According to a recent US study conducted on twins and their families, the occasional consumption of cannabis does not burden the physical health of adults.
"Research results do not support a causal association between once-weekly cannabis use and adverse physical health effects among adults aged 25 to 35.”
Lo study, published on Drug and Alcohol Dependence, was led by a team of University of Colorado Department of Psychiatry, and involved 677 people, 308 pairs of twins, aged between 25 and 35.
In the past, research on the influence of cannabis use on anthropometry, cardiovascular and pulmonary function has yielded conflicting results. An analysis conducted on twins, however, could bring greater clarity to the possible link between frequency of cannabis use and general body health.
For this reason the researchers, after examining the genetic and environmental factors of individuals to understand their main characteristics and any external interferences, performed multilevel models to verify whether the phenotypic associations were remained level between the pairs of twins and the families in which they lived.
In particular, correlations were observed between occasional cannabis use, once a week, and exercise, heart rate and loss of appetite.
The search results
The study revealed that, at the phenotypic level, adolescent cannabis use was associated with less adult engagement in physical exercise (b = - 0.846 min, p = .000). Adult cannabis use was associated with lower resting heart rate (HR; b = - 0.170 bpm, p = .001) and more frequent loss of appetite (b = 0.018, p = .000).
In conclusion, the researchers explain, the associations between cannabis consumption and commitment to physical exercise and the frequency of appetite loss are attributable to family condition, while the association between cannabis use and resting heart rate was not.
"These results they don't support a causal association between once-weekly cannabis use and adverse physical health effects"
