Effect of Marijuana on Long QT syndrome.?

Answer 1

I'm not a physician but I HAVE long QT (+/- 700msQTc)...Here is what I have learned:

We know that the smoking of cannabis isn't great for people's hearts or lungs-not because of cannabis' active ingredients--if you could take those by themselves they'd be beneficial--but because of the act of smoking itself. In people at risk for Heart disease, inhaling burning vegetable matter and the other particulate crap in the smoke competes with their oxygen intake, irritates the lungs, and can do bad things to vascular elasticity and plaque buildup. Again, it's important that we're real clear here. This is from the act of smoking burning vegetable matter, not the active ingredients. Vaping and eating cannabis are much heart-healthier alternatives.

Fainting can be a sign of a serious problem with your heart rhythm called "long QT syndrome." This problem can be genetically carried, so if you know of others in your family who've had to be put on meds or have an implanted defibrillator installed for a potentially deadly heart rhythm, you should get to your doctor and get your fainting episodes further evaluated (with an EKG and a thorough history).

The question you ask about Long QT and cannabis is important and was to me, too. The type of cardiac event involved in long QT syndrome is cardiac arrest, where the heart goes into a deadly rhythm and then simply stops. If you have the genetics for long QT syndrome, that's not something you'd want to let go unevaluated.

The frequency of cannabis causing heart attacks is unknown because it's not been studied and because people who die of heart attacks can't come back to tell us whether they'd just been smoking it. Since it's an illicit substance in most states, its frequency of use isn't really known. What we do know is that, in people for whom certain strains or simply the act of smoking raises blood pressure, that can trigger a " heart attack" or a stroke. Probably these are people who already have a history and risk of heart disease.

Till you get yourself checked by a cardiologist for LONG QT, it'd be wise for you not to smoke anything. You also should avoid exercise and/or great stress. You have only a tiny chance of having the long QT syndrome, but till you know, it's important that you not risk bringing it on.