• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
Weed smokers more likely to get lung disease than cigarette smokers, new study finds

Home> News

Updated 08:38 16 Nov 2022 GMTPublished 08:27 16 Nov 2022 GMT

Weed smokers more likely to get lung disease than cigarette smokers, new study finds

A new study from the University of Ottawa in Canada found that marijuana smokers are at an increased risk of developing lung disease

Jess Hardiman

Jess Hardiman

Weed smokers are more likely to get lung disease than cigarette smokers, a new study has found.

The negative effects of smoking are fairly well-documented these days, but the difference between weed and tobacco continues to be hotly debated.

While some users believe smoking weed is better for you than tobacco, various researchers have found evidence to suggest it is still incredibly harmful to your body.

Advert

In fact, in some instances it may even be more harmful - with a new study from the University of Ottawa in Canada finding that those who smoke marijuana are at an increased risk of developing lung disease than those who smoke tobacco cigarettes.

The research, which was recently published in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), saw researchers compare chest CT scan results from 56 marijuana smokers with those of 57 non-smoking controls and 33 tobacco-only smokers.

Scientists compared CT scan results of marijuana smokers with those of tobacco smokers and non-smokers.
GanjaFoto/Alamy Stock Photo

They found that three-quarters of the marijuana smokers had emphysema - a lung disease that causes issues with breathing including shortness of breath - compared with 67 percent of the tobacco-only smokers.

The predominant sub-type of the disease in marijuana smokers compared to the tobacco-only group was paraseptal emphysema, which damages the small ducts that connect to the air sacs in the lungs (alveoli) over time.

Advert

Meanwhile, just five percent of the non-smokers were found to have emphysema.

Study author Giselle Revah, MD, a cardiothoracic radiologist and assistant professor at the University of Ottawa, said: "We know what cigarettes do to the lungs.

"There are well researched and established findings of cigarette smoking on the lungs. Marijuana we know very little about."

Pulmonary emphysema in marijuana smokers (A, B) and tobacco smokers (C, D).
University of Ottawa

The team also found that airway inflammation was more common among marijuana smokers than in those who smoked tobacco or nothing at all, while gynecomastia - the term for enlarged male breast tissue caused by hormone imbalance – was found in 38 percent of marijuana smokers, compared with 11 percent of tobacco-only smokers.

Advert

Revah said: "The fact that our marijuana smokers - some of whom also smoked tobacco - had additional findings of airway inflammation/chronic bronchitis suggests that marijuana has additional synergistic effects on the lungs above tobacco.

"In addition, our results were still significant when we compared the non-age-matched groups, including younger patients who smoked marijuana and who presumably had less lifetime exposure to cigarette smoke."

She added: "It has been suggested that smoking a marijuana joint deposits four times more particulates in the lung than an average tobacco cigarette.

"These particulates are likely airway irritants."

Marijuana plants.
Wiskerke/Alamy Stock Photo

Advert

In their conclusion, the authors explained that airway inflammation and emphysema were ‘more common in marijuana smokers than in nonsmokers and tobacco-only smokers’, but added that ‘variable interobserver agreement and concomitant cigarette smoking among the marijuana-smoking cohort’ limits their ability to draw any strong conclusions.

Indeed, Revah said more research is needed, with larger groups of people able to provide more data on how much and how often people are smoking.

And further work could also examine the effects of various inhalation techniques, such as in a joint, a pipe or through a bong.

Revah added: "It would be interesting to see if the inhalation method makes a difference.”

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock

Topics: Drugs, News, World News, Health

Jess Hardiman
Jess Hardiman

Jess is Entertainment Desk Lead at LADbible Group. She graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Film Studies, English Language and Linguistics. You can contact Jess at [email protected].

X

@Jess_Hardiman

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

16 mins ago
2 hours ago
3 hours ago
  • 16 mins ago

    Judge rules Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs will remain behind bars as bail is denied

    The hip hop producer has been in federal detention since September 2024

    News

    breaking

  • 2 hours ago

    Met Police advice on 'sextortion' after boy, 14, dies after thinking he was flirting with woman online

    The teenager ended his life after being blackmailed over intimate images he'd sent online

    News
  • 2 hours ago

    Doctors make shocking discovery after toddler hospitalised with stomach pains

    Madeline Dunne's son was rushed to the hospital for a near-fatal reason

    News
  • 3 hours ago

    Murder suspect Bryan Kohberger pleads guilty to killing four Idaho students to avoid death penalty

    The four University of Idaho students were killed in November 2022

    News

    breaking

  • Expert warns deadlier variant of mpox disease is likely already in the country
  • Dentist issues health warning to anyone using 'more addictive than vaping' snus pouches
  • Incredible way man 'cheated death' after getting lost at sea for more than 400 days
  • Dyatlov Pass mystery in which nine people died 'solved' after more than 60 years