Health Care

In 1900, a former schoolteacher named Carrie Nation walked into a bar in Kiowa, Kansas, proclaimed, “Men, I have come to save you from a drunkard’s fate,” and proceeded to hurl bricks and stones at bottles of liquor. The men, interested less in spiritual salvation and more in physical safety, fled to a corner. Nation destroyed three saloons that day, using a billiard ball when she ran out of bricks and rocks, which she called “smashers.” She eventually—and famously—switched to a hatchet, using it across years of attacks on what she considered to be the cause of society’s moral failings. The movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries—which eventually brought about Prohibition—considered alcohol to be unhealthy for women, families, and the general state of humanity.

In modern times, the Dry January challenge began in 2012 as a public health initiative. Dry January is choosing not to drink beer, wine, or spirits for one month. In a 2025 article for The Atlantic Shayla Love writes that younger generations are staying away from the booze at higher rates than previous generations, sparking the rise of a neo-temperance movement. This new drop in alcohol consumption is not about the moral tragedies of drinking (alcoholism or drunk driving), but self-improvement and wellness:

Today’s sober-curious post on Instagram about how Dry January has reduced their inflammation, sharpened their jawline, and improved their sleep score. The sanctity of the home, or the overall moral health of society — not to mention the 37 Americans who die in drunk-driving crashes every day — appears to be less of a concern […]

In a 2020 Gallup poll, 86 percent of respondents said that drinking alcohol was morally acceptable, an increase from 78 percent in 2018. By contrast, more than half of young adults surveyed in 2023 expressed concerns about the health risks of moderate drinking.

In a story that moved even seasoned doctors to tears, a young girl named Pari inspired what her neurologist calls a “sort of miracle” after her father suffered a devastating stroke. Shared by Dr. Sudhir Kumar of Apollo Hospitals in India, the story has touched hearts around the world.

When her father was hospitalized, paralyzed and unable to speak, Pari arrived with a cracked, faded pink piggy bank—her most treasured possession—and offered its contents to the doctors. “I have saved a lot of coins in this,” she said, her voice steady despite her tears. “You can use all of them to make Papa speak again.”

Moved by her love, the medical team enrolled her father in an intensive rehabilitation program that included Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT), which uses music and melody to help restore language. Slowly, with the help of Kishore Kumar’s classic Hindi songs—favorites he once sang with his daughter—faint hums gave way to broken words.

Each day, Pari visited the hospital, sitting by his side, reminding him of their cherished game of antakshari, a common Indian parlor game where people sing with and to one another. One song in particular became their bridge through the silence: “Rona kabhi nahi rona, chahe toot jaye khilona” (“Never cry, even if your toy breaks”). Though he couldn’t yet converse, his hums were filled with affection and hope.

Then, three months later, the miracle arrived. Pari walked into the outpatient department—this time with her father beside her. He stood tall, smiling. And then, with clear words and joy in his voice, he said, “Pari, let’s play antakshari.”

It was a moment no one in the room would forget. A father reclaimed from silence. A daughter’s love, translated into healing. For these two, in this moment, their love was the most effective treatment.

Possible Preaching Angle:

God can use the smallest acts of love and faith to bring about mighty healing and restoration.

Research suggests that when we make acts of kindness a habit, it's also good for our health. Whether it's volunteering at a local food bank, or taking soup to a sick neighbor, there's lots of evidence that when we help others, it can boost our own happiness and psychological well-being. But there's also growing research that it boosts our physical health too, says Tara Gruenewald, a psychologist at Chapman University.

Perhaps the most striking evidence comes from the Baltimore Experience Corps trial, a large experiment in which adults age 60 and older were randomly assigned to either volunteer at elementary schools or be put on a waiting list. The volunteers spent at least 15 hours a week tutoring underprivileged kids. After two years, the researchers found that the volunteers had measurable changes in their brain health.

One of the researchers said, "They didn't experience declines in memory and executive function like we saw in our control participants. And there were even changes in brain volume in areas of the brain that support these different cognitive processes.” Volunteers were also more physically active, "which is important for maintaining both cognitive and physical health as folks age.”

Another researcher added, "Volunteering or doing an act of kindness can distract you from some of the problems that you might be having, so you might be a little bit less reactive yourself. And "it may help to give you more perspective on what your own problems are." Also, when you go out to help others, it also makes you more physically active and less lonely. Social isolation is a known risk factor for physical and mental health problems, especially as we age.

