Does Marijuana Carry Serious Underestimated Risks?

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - April 14, 2021 - PRLog -- Marijuana is rapidly growing in popularity. Touted as a natural health aid and riding the waves of legalization, cannabis has also become a darling of investors and growers.

However, this now often-legal herb carries with it a host of risks of which many potential users are unaware. Three clinicians, physicians David DeRose and Greg Steinke, along with Nurse Practitioner Trudie Li highlighted some of these risks in their best-selling book, Thirty Days to Natural Blood Pressure Control. The authors point to marijuana's adverse BP effects with short-term using raising both pulse and blood pressure. Furthermore, when habitual users break free from cannabis, their blood pressures can soar over 20 points during the withdrawal process.

Perhaps marijuana's most worrisome effects are those impacting mental health and performance. David DeRose, MD, MPH recently shed light on these concerns with the release of a new video featuring Steven T. Ginsburg. In that video Ginsburg, founder of Restore Detox Centers and author of the autobiographical, Filling the Void, shares a firsthand account of marijuana's deceptive power, explaining how it laid the foundation for a lifelong battle with addiction. His personal story provides another dimension to the mental health toll that marijuana can exact. All of this adds poignantly to the list of cannabis side-effects that were documented in DeRose's earlier blood pressure book:

* Decreased attention span
* Adverse effects on decision making
* Impairment in complex reasoning
* Memory impairment linked to the wasting of key brain regions like the hippocampus
* Increased risks of depression and suicidality
* Apathy and decreased motivation

The video interview with Steven T. Ginsburg can be found at https://youtu.be/iX5ODRkSZRk. It is adapted from a full one-hour "American Indian and Alaska Native Living Radio" episode that is available at www.AIANL.org.