Smoking marijuana is not healthy.
Recent research has shown that long-term marijuana use is related to gum disease. A team of researchers from the Arizona State University observed 1,037 New Zealanders during a study.
Scientists analyzed the participants’ behavior from birth to 38 years old to see how their habits would influence their physical health, including dental health, blood sugar, body weight, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, systemic inflammation and lung function.
The results showed that the long-term use of marijuana may severely affect dental health. In other words, the participants who smoked weed suffered from gum disease. Plus, researchers learned that pot smokers did not floss and brush their teeth regularly. Still, even after improving dental hygiene, the heavy use of marijuana continued damaging gums and teeth.
Scientists believe that marijuana might have a good effect if you do not smoke it, such as improving glucose control, better lipid profiles, lower body mass index and a smaller waist circumference. Nevertheless, these benefits were discovered only in a small study, making them not relevant enough to be taken into consideration in treatments regarding weight management strategy.
The study also found that the use of tobacco was linked to worse periodontal health, health decline from ages of 26 to 38 years, glucose levels in early life, systemic inflammation, and lung function. A heavy marijuana user may smoke several joints during a day whereas a heavy tobacco user might smoke at least one pack of cigarettes a day.
Besides addiction, the situation looks bad in both cases because marijuana affects the state of mind of the user (the most popular reason why people smoke it), while cigarette users damage their health on a much faster rate.
Furthermore, other studies have shown that long-term use of marijuana is associated with cardiovascular health, diabetes, and sexual dysfunction. Researchers observed the participants’ health condition throughout 20 years to determine the risk of marijuana heavy use.
Periodontal disease is known to damage the gums and the teeth leading to other severe consequences in time. Furthermore, even if most of the marijuana users don’t want to admit, smoking weed is still a form of addiction, one which in time might severely damage your health.
Image Source:Msnbc
