Your habits can affect your heart – and your healthDate: 3/4/2020 February may be considered heart–health month, but according to Dr. Quinn Pack, medical director of Cardiac Rehabilitation and Wellness at Baystate Medical Center, paying attention to how habits affect our health doesn’t end when we flip the calendar page.
Everyday practices such as vaping, recreational marajuana use and social drinking all have impacts on heart – and total health, according to Pack. If you missed his Feb. 23 Heart Disease Hot Topics lecture on the impact of these habits – part of Baystate’s annual February Heart and Vascular lecture series – here are some of the insights he shared with Reminder Publishing.
Vaping and your heart
Vaping – or electronic cigarette [e-cigarette] use – came to the forefront of public health earlier this year when there was a wave of serious lung-related illnesses tied to the smoking alternative reported nationwide, and in response, Gov. Charlie Baker imposed a three-month ban on the sale of all vaping products in the state.
Pack noted that this incident may be just the tip of the iceberg in vaping-related health issues.
“I would say there is still a lot that is unknown about e-cigarettes. They have been in the market for about a decade in various forms – JUUL – maybe 5 years,” Pack said, adding scientists are rapidly trying to understand the impact of this habit on health. “The fundamental problem is we don’t have long term outcomes; for example, if person one vapes and person two doesn’t – you come back 10 years later [and] person one dies of lung cancer and person two didn’t – we don’t have these studies,” he noted.
In the data scientists do have on e-cigarette use, Pack said “we see worsening artery function, we see emphysema – we see higher levels of lead and chromium and heavy metals – the same kind of carcinogens as [inhaled] cigarettes. We hope there is a reduced impact in the data, but to think an e-cigarette is harmless is foolish and unwise, it is not what current data is pointing to, [there are] effects on asthma and [impacts] pointing to blood pressure and artery health.”
Beyond those health impacts, Pack advised that e-cigarette users “should definitely not vape a liquid that is not manufactured for your pen. Don’t mix your vape fluids [and] don’t vape marajuana,” as products containing THC were indicated in the acute pulmonary disease identified by the Centers for Disease Control earlier this year.
Marajuana use and your heart
As Massachusetts joins the growing number of states to legalize marajuana for recreational use, the impact of regular use on health is also coming under scrutiny.
“There has been the public perception that marajuana is harmless, but all the studies are showing an increased risk of heart attack and stroke,” Pack said, adding that existing studies show a 10-year increase in the risk for these conditions. However the extent of those effects, he added, are dependent upon the frequency of use, and how marajuana is consumed.
“Currently in America, 90 percent [of users] inhale marajuana,” Pack said. “I have much fewer problems with the edibles and the oils as far as heart and lung cases go.
“It’s the inhaled smoke, even a single joint per day,” he explained. “Someone who smokes daily, I consider it the same risk as cigarettes; someone who smokes fewer times, not as much [impact]. Scientists are working on this problem and I think we will have much better answers [on this] in 10 years.
“But I don’t think anyone should consider marajuana harmless when it comes to the risk of heart attack and stroke, particularly smoking marajuana,” Pack said.
Alcohol and your heart
Pack said the prevailing beliefs about the benefits of moderate alcohol consumption on heart health have recently come under scrutiny.
It may not be as good a habit as once thought.
“For years we have thought that alcohol when used in moderate dose – one drink day for women, two drinks a day for men – could be a cardio preventative or lead to reduced risk of heart disease,” Pack said. “That idea is now under hot examination and more than half of the community of scientists now think that is no longer [true], we do not think there is [a] viable benefit to your heart health to having moderate alcohol use.
“A study in The Lancet in 2018 indicated there is no safe level of alcohol consumption,” Pack noted.
He said there were some “major flaws” discovered in the epidemiology of the original alcohol use study that showed benefits. In addition, new research has discovered genetic markers that affect alcohol enjoyment among individuals. Those genetic markers, he said “makes it so people are less interested in drinking and people who drink less live longer – that’s pretty convincing evidence.”
Despite this new information, Pack said people should not panic about occasional alcohol consumption. He said that an occasional drink – or glass of wine – should be categorized like the once-in-a-while fast food meal or rich dessert.
“We all have a dessert or a hamburger or french fries – and we know we shouldn’t have fast food and high salt and dessert – we know it’s not healthy for us, but we enjoy them,” Pack said. “The dose response to poor nutrition is really small, but even unhealthy eating will catch up with everyone and I think it is exactly the same way with alcohol. So I think people don’t need to panic about this new data – or become 100 percent abstinent – but I think the idea to drink for your heart has been overturned.”
Know the risks and proceed wisely
Overall, Pack said any of these habits can have a quantifiable effect on a person’s health – in varying degrees.
“In terms of harm, smoking is by far the worse – even one cigarette a day – followed by daily marajuana use, followed by daily e-cigarette use, followed by occasional marajuana use – less than one time per week – followed by occasional alcohol use,” Pack said. “Finally smoking any kind of combustible – they need to think stroke.”
He added that the data on all these habits and health is evolving, with more outcomes expected in the near future.
“Stay tuned for an exciting decade of research in marajuana and e-cigarette use,” he said.
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