Cannabis Addiction in Young Adults - An Australian Study
- In the UK, a study has revealed that heavily dependent cannabis people have much more fragile bones than people who do not use cannabis at all.
- The study looked at information from young people aged 18 and over.
People who regularly smoke large amounts of marijuana can be more susceptible to bone fractures than people who do not use cannabis - this is a new study in the UK.
The researchers also found that students who smoke marijuana usually have thinner bones than people who do not smoke marijuana. Thinning presents a higher risk of osteoporosis, which means that bones become more fragile and fragile.
"Our research has shown that people heavily dependent on cannabis have a relatively large decrease in bone density compared to people who do not smoke marijuana and believe that marijuana could increase the risk of osteoporosis and fractures later in life." said Dr. Stuart Ralston, Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
In the study, researchers focused on 170 people aged 18 and over who regularly smoked marijuana and the second group consisted of 114 people who never smoked cannabis.
At the same time, all participants were patients in a single medical facility of general practice in the UK.
Scientists asked patients whether they were taking marijuana or any other medication and whether they had ever had a fracture. Scientists also askor patients for more information about their diet to see how much calcium they consume. (It has been shown that calcium is important for bone health). Scientists also measured bone density using X-ray images.
Study results
People who smoked marijuana 5,000 times or more in their lives turned out to have 5% lower bone density than those who never had marijuana. In addition, regular users experienced on average more fractures in life compared to people who did not smoke marijuana.
Findings suggest that exsays the relationship between heavy cannabis use and thin bones, but it does not prove that smoking marijuana makes bones more fragile, said Dr. Matthew Hepinstall, an orthopedic surgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital for Joint Preservation and Reconstruction in New York, which was not included in the study.
New study authorsfound that "factors such as age and body weight index (BMI) had much greater effects on bone mineral density than hemp in this clinical study," Hepinstall noted.
Scientists uthey said they did not know how to explain the relationship between marijuana use and lower bone density. However, they noted that people who used marijuana had a lower BMI than those who did not use cannabis. Lower BMI can cause the bones of these people to be more prone to thinning.
How can the results be used in practice?
The new study is based on previous animal research that demonstrates the complex interactions between cannabinoid receptors that mediate many cannabis effects on body cells and bone cell activity, Hepinstall said.
For example, one previous study in mice suggested that CBD (cannabidiol), one of the marijuana compounds, can actually help in fracture healing. However, it is unclear whether the results of this study would be applicable to humans.