Hashish use might include an sudden value: an almost fourfold rise in diabetes danger.
The discovering, drawn from tens of millions of well being data, challenges assumptions concerning the drug’s results and underscores the necessity for nearer medical monitoring.
Hashish Use and Diabetes Danger
Hashish use has been related to almost a fourfold improve within the probability of growing diabetes, in line with an evaluation of well being information from greater than 4 million adults. The findings are being introduced at this yr’s Annual Assembly of The European Affiliation for the Research of Diabetes (EASD) in Vienna, Austria.
Worldwide, cannabis use continues to rise, with an estimated 219 million people (4.3% of the global adult population) reported as users in 2021. Despite widespread consumption, the long-term effects of this on metabolism remain poorly understood. Some earlier research has suggested potential benefits, including anti-inflammatory properties and support for weight management. Others, however, have pointed to concerns about how cannabis might affect glucose regulation and insulin resistance, and the scale of the potential diabetes risk has remained uncertain.
Large-Scale Real-World Data Analysis
To provide stronger evidence, Dr. Ibrahim Kamel of Boston Medical Center in Massachusetts, USA, and his team reviewed electronic health records collected from 54 healthcare institutions within the TriNetX Research Network, which includes sites across the USA and Europe. Their analysis identified 96,795 outpatients (aged 18 to 50 years, 52.5% female) with cannabis-related diagnoses between 2010 and 2018. These diagnoses ranged from occasional use to dependence and also included cases involving intoxication or withdrawal.
For comparison, the researchers matched this group with 4,160,998 individuals with no history of substance use or major chronic disease, aligning them by age, sex, and baseline health conditions. All participants were then tracked over a five-year period.
Nearly Fourfold Risk After Adjustments
After controlling HDL and LDL cholesterol, uncontrolled high blood pressure, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, cocaine use, alcohol use and several other lifestyle risk factors, the researchers found that new cases of diabetes were significantly higher in the cannabis group (1,937; 2.2%) compared to the healthy group (518; 0.6%), with statistical analysis showing cannabis users at nearly four times the risk of developing diabetes compared to non-users.
While the authors note that more research is needed to fully explain the association between cannabis and diabetes, it may come down to insulin resistance and unhealthy dietary behaviors. Nevertheless, the study’s results have immediate implications for metabolic monitoring practices and public health messaging.
Public Health Implications and Warnings
“As cannabis becomes more widely available and socially accepted, and legalized in various jurisdictions, it is essential to understand its potential health risks,” said lead author Dr. Kamel. “These new sights from reliable real-world evidence highlight the importance of integrating diabetes risk awareness into substance use disorder treatment and counseling, as well as the need for healthcare professionals to routinely talk to patients about cannabis use so that they can understand their overall diabetes risk and potential need for metabolic monitoring.”
Unanswered Questions and Study Limitations
The authors note that more research is needed on the long-term endocrine effects of cannabis use and whether diabetes risks are limited to inhaled products or other forms of cannabis, such as edibles.
Despite the important findings, this is a retrospective study and cannot prove that cannabis use causes diabetes, and the authors cannot rule out the possibility that other unmeasured factors may have influenced the results despite efforts to reduce confounding bias via propensity score matching. This study has limitations due to a lack of detailed cannabis consumption data and potential misclassification. The authors acknowledge that inherent limitations of real-world data often result from inconsistent patient reporting in electronic medical records. They also note that there is a risk of bias because of imprecise measures of cannabis exposure and the reliance on participants to accurately report any cannabis use, even when they lived in places where the drug is illegal.
Meeting: Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD)
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