At the very least, volunteering will make the world a little bit better place for many others. And we might just make it a little bit better for ourselves.

“Is Everyone Getting High?” That’s the title of a recent article in The New York Times. The article observes:

The old distinction between medical and recreational drugs is breaking down… It’s becoming impossible to count all the options we have these days for altering our consciousness with chemicals and plants. You can buy ketamine from club drug dealers on your phone, or by mail from online medical clinics to treat depression. Alongside vapes and gummies, C.B.D. dispensaries sell kratom, an herbal stimulant that some people use to boost work productivity and others to detox from opioids. Cannabis sellers may or may not be legally licensed, and may also sell psychedelic mushrooms. Some people source their Xanax or Adderall from sites on the dark web, others from a physician. Those seeking an alternative to coffee can head to a kava bar to sip an herbal narcotic long used in traditional Polynesian medicine.

And almost anyone get the drugs from easy sources. The article continued:

Today, drugs no longer need to be scored in wraps or baggies from sketchy neighborhoods; they can be ordered online through anonymous browsers and appear in your mailbox in professionally labeled packages. You don’t need to buy your college roommate’s Valium; you can buy it with your smartphone and a cryptocurrency app.

When it comes to the ultimate test of devotion, fewer than half of Americans would give a piece of themselves to save someone they care about. A revealing new survey has found that just 39% of Americans would be willing to donate an organ to family or friends—a striking discovery that sheds light on where people draw the boundary of personal sacrifice.

The study of 2,000 U.S. adults, explored various dimensions of loyalty in both personal relationships and consumer behavior. While organ donation may be a step too far for many, Americans demonstrate commitment in other meaningful ways.

More than half (53%) would endure waiting in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles for someone they care about. Additionally, 62% would put their reputation on the line by acting as a reference for a loved one’s apartment or job application.

Perhaps the most revealing statistic is how Americans would handle unexpected good fortune. An overwhelming 82% said they would share a windfall of $100,000 with family and friends—indicating that while many might hesitate to share their kidneys, they’re quite willing to share their cash.

Possible Preaching Angle:

1) Selfishness; Self-centeredness – It is amazing how selfish people are becoming when called to make a very personal sacrifice for their very “flesh and blood” relatives; 2) Christ, sacrifice of – This also highlights the amazing sacrifice Jesus made for his “brothers and sisters” when he said “Take and eat. This is my body” (Matt. 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 11:24) and “he himself bore our sins in His body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24).

Harvard geneticist David Sinclair’s business pitch has remained largely the same: Aging can be slowed or reversed, and we are about to figure out how.

“A lot of my colleagues dislike that phrase, the reversibility of aging,” he told a roomful of longevity investors. “But I truly believe that, based on my lab’s research and now others, that aging can be reversed. If I can make one medicine that would change people’s lives, I’d be very happy.” Sinclair also has co-founded companies that sell directly to consumers products such as supplements and tests that purport to show one’s “biological age.” He has also helped raise more than $1 billion.

But according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the investors have almost nothing to show for it. Four companies trying to develop longevity drugs have gone bankrupt or largely halted operations. Another four either haven’t yet tested their drugs or gene therapies in humans or have run only small-scale trials that make it difficult to know whether a drug will work.

Sinclair has drawn criticism from fellow scientists, who say he exaggerates the findings and implications of age-related research. The board of the Academy for Health and Lifespan Research, a group Sinclair co-founded and led, asked him to resign as president earlier this year after he was quoted as saying a dog chew sold by a company he co-founded reversed aging in dogs.

Possible Preaching Angles:

It looks like we’re still living in the reality of the Fall, that human beings will age, grow old, and eventually die. We are still mortal!

A father's alcohol consumption has long been overshadowed by the focus on what a mother drinks. But that could be about to change following more research.

For more than 50 years, scientists have warned about the risks of drinking alcohol in pregnancy. Recent research has found that a mother's consumption of as little as one drink a week may affect a child's brain development, cognitive function and behavior, and facial shape. For decades, public health campaigns have repeatedly said that there's no safe amount of alcohol for moms to drink while pregnant.

But as the risks of maternal alcohol consumption have become better documented, another potential contributing factor to FASD (fetal alcohol spectrum disorder) has remained largely overlooked: how much the father drinks.

