PSA: If you use cannabis you should also consume soy products.

Bad news for me and other cannabis users. A recent Stanford study found that People who use marijuana have an increased risk of heart disease and heart attack. This was a large study led by researchers at Stanford Medicine. The study also showed that the psychoactive component of the drug, known as THC, causes inflammation in endothelial cells that line the interior of blood vessels, as well as atherosclerosis in laboratory mice.

The researchers tested many substances but found only one that attenuated or resolved the inflammation in blood vessels. That substance is genistein. Genistein is a soy isoflavone.

https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2022/04/marijuana-heart-disease.html.

My story: I’m 70 and a lifelong cannabis user, usually at the end of a productive day. A reward mechanism in a way. In my twenties I smoked non-stop, but cut down to nighttime use when I started a business in 1980. At age 47 I had to have sextuple heart bypass surgery and found out that I had type 2 diabetes. I was so clogged up the doctors said it must be genetic even though nobody in my family suffered heart disease until they were in their 70s. Why was mine advanced at such a young age? I’ve been wondering that for 22 years. Now I know why: habitual cannabis use.

Because I was so clogged up and because I had no more arteries available to use for grafts if I need further bypass surgery, the doctors gave me about ten years. They said that I would be on six different drugs my entire life. I was thinking to myself that these doctors don’t know me. When I put my mind to something I usually accomplish it. So I decided to make some major changes: I took an early retirement for a very stressful job, lost 50 pounds, started speed walking every day, and completely changed my diet.

Within 5 years all of my blood work, including my Ha1c, was that of a healthy twenty year old. I was weened off of all the drugs I was on. However, being unaware that THC was hurting my arteries, I didn’t stop smoking weed. I thought it was anti-inflammatory. About ten years ago I stopped smoking but started using edibles. I think that the one thing that saved me and extended my life was that I now eat soy products every day and the genistein in them has, hopefully, reversed inflammation in my blood vessels due to THC. The doctors gave me only ten years but I’m going on 23 years after major heart surgery and still going strong. According to my doctors I’m in the 1%.

If anyone is interested in the life style changes I made, including diet, PM me.