Contrary to Snoop Dogg’s advice, sometimes it’s not such a good idea to smoke weed every day. An Australian man was recently diagnosed with an extremely rare disease due to his daily use of cannabis, The Age reports.
The man in question, who is 26 years old and reportedly used up to one gram of cannabis every single day, went to the hospital after an ulcer on his big toe wouldn’t heal.
Apparently, the man’s affinity for a certain plant caused plaque to build up in an artery on his toe. Surgeon Dr. David Soon stated,
Cannabis usage can cause the periphery blood vessel to tighten up and therefore increasing the resistance, and therefore increasing the amount of plaque depositing around the arteries, and therefore eventually narrowing the artery.
Although this is a rare condition, this illness should be known and made aware to physicians around Australia.
Due to the increase in cannabis usage and the legalization of medicinal cannabis, awareness of this condition is important and may become a growing problem in the future.
The man now has the first known case of cannabis arteritis in Australia, highlighting how rare the condition is.
In some instances, the condition requires limb amputation. Fortunately, this won’t be necessary for this man, as he was treated with a balloon catheter and will also need to take aspirin for the rest of his life.
Marijuana is not typically linked to extreme health problems, and as US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy noted last year, there’s evidence it can actually be helpful for certain medical conditions.
This all goes to show that “everything in moderation” is definitely a rule we should all follow.