Observations placeholder
Liver disease and cannabis
Identifier
007601
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
The liver disease here was caused by viruses as it so often is.
The people with the viruses were self medicating, using cannabis to help with the pain.
And it helped with the pain and caused no extra damage.
What the researchers did not find out was whether it helped to combat the virus as it has beeen shown to do in other diseases, in effect whether it had antiviral properties against hep C
A description of the experience
Clin Infect Dis. 2013 Sep;57(5):663-70. doi: 10.1093/cid/cit378. Epub 2013 Jun 28. Marijuana smoking does not accelerate progression of liver disease in HIV-hepatitis C coinfection: a longitudinal cohort analysis. Brunet L1, Moodie EE, Rollet K, Cooper C, Walmsley S, Potter M, Klein MB; Canadian Co-infection Cohort Investigators.
BACKGROUND: Marijuana smoking is common and believed to relieve many symptoms, but daily use has been associated with liver fibrosis in cross-sectional studies. We aimed to estimate the effect of marijuana smoking on liver disease progression in a Canadian prospective multicenter cohort of human immunodeficiency virus/hepatitis C virus (HIV/HCV) coinfected persons.
METHODS: Data were analyzed for 690 HCV polymerase chain reaction positive (PCR-positive) individuals without significant fibrosis or end-stage liver disease (ESLD) at baseline. Time-updated Cox Proportional Hazards models were used to assess the association between the average number of joints smoked/week and progression to significant liver fibrosis (APRI ≥ 1.5), cirrhosis (APRI ≥ 2) or ESLD.
RESULTS: At baseline, 53% had smoked marijuana in the past 6 months, consuming a median of 7 joints/week (IQR, 1-21); 40% smoked daily. There was no evidence that marijuana smoking accelerates progression to significant liver fibrosis (APRI ≥ 1.5) or cirrhosis (APRI ≥ 2; hazard ratio [HR]: 1.02 [0.93-1.12] and 0.99 [0.88-1.12], respectively). Each 10 additional joints/week smoked slightly increased the risk of progression to a clinical diagnosis of cirrhosis and ESLD combined (HR, 1.13 [1.01-1.28]).
However, when exposure was lagged to 6-12 months before the diagnosis, marijuana was no longer associated with clinical disease progression (HR, 1.10 [0.95-1.26]).
CONCLUSIONS: In this prospective analysis we found no evidence for an association between marijuana smoking and significant liver fibrosis progression in HIV/HCV coinfection. A slight increase in the hazard of cirrhosis and ESLD with higher intensity of marijuana smoking was attenuated after lagging marijuana exposure, suggesting that reverse causation due to self-medication could explain previous results.
KEYWORDS: HCV, HIV, cannabis, cohort study, liver disease
PMID: 23811492
The source of the experience
PubMedConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
Symbols
Science Items
Activities and commonsteps
Activities
Overloads
HepatitisHepatitis virus infection
Liver disease
Viral infection