Researcher Michael Golding at Texas A&M University studies alcohol exposure and fetal development. He said, "For years now, we've been hearing stories from women who said, 'I never drank during pregnancy, but now I have an FAS kid – and my male partner was a chronic alcohol abuser." But such stories often were dismissed as mothers being forgetful, if not outright lying.

However, recent research raises an intriguing possibility: these mothers were right all along. The idea that a father's alcohol consumption before conception could have an impact on the offspring may seem far-fetched. But recent population studies have found that babies whose fathers drank are at a higher risk for various poor health outcomes.

Based on the research so far, how much alcohol is "safe" for a father to drink if he knows his partner may conceive? We don't have that data. Still, he says, "If it were my sons, I would tell them to stop drinking altogether."

While the exact impact of paternal drinking has yet to be teased out, researchers agree on one thing. “There's this enormous burden that's been placed on women. But male health is important to fetal development. There is a responsibility of both parties here to support and provide for the health of the baby.”

In August of 2024, the outgoing U.S. surgeon general had a warning: Parenting can be harmful to your mental health. An advisory issued by Dr. Vivek Murthy, the nation’s doctor, said parents in particular are under dangerous levels of stress.

The report cites the American Psychological Association, saying nearly half of parents report overwhelming stress most days, compared with 26% of other adults. They’re lonelier, too, according to cited data from health insurer Cigna. In a 2021 survey, 65% of parents said they were lonely, compared with 55% of those without kids.

But who isn’t feeling that way? Elderly people are lonely and stressed. Single men are lonely and stressed. College students are lonely and stressed. Gen X moms are lonely and stressed. There’s an epidemic of loneliness and stress in this country and it’s bad for our mental and physical health, which Murthy pointed out in a previous advisory.

Murthy isn’t suggesting people quit having children. “There are so many joys and benefits that can come with parenting,” he said. “They can coexist with the stress parents feel.”

Instead, he’s issuing a call to action for anyone—especially lawmakers and bosses—with the power to lessen the load on parents. That load has grown heavier with the rising cost of child care, longer working hours and new threats, from school shootings to social media.

The longevity business is booming. People are flocking to longevity meetings and taking compounds they hope will extend their lives. Investors are backing scientists researching techniques to reprogram cells to a younger state. Longevity influencers argue that if they can live long enough, scientific breakthroughs will keep them going indefinitely. “We are going to start to understand how to rejuvenate and revitalize ourselves. This is what science does,” said Dr. Peter Diamandis, a 63-year-old entrepreneur who runs longevity trips for investors.

But S. Jay Olshansky, who studies the upper bounds of human longevity at the University of Illinois Chicago, believes people shouldn’t expect to live to 100. He contends most will reach between 65-90. Olshansky said, “It’s basic biology. As people grow older, their cells and tissues accumulate damage. Breakdowns of one kind or another happen more frequently and get increasingly difficult to repair.”

Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan explained the many reasons in his book, Why We Die. He doesn’t believe current interventions will dramatically extend lifespan. Techniques to reverse aging would have to help every system in the body, including the brain, over a long period.

Pro-life advocates saw the 2022 Supreme Court’s decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization as a turning point in the fight against abortion in the United States. After the court overturned Roe v. Wade and removed federal protection for the procedure, some conservative states began introducing fetal personhood laws, granting the unborn the same rights as full-born children.

But Hannah Strege watched it all unfold with another vulnerable group in mind: frozen embryos. In this new era, would they have rights? If they did, would anyone respect them?

Strege, 24, was conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF) in 1996 and frozen for two years. In 1997, she and 19 of her siblings were adopted in embryo form by John and Marlene Strege. They were shipped by FedEx to a local fertility clinic. Hannah was the only embryo to survive thawing and to successfully implant in Marlene’s uterus. She was born in December 1998.

Since Hannah was born, the number of frozen embryos sitting in storage in the United States has risen from roughly 100,000 to an estimated 1.5 million. Many of these embryos remain from IVF treatments, indefinitely chilled in canisters of liquid nitrogen with no plans for their future.

Some clinics feel overwhelmed by the growing volume of embryos sitting in storage and doctors may create dozens of embryos per patient. One doctor told NBC News in 2019 that some patients have 40–60 eggs retrieved in a cycle, and “the embryologist gets the orders from her doctor to inseminate all of them—and the question isn’t asked if the patient even wants that many inseminated. … Nobody’s going to have 30 kids.”

One Florida reproductive endocrinologist said, “We were not prepared for any of this. Twenty-one percent of our embryos have been abandoned.”

