“Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a global epidemic representing the leading cause of death in some Western countries. Endocannabinoids and cannabinoid‐related compounds may be a promising approach as therapeutic agents for cardiovascular diseases. This review highlights the potential of cannabinoids and their receptors as targets for intervention. In summary, the endocannabinoid system is highly active in cardiovascular disease states. Modulation of the ECS, CB1, and TRPV1 antagonism, as well as CB2 agonism, have proven to modulate disease state and severity in CVD. Studies are underway to develop drugs to change the course of cardiovascular diseases. If therapeutic potential resides in a single molecule component or a derivative, then production and regulation of the therapy are straightforward. If the efficacious agent is a complex mixture that reflects some or all of the secondary metabolome complexity of Cannabis sativa, then safe and consistent production become challenging.” http://jaha.ahajournals.org/content/7/14/e009099https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30006489]]>
Category Archives: Cardiovascular Disease
Marijuana use and short-term outcomes in patients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction.
“Marijuana use is increasing worldwide, and it is ever more likely that patients presenting with acute myocardial infarctions (AMI) will be marijuana users. However, little is known about the impact of marijuana use on short-term outcomes following AMI.
Accordingly, we compared in-hospital outcomes of AMI patients with reported marijuana use to those with no reported marijuana use. We hypothesized that marijuana use would be associated with increased risk of adverse outcomes in AMI patients.
Interestingly, marijuana-using patients were significantly less likely to die, experience shock, or require an IABP post AMI than patients with no reported marijuana use.
These results suggest that, contrary to our hypothesis, marijuana use was not associated with increased risk of adverse short-term outcomes following AMI.
Furthermore, marijuana use was associated with decreased in-hospital mortality post-AMI.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29995914
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0199705
“Myocardial Infarction (Heart Attack)” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMHT0021982/
Anandamide and endocannabinoid system: an attractive therapeutic approach for cardiovascular disease.
“Cardiovascular disease is currently not adequately managed and has become one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Current therapies are inadequate in terms of preventing its progression. There are several limitations, such as poor oral bioavailability, side effects, low adherence to treatment, and high dosage frequency of formulations due to the short half-life of the active ingredients used, among others.
This review aims to highlight the most relevant aspects of the relationship between the cardiovascular system and the endocannabinoid system, with special attention to the possible translational effect of the use of anandamide in cardiovascular health. The deep and detailed knowledge of this interaction, not always beneficial, and that for years has gone unnoticed, is essential for the development of new therapies.
We discuss the most recent and representative results obtained in the field of basic research, referring to the aforementioned subject, emphasizing fundamentally the main role of nitric oxide, renal physiology and its deregulation in pathological processes.”
“Left ventricular dysfunction triggers the activation of the sympathetic nervous system, providing inotropic support to the failing heart and concomitantly increasing the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF). The cardiovascular effects of cannabis have been characterized as biphasic on the autonomic nervous system with an increased sympathetic effect at low doses and an inhibitory sympathetic activity at higher doses. It is unknown if the autonomic effect of cannabis impacts the occurrence of AF in patients with heart failure (HF).
We used data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project-National Inpatient Sample for patients admitted with a diagnosis of HF in 2014. The outcome variable was the diagnosis of AF, with the main exposure being cannabis use. We identified a cannabis user group and a 1:1 propensity-matched non-cannabis user group, each having 3,548 patients. We then estimated the odds of AF diagnosis in cannabis users. An estimated 3,950,392 patients were admitted with a diagnosis of HF in the United States in 2014. Among these, there were 17,755 (0.45%) cannabis users. In the matched cohort, cannabis users were less likely to have AF (19.08% vs 21.39%; AOR 0.87 [0.77 to 0.98]).
In conclusion, cannabis users have lower odds of AF when compared with nonusers, which was not explained by co-morbid conditions, age, insurance type, and socioeconomic status.”
“Hypercholesterolemia indirectly increases the risk for myocardial infarction by enhancing the ability of platelets to aggregate.
Diets enriched with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have been shown to reduce the detrimental effects of cholesterol on platelet aggregation.
This study investigated whether dietary hempseed, a rich source of PUFAs, inhibits platelet aggregation under normal and hypercholesterolemic conditions.
The results of this study demonstrate that when hempseed is added to a cholesterol-enriched diet, cholesterol-induced platelet aggregation returns to control levels.”
“An antagonist of central 
