When you drink alcohol, an enzyme in your liver called alcohol dehydrogenase breaks that alcohol down into a compound called acetaldehyde. There is no machine like the dialysis machine for people with kidney failure that can replace the function of the liver.” Because of its major role in so many of the body’s processes, a functioning liver is necessary for survival. To answer that question, we need to quickly touch on the role of the liver in the body. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are currently 4.5 million adults who have been diagnosed with liver disease living in the US. Applying for your medical marijuana card is easier than ever.
Alcohol is highly addictive and some people can have a genetic predisposition to alcoholism. Alcohol detox can take a significant amount of time and have heavy withdrawal symptoms, while cannabis withdrawal can last anywhere from a few days to a couple weeks. This can require you to seek medical treatment to come clean. Prolonged alcohol use can lead to physical dependence, where the body becomes reliant on alcohol to function normally.This can cause the shakes and can affect your ability to lead a normal life. Excessive alcohol use can cause brain damage and degenerative conditions like Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, which can cause severe memory impairment and other cognitive deficits.
Both substances can pose serious risks to our health and wellbeing in different ways, experts note. By Fran KritzKritz is a healthcare reporter with a focus on health policy. “The gummies, for example, can take as long as an hour and a half to have an effect, but people expecting a quick hit may take more, impacting the effects and even landing in the emergency room,” Cooper said. Using cannabis before age 25 may also harm the developing brain, potentially affecting memory, attention, and decision-making.
Cannabis and Your Liver
Alcohol is not only more addictive it also can cause more lasting damage to your health than cannabis. Join over 100,000 patients who have chosen Green Health Docs as their medical cannabis doctors. What is an alcohol overdose compared to a cannabis overdose?
The CDC even has a Alcohol-Related Disease Impact (ARDI) application that tracks deaths caused by alcohol. This almost points to the importance of regulation so people can use standardized dosages to track their usage of cannabis. It’s important to note that when cannabis gets legalized many people may use cannabis semi-legally by consuming illegally purchased cannabis which can lead to them consuming more than standard dosages. One study examined these data points exploring when cannabis was legalized vs. when retail sales began. Even heavy marijuana abuse can at worst cause schizophrenia in people with a history of mental illness. Again, there isn’t significant data to point to specific deaths caused solely by weed.
This also skews any data because someone engaged in an accident or having a health issue may have more than cannabis in their system. While there can be the odd allergic reaction or bad interaction or even a child may inadvertently consume cannabis, there isn’t sufficient data to point towards any deaths caused by cannabis. It can be challenging to ascertain how many deaths are caused by cannabis.
One of the most common things people want to know is whether alcohol or marijuana is worse for your brain and overall health. That being said, alcohol still faces all of the same aforementioned tolls on your health and risks of addiction. A 2010 study once sought to rank 20 different drugs, including alcohol and cannabis, in terms of their overall risk factors. “The risks of alcohol intoxication are deadly — and it’s especially a risk for people who are naïve to the risks of alcohol.”
Edibles Vs Alcohol
Additionally, alcohol is more socially acceptable in public use or work situations while using cannabis at a work function could be looked down upon. After all, you can only purchase cannabis products at dispensaries where in some states you can purchase alcohol in supermarkets. In general, marijuana is considered less harmful than alcohol but alcohol can be considered more socially acceptable. If you’re comparing alcohol vs. weed here are some pros and cons. Alcohol has been legal significantly longer compared to cannabis and some of these stigmas can impact people’s judgment about cannabis use.
- If you want to seek out medical marijuana for a specific condition consider finding a doctor with Green Health Docs.
- The same amount of daily alcohol use also increases our colorectal and breast cancer risk by 1.5 times.
- One thing that’s clear about the alcohol vs. weed debate is that both should be used responsibly and driving while intoxicated on anything should be avoided at all costs.
- Health experts advise talking openly with your doctor about any substance use and reviewing your personal risk factors.
- Alcohol is strongly linked with several types of cancer; marijuana is not.
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It can even decrease brain matter and this damage can be permanent. It affects gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) which can cause relaxation but long term use of alcohol can affect your levels of GABA or glutamate in the nervous system. what happens when you keep secrets It can damage brain cells and lead to deficiencies in neurotransmitters. This means that they can help protect nerve cells from damage which can decrease your chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
Chronic health conditions
Essentially, frequent cannabis use lowers inflammation, which decreases the risk of the metabolic-induced condition. Some studies have even found that smoking cannabis might protect your liver, but keep in mind that this clinical data is small and isn’t strong enough yet. Every time you drink—whether you enjoy a glass of wine with dinner or take shot after shot on a night out—your body goes through this two-step process.
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Cannabis has compounds that mirror the endocannabinoids your body creates. Let’s further explore the effect of both on your brain. It can also lower your inhibitions making you more likely to make riskier or rash decisions that can lead to an accident. It can lead to impaired judgment, decreased reaction times, and difficulty concentrating. It can overall slow your reaction time and your general perception of time and distance which can increase your likelihood of getting into an accident. They ultimately found a 5.8% increase in injury crash rates and a 4.1% increase in fatal crash rates when comparing the data of cannabis being legalized and when states opened recreational sales.
- All things considered, alcohol’s effects seem markedly more extreme – and risky – than marijuana’s.
- While there is the possibility for occasional deaths and accidents caused by cannabis use there isn’t sufficient data to compare it to alcohol.
- Because of its major role in so many of the body’s processes, a functioning liver is necessary for survival.
- So it’s very difficult to come up with hard scientific metrics when we’re talking about things so differently considered by different segments of the population.”
- Of course, heavy marijuana use and other factors can make that risk even higher.
- It can be even harder to recognize marijuana addiction than alcohol abuse.
- Data suggest the leading cause of alcohol-related deaths is liver disease.
Like with anything else, cannabis and alcohol use will impact each person differently. Some research suggests that cannabis use may exacerbate or accelerate existing liver conditions, while specific cannabinoids may target the approach better. While there is currently no evidence that cannabis leads to liver conditions, it may be best to avoid THC in favor of hemp-derived highwatch online meetings THCA, CBD, CBDA, THCV, and beta-caryophyllene. Alcohol is known as the root cause of liver disease for decades.
Worrying about teen drinking and drug use has kept many a parent up at night. By eliminating the smoking factor, it frees up many of the benefits of cannabis. There’s a delay in when you feel edibles because it can take time for the THC to be absorbed into your bloodstream. Edibles do function differently than smoking or vaping cannabis.
Health Canada also suggests, “based on what is currently known, the risk of cannabis addiction is lower than the risk of addiction to alcohol.” Data suggest the leading cause of alcohol-related deaths is liver disease. Even casual cannabis or alcohol use can affect your health. Bainbridge said people can react to either alcohol or cannabis differently, even in limited amounts. Some people have replaced alcohol with cannabis for a buzz.
There is no completely safe level of alcohol usage, suggested Andrew Hathaway, a professor of sociology specializing in illicit drug use and harm reduction at the University of Guelph. “From health care, lost productivity and violent crime… These included their harms to the user as well as the people around them. A large part of what makes alcohol so dangerous is its withdrawal symptoms, Barker continued. Men who had 15 or more drinks weekly had a 33 per cent higher risk than those who enjoyed one or two drinks a week. More specifically, consuming about 3.5 drinks a day could double or even triple our risk of mouth, pharynx, larynx and esophagus cancer, according to the Canadian Cancer Society.