How many times have you heard expectant couples say, "Well, as long as our baby is healthy"? John Knight from Desiring God ministries cautions, "'Healthy' exists on a spectrum of possibilities just like disability. And that spectrum is becoming narrower with every passing year." He points to an article about University of Washington scientists who were able to identify the DNA sequence of a fetus with 98 percent accuracy, and with safer techniques.

The article noted, "The accomplishment heralds an era in which parents might find it easier to know the complete DNA blueprint of a child months before it is born. That would allow thousands of genetic diseases to be detected prenatally." That means that more children with disabilities will be aborted.

But Knight also argues that many people will be tempted to order up "designer babies"—all fueled by "an increasingly idolatrous mindset that says I have the right and the responsibility to determine what is best for me — including the physical and/or developmental makeup of my children, or somebody else's children."

While booze has, for thousands of years now, been the most socially acceptable form of self-medication, its many health detriments have pushed some to seek alternatives: shrooms, weed, pharmaceuticals, kratom, or some other wellness industry offering.

But why not just skip the drugs? What’s so bad about sobriety? In an article in Vox, Rebecca Jennings notes: “The world is really tough. The world has only gotten more anxiety-inducing and more challenging over the past decade or so. People are looking to numb out, they want to medicate their anxiety.”

But Jennings concludes with some startling observations about the movement, ones that point well beyond alcohol replacements:

There’s a dream that basically everyone in the world shares. It’s the dream of an alcohol that isn’t quite alcohol but almost is — a substance that will make you feel free and happy and sexy and chatty but also won’t get you addicted, won’t shave years off your life, won’t make you groggy and achy and anxious the next day. It’s the dream of a substance from which taking an entire month off as part of an annual challenge would be laughably absurd because why would anyone ever need a break from it?

Possible Preaching Angle:

If this sounds like the search for utopia, you’d be right. For her part, Jennings is deeply skeptical this utopia is ever possible: “Such a substance could never be more than fantasy because of course human beings would find a way to render it destructive.” But for Christians there is the always available, always effective promises of God (Psa. 23:1-3; Phil. 4:6-7).

The dining room is the closest thing the American home has to an appendix—a dispensable feature that served some more important function at an earlier stage of architectural evolution. Many of them sit gathering dust, patiently awaiting the next “dinner holiday” on Easter or Thanksgiving.

That’s why the classic, walled-off dining room is getting harder to find in new single-family houses. It won’t be missed by many. Americans now tend to eat in spaces that double as kitchens or living rooms—a small price to pay for making the most of their square footage.

But in many new apartments, even a space to put a table and chairs is absent. Eating is relegated to couches and bedrooms, and hosting a meal has become virtually impossible. The housing crisis is killing off places to eat whether we like it or not, designing loneliness into American floor plans.

According to surveys in 2015 and 2016 by the National Association of Home Builders, 86 percent of households want a combined kitchen and dining room—a preference accommodated by only 75 percent of new homes. If anything, the classic dining room isn’t dying fast enough for most people’s taste.

If dining space is merging with other rooms in single-family homes, it’s vanishing altogether from newly constructed apartments. Americans might not mind what’s happening to their houses, but the evolution of apartments is a more complicated story.

Floor-plan expert Bobby Fijan said “For the most part, apartments are built for Netflix and chill.” Even though we’re dining at home more and more—going to restaurants peaked in 2000—many new apartments offer only a kitchen island as an obvious place to eat.

This is partly a response to shrinking household size. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the share of one-person households more than tripled from 1940 to 2020. A dedicated dining space might feel wasted on someone who lives alone.

As households and dining spaces have contracted, the number of people eating alone has grown. According to a 2015 report by the Food Marketing Institute, nearly half the time we spend eating is spent in isolation, a central factor in America’s loneliness epidemic and a correlate to a range of physical- and mental-health problems.

Possible Preaching Angle:

In an age when Americans are spending less and less time with one another, a table and some chairs could be just what we need for fellowship and human interaction. Make an effort to invite people over, especially during the holiday season, and especially those who live alone.

Stephen Steele writes about sculptor Gillian Genser who was experiencing headaches, vomiting, hearing loss, confusion, and suicidal thoughts. For years, doctors were baffled by what was afflicting her. They asked if she was working with anything toxic, and she assured them she wasn’t. She told them that she only worked with natural materials. They prescribed antipsychotics and antidepressants, but nothing seemed to help.

