Recreational drinking, smoking, and drug use linked to premature heart disease in young people, especially younger women, find research published online in the journal Heart.
Those who regularly use 4 or more products are 9 times more likely to be affected, the findings suggest.
The numbers of new cases of heart disease (atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease) have been increasing in young adults, but the possible role of recreational substance use is not entirely clear.
To investigate this further, the researchers investigated whether recreational use of tobacco, cannabis, alcohol, and illegal drugs, such as amphetamine and cocaine, may be linked to premature and prematurely burned arteries. -early.
They drew on information provided to the nationwide Care Veterans Care database 2014-2015 and Veterans with premaTure AtheroscLerosis (VITAL) register.
Premature heart disease was defined as an ‘event’, such as a heart attack, angina, or stroke before the age of 40, while premature heart disease was defined as an event before the age of 55 in men and before the age of 65 the women.
In total, there were 135,703 people with premature heart disease and 7716 with premature heart disease. Compared with 1,112, 45 patients did not have premature heart disease.
Recreational use of any substance was independently associated with a higher incidence of premature and premature heart disease.
Patients with premature heart disease were more likely to smoke (63% vs. 41%), drink (32% vs. 15%), and use cocaine (13% vs. 2.5%), amphetamines (3% vs. 0.5%), and cannabis (12.5% vs 3%).
After describing potentially influencing factors, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol, those who smoked tobacco were nearly twice as likely. for premature heart disease while those who drank to recreation were 50% more likely to do so.
Cocaine users were nearly 2.5 times as likely to have premature heart disease, and those who used amphetamines were nearly 3 times more likely to do so. Cannabis users were more than 2.5 times more likely to develop premature heart disease while those who used other drugs were about 2.5 times less likely to do so.
The higher the number of products used for recreation, the greater the risk of premature heart disease, from doubling the risk of using 1 content to a 9-fold higher risk. for those using 4 or more.
Similar trends were observed among those with premature heart disease, with the use of recreational products associated with 1.5 to 3 times higher incidence of heart disease.
The associations were even stronger among women with premature and premature heart disease than among men who were similarly affected.
This is a speculative study, so it cannot establish a cause. And the researchers acknowledge that they were unable to gather information about other potentially influential factors, such as dose and duration of use of recreational products.
In a linked editorial, Dr. Anthony Wayne Orr of LSU Health Shreveport, Louisiana, reveals that cocaine and methamphetamine use have been linked to faster cell growth and neurocognitive decline, with increased loss. higher than normal of gray matter.
And epidemiological studies suggest that 1 in 5 young adults misuse a variety of substances and that these ‘polysubstance users’ often start using at a younger age, and as that they will have worse health in the long run, he says.
The growing body of published study on these issues “suggests the need for a nationwide education campaign on the potential damage to the cardiovascular system in the patient with substance use disorders, “he argues.
These people need to be aware of the long-term effects for their health outside of the risk of premature ejaculation, while doctors should screen patients with a history of substance abuse, he says .
“We are only young once, and we should do everything in our power to maintain that state for as long as we can,” he concludes.