Topics: Alcohol, Health, Drugs, Mental Health
A brain doctor has lifted the lid on whether alcohol or weed is worse for your health.
A whopping 17 percent of Americans have confessed to smoking a joint at some point in their life as of 2023, which is a little less surprising when you consider 24 states legalized marijuana use for recreational use.
Yet even more of the population, at least 60 percent, drink alcohol, despite the well-documented impact it has on our health.
In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) says there is 'no level' of safe alcohol consumption, since it is a 'toxic, psychoactive and dependence-producing substance.'
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Not only that, but booze can cause at least seven types of cancer, including the most common cancer types like bowel cancer and breast cancer in women.
Meanwhile, the Cleveland Clinic finds weed, derived from the Cannabis sativa plant, has several short-term and long-term effects, though scientists are still studying just how harmful it can be.
In the short-term, it can make users feel nauseous, dizzy, disorientated, sleepy or ravenous with a serious case of the munchies.
Yet medical marijuana is also used to manage certain symptoms, providing chronic pain relief, stimulating the appetite and managing multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms.
So, with this in mind, you might be thinking alcohol is probably the worst of the pair.
Now, Dr Daniel Amen has set about examining the age-old question, and the results might surprise you.
"Now those of you who follow me know neither one are good for you," he stated as a disclaimer in his YouTube video. "And quite frankly there are more deaths every year from alcohol than there are marijuana.
"There's more domestic violence, there's more drunk driving accidents, there's more bad decisions, people ending up in jail."
However, he said in Amen Clinic's brain imaging study, they conducted a study where they 'evaluated 62,454 spec scans' and looked at 'how the brain ages' and what accelerated aging.
They found both marijuana and alcohol accelerated aging, and in that study, marijuana was surprisingly worse.
His insight comes as health experts have recently raised the alarm over increased hospital visits in connection with heavy weed smokers.
Emergency departments have treated patients with abdominal pain and severe or prolonged vomiting, with their common trait being they are chronic cannabis users.
The condition is known as cannabis hyperemesis syndrome (CHS), a disorder that triggers unpleasant symptoms such as nausea.
UW Medicine explains the gut condition usually occurs within 24 hours of the most recent use and can last for days, with chronic users experiencing symptoms for as many as three to four times per year.
