In fact, researchers have shown how users of cocaine had higher rates of multiple factors associated with higher risks of heart attack and stroke. These included:
- 30 percent to 35 percent increase in aortic stiffening
- 8 mm Hg higher systolic blood pressure
- 18 percent greater thickness of the heart’s left ventricle wall.
Back in 2021, the British journal Heart, also found that drug abuse, recreational drinking and smoking was linked to premature heart disease in young people, particularly younger women.
In this case, researchers explored whether the recreational use of tobacco, cannabis, alcohol, and illicit drugs, such as amphetamine and cocaine, might be linked to prematurely and extremely prematurely furred up arteries.
Extremely premature heart disease was defined as an “event”, such as a heart attack, angina, or stroke before the age of 40, while premature heart disease was defined as an event before the age of 55 in men and before the age of 65 in women.