Finally, she saw a specialist who tested her blood for heavy metals and found high levels of arsenic and lead in her system. She was shocked, but still confused—how had she ingested those dangerous compounds? Finally, she talked to one doctor who was horrified to hear that she had been grinding up mussel shells for the past fifteen years to use in her sculpture. She had no idea that mussels can accumulate toxins over years of feeding in polluted waters.

The most fascinating thing about the story is who the sculpture was meant to be. It was Adam, the first man. Genser recognized the irony herself. She said: “It’s very interesting and ironic that Adam, as the first man, was so toxic. He poisoned me. Doesn’t that make sense?”

Steele comments,

And it makes perfect sense, because that is what Adam, the first man, did to all of us. He poisoned us. He rebelled against God – and we are contaminated by that rebellion. The message of the Bible, however, is that a second Adam – Jesus Christ – has come to cleanse us from this in-built corruption, as well as the other poisonous thoughts, words, and deeds we add to it during our lives. It doesn’t mean those who trust him will be perfect. Like Gesner, we will suffer the effects of Adam’s poison for the rest of our lives – but it will no longer define us forever.

Anger is bad for your health in more ways than you think. Getting angry doesn’t just hurt our mental health, it’s also damaging to our hearts, brains, and gastrointestinal systems, according to doctors and research.

For instance, one study in the Journal of the American Heart Association looked at anger’s effects on the heart. It found that anger can raise the risk of heart attacks because it impairs the functioning of blood vessels.

Researchers examined the impact of three different emotions on the heart: anger, anxiety, and sadness. One participant group did a task that made them angry, another did a task that made them anxious, while a third did an exercise designed to induce sadness.

The scientists then tested the functioning of the blood vessels in each participant, using a blood pressure cuff to squeeze and release the blood flow in the arm. Those in the angry group had worse blood flow than those in the others; their blood vessels didn’t dilate as much.

The lead author of the study said, “We speculate over time if you’re getting these chronic insults to your arteries because you get angry a lot, that will leave you at risk for having heart disease.”

Suffering and struggles can open the door to discovering true meaning in life. This is what Celine Dion learned after her diagnosis with Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS).

When Dion first discovered her diagnosis, it was a devastating blow. The rare condition, characterized by severe muscle spasms and rigidity, began to take over her life, causing both physical pain and emotional distress. Most significantly, the disease affected her vocal cords. Dion, who is passionate about performing, was forced to cancel performances and take a step back from the public eye, which added to her sense of isolation.

Despite the physical and emotional toll of the illness, she found new purpose in her journey. Dion shared:

No one should suffer alone. A lot of people are going through things alone for many, many, many years. If I would have just stayed secretly behind, my home would have become a prison, and I would have become a prisoner of my own life. Today I live one day at a time. The fact that I found the strength to communicate my condition with the world makes me very proud. Maybe my purpose in this life is to help others, and that is the greatest gift.

There is a reason God gave us the Sabbath rest. We need it. We were not created to work seven days a week. Yet, that is where we are headed as a culture, especially since COVID-19, and this is not a good thing.

Technology tethers us to our work through smartphones and “productivity” apps such as Slack and Teams. The majority of workers regularly check their email on their smartphones, which never leave their side, even after work hours or on vacation. The rise in remote work means work and family spheres are no longer separate, blurring the boundaries between work and home. Or as Andrew Barnes, cofounder of 4 Day Week Global, said, “We’re not working from home, we’re sleeping in the office.” This is our new world of work.

Our relationship with work is becoming increasingly unhealthy. Levels of burnout and stress are at all-time highs. Even before the pandemic, the World Health Organization called stress the “health epidemic of the 21st century.” What is a major source of that stress? Our jobs.

COVID-19 exacerbated this problem. During the pandemic, workdays became longer—in the United States, the average workday is now three hours longer; and in the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and Spain, it’s two hours longer. But more than that, we have gotten used to working outside traditional work hours.

Using cannabis can have a profound effect on one’s mental health. Canadian researchers have found that those who consistently use cannabis are more likely to develop an anxiety disorder, which could potentially impact millions of people. With cannabis now the third most commonly used drug globally, after alcohol and nicotine, understanding its effects on mental health has never been more critical.

