn to cannabis as an alternative means to manage their symptoms.
The study also found that individuals with diabetes who engaged in other substance use, such as tobacco use, binge drinking and misuse of opioids and stimulants, were more likely to have used cannabis.
Use of these additional substances could further exacerbate the health risks associated with diabetes and also emphasize the importance of addressing polysubstance use among adults with diabetes.
The study’s findings highlight the need for health care providers to screen for cannabis use among their patients with diabetes and to educate them about the potential risks and benefits of its use. Further research is also needed to understand the effects of cannabis on diabetes outcomes and to develop evidence-based guidelines for its use in this population.
The study published on July 22, 2024 in Diabetes Care and was led by Americans Dr. Benjamin Han, Dr. Jeremy Pettus and Dr. Alison Moore.
Author: Karin Kloosterman
Karin Kloosterman is an award-winning journalist, innovation strategist, and founder of Green Prophet, one of the Middle East’s pioneering sustainability platforms. She has ranked in the Top 10 of Verizon innovation competitions, participated in NASA-linked challenges, and spoken worldwide on climate, food security, and future resilience. With an IoT technology patent, features in Canada’s National Post, and leadership inside teams building next-generation agricultural and planetary systems — including Mars-farming concepts — Karin operates at the intersection of storytelling, science, and systems change. She doesn’t report on the future – she helps design it. Reach out directly to [email protected]
