Cannabis Consumers Less Likely To Suffer From Kidney Stones Per China Researchers
Kidney stones are not new to humans. In fact, references to kidney stones go as far back as ancient Mesopotamia, with references made in medical texts dating as far back as 3200 BC. Kidney stones involve the formation and occasional passage of crystal agglomerates in a person’s urinary tract.
The condition is associated with being a risk factor for other health conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, bone problems, and chronic kidney disease. Conversely, these conditions and others also serve as risk factors for developing kidney stones.
Men are more likely to develop kidney stones than women, with elderly men being the most likely to develop the condition. Researchers in China recently examined kidney stone rates among men who use cannabis versus those men who do not consume cannabis. Below is more information about it via a news release from NORML:
Sichuan, China: Men who consume cannabis are far less likely than non-users to experience kidney stones, according to data published in the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology.
A team of Chinese investigators assessed the relationship between cannabis use and kidney stones in a representative sample of over 14,000 US subjects between the ages of 20 and 59.
After adjusting for potential confounders, researchers reported that marijuana use among men was inversely correlated with kidney stones (OR = 0.72). Men who consumed cannabis most frequently experienced the lowest risk (OR = 0.62). Similar trends were not identified among females.
Authors concluded: “To our knowledge, this study is the first cross-sectional study to explore the association between marijuana use and the risk of kidney stones from the population-based NHANES [National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey] dataset. Taken together, our findings suggested that regular marijuana male users were related to a lower risk of kidney stones. Further studies are warranted to investigate the dose and type associations of marijuana with kidney stones.”
Full text of the study, “Association between marijuana use and kidney stones: A cross-sectional study of NHANES 2009 to 2018,” appears in Frontiers in Pharmacology.