The study spanned over a decade (2008 to 2019) and included over 12 million participants, making it one of the most comprehensive analyses of its kind. Researchers specifically looked at those who had emergency department (ED) visits due to cannabis use and tracked subsequent healthcare visits for anxiety disorders, comparing them to the general population.

Researchers say the findings were striking. Within three years of an ED visit for cannabis use, 12.3% of these individuals needed a healthcare visit for an anxiety disorder, a rate 3.7 times higher than the general population. When broadening the criteria to include outpatient visits, the rate jumped to 23.6%, nearly four times the general population’s rate. This elevated risk was consistent across all groups (including age and gender) but was notably higher in young males.

Study lead author Dr. Daniel Myran said, “Our results suggest that individuals requiring emergency department treatment for cannabis use were both at substantially increased risk of developing a new anxiety disorder and experiencing worsening symptoms for already existing anxiety disorders.”

This study’s scale and depth provide strong evidence of a significant association between cannabis-related emergency visits and subsequent anxiety disorders. This is particularly concerning given the global rise in cannabis use and potency. With countries moving towards legalization and commercialization, the potential for increased cannabis use and associated harms, including anxiety disorders, is a pressing concern.

Keisha House is a nurse practitioner and assistant director of the Substance Use Disorder Center of Excellence at Rush University Medical Center. House spent an afternoon training a bunch of aspiring professionals in the skills of preventing death from opioid overdose. These included recognizing signs of substance abuse and administering doses of Naloxone, the generic name for Narcan, an agent that can reverse the effects of an overdose.

These would be absolutely essential skills for any healthcare professional to learn, but House’s clients that day were not nurses or doctors. Rather, they were a group of barbers.

“You all are our eyes and ears, in the barbershop,” House told her audience at Larry’s Barber College in the Washington Park neighborhood of Chicago. House stressed to them that their relationship with local clientele made them invaluable partners in the ongoing quest to reduce and eventually eliminate drug overdoses within the black community.

House stressed the importance of learning the visual signs of overdose, because they’re not always consistent with the ways that such overdoses are portrayed in media. Symptoms can include unresponsiveness, constricted pupils, a limp body, and breathing that slows or stops. In 2018, studies showed that opioid overdoses happened all over the city, but the most deaths were clustered in the mostly black and brown neighborhoods.

Health improvement advocates say that Rush’s outreach to barbershops and beauty shops was influenced by a 2017 Illinois law requiring hair stylists, barbers, and cosmetologists to receive domestic violence and sexual assault awareness training. “In the beauty shop, barber shop, it’s a safe haven,” House said. “If we increase the knowledge, the training, the awareness … we’re able to promote positive health behaviors among their customers, where they feel safe.”

Laniah Davis was one of the barber students given free Narcan kits after the day’s presentation, and she’s feeling confident.

David said, “Now that we know this information, we’re able to save a life or two. If it was somebody in my family, I would want someone to help them. So, whether I know them or not … I would see myself jumping into action to do whatever it takes.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Just as these barbers were given authority to administer life-saving medicine, so are we authorized to act swiftly and boldly to rescue our neighbors from danger and to show God’s love in real-life situations.

Could normalizing marijuana use lead to a heart health crisis? A dire new study has found a significant association between cannabis use and an increased risk of heart attack and stroke among adults in the United States. This comprehensive analysis, which included data from 430,000 individuals, sheds new light on the potential cardiovascular dangers of cannabis.

Cannabis, also known as marijuana, remains illegal at the federal level in the U.S., yet 24 states and Washington, D.C. have legalized its recreational use. Its popularity has soared, with the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health reporting that 48.2 million people over the age of 12 used cannabis at least once that year, a significant rise from 25.8 million in 2002.

Lead study author Dr. Abra Jeffers says,

Despite common use, little is known about the risks of cannabis use and, in particular, the cardiovascular disease risks. The perceptions of the harmfulness of smoking cannabis are decreasing, and people have not considered cannabis use dangerous to their health. In addition, smoking cannabis — the predominant method of use — may pose additional risks because particulate matter is inhaled.

Researchers discovered that any form of cannabis use was associated with a higher number of adverse cardiovascular issues. Notably, the risk increased with the frequency of use. Daily cannabis users had a 25% higher chance of experiencing a heart attack compared to non-users, while their risk of stroke was 42% higher.

Particularly alarming was the finding that younger adults at risk for premature cardiovascular disease showed a 36% higher likelihood of suffering from coronary heart disease, heart attack, and stroke due to cannabis use.