“Researchers from UAB helped conduct a 20-year study designed to measure heart disease, but it’s getting international publicity because of what it means for moderate marijuana use and lung function.
Researchers studied low to moderate marijuana users, those who reported smoking about two to three times per month. With cigarette smoking, the more you smoke, the more you decrease your lung function.
This study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows with marijuana, it’s a much more complicated relationship.
Stefan Kertesz with the UAB School of Medicine says, “There was actually an increase in air flow and an increase in lung capacity, but not enough that a person would necessarily feel healthier.”
Dr. Kertesz says it’s important to emphasize the smokers in the study are not the heavy duty smokers often portrayed in movies. Researchers weren’t able to draw conclusions on the effects of heavy marijuana use and lung function.
He says it’s possible the very small increase in air flow researchers saw could represent something of a practice effect. Marijuana smokers are used to taking in deep breaths, holding it and breathing out, which could help them ace the office test of lung function.”