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No Link Found Between Marijuana Use, Kidney Function

Researchers compared current and past marijuana use to never users

THURSDAY, March 8, 2018 (HealthDay News) — There are no significant associations between current or past self-reported marijuana use and measures of kidney function, according to a study published recently in the American Journal of Medicine.

Chang Lu, from Harvard University in Boston, and colleagues assessed data from 13,995 U.S. adults (aged 18 to 59 years) participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2007 to 2014) in order to assess the association between recent and past marijuana use and renal function.

The researchers found that among 6,483 never users, 5,499 past users, and 2,013 current users, there was no significant association between marijuana use and serum creatinine, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), or odds of having stage 2 or greater chronic kidney disease. Although not statistically significant, there was an increasing trend with serum creatinine and eGFR when comparing past and current users with never users. Findings were similar when the analysis was restricted to people without cardiovascular disease.

“We did not observe any clinically significant association between current or past self-reported marijuana use and measures of kidney function,” the authors write. “This is relevant and somewhat reassuring given the expanding number of states that have approved medical and recreational use of marijuana.”

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