I have a degree in