Study Says Cannabis Use Doesn’t Harm Kidneys

Study Says Cannabis Use Doesn’t Harm Kidneys

No, Cannabis Does Not Harm Your Kidneys New Study Debunks Rumor. from CannabisNet on Vimeo.

Kidney disease is the 9th leading cause of death in the United States. It’s estimated that around 31 million people have chronic kidney disease.

In fact, 9 in every 10 people already have stage 3 chronic kidney disease but don’t know it. It affects more women than men, although men with chronic kidney disease are 50% more prone to developing kidney failure or end-stage renal disease.

The leading causes of kidney failure include diabetes and high blood pressure.

A new study proves that cannabis use doesn’t harm the kidneys (and can even heal it, but more on that later on). The study, conducted by Harvard University’s School of Public Health and published in the American Journal of Medicine, looked at data from almost 14,000 adults between 18 and 59 years old throughout a 7-year period. The goal of the study was to determine is cannabis use helps or worsens kidney function.

“Our research provides some reassuring evidence suggesting that there is no detrimental effect or infrequent, relatively light use of marijuana on kidney function among healthy adults under age 60,” says Dr. Murray Mittleman, lead investigator and a professor of epidemiology. Mittleman and his team of researchers took data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2007 to 2014. The participants’ cannabis use were classified as: never used, past users, and current users. Almost 5,500 of those surveyed about their cannabis use reported to using cannabis at least once in their lives, although not in the last 30 days. Over 2,200 respondents said that they smoked cannabis at least once during the last 30 days.

The researchers analyzed the risk of the participants in developing stage 2, or worse chronic kidney disease, by assessing microalbuminaria levels or serum creatinine concentration. High levels of albuminaria are often the first symptom of kidney disease.

They found that there is no association between recent or past cannabis use, and increases in albumin. There was also no significant link between a history of cannabis use and the risk of developing kidney disease later on in life. The researchers did confirm that more research is needed on cannabis use and kidney health. The researchers also added that “our research does not address heavy users, the elderly, or those with pre-existing chronic kidney disease.” “Research is still needed to evaluate the impact of marijuana use in adults 60 and over, and among those with existing or at risk of developing kidney disease,” says Mittleman.

Why Cannabis Actually Helps Kidneys

Prohibitionists, and likely big pharma, pay big money to claim that cannabis use can harm the kidney.

However, studies such as this and others prove that cannabis can actually be beneficial for kidneys. A study conducted by the University of Calgary and University of Alberta show that both cannabidiol (CBD), and THC (tetrahydrocannabidiol), help patients with kidney disease. They found that patients whose kidney disease was in the advanced stages experienced significant improvements in their symptoms as well as the side effects of conventional treatment for kidney disease.

Cannabis use can reduce the risk for requiring kidney transplant surgery, which removes your damaged kidney and replaces it with a donated, healthy kidney. However, kidney replacement surgery comes with many risks of its own such as blood clots, bleeding, failure of the donated kidney, heart attack, strokes, cancer from an infection by the new kidney, and even death.

Cannabis can also help patients with chronic renal failure by providing relief from symptoms. The most common symptom for those with chronic renal disease are nausea, itching, pain, insomnia, and lack of appetite. These are conditions that cannabis has been proven to safely treat without any side effects.

Cannabis also makes an excellent alternative to opioid pain killers. Other pharmaceutical approaches to helping manage kidney disease are not tolerated well by patients because of existing kidney problems and potential toxicity from the medications. The numerous compounds in cannabis can offer kidney disease patients significant relief from symptoms while helping to improve in lung function. Eating cannabis edibles is an effective way of directly delivering healing cannabinoids to the stomach area, but kidney disease patients can also benefit from using tinctures, topical products, vaping, or the good old fashioned way of smoking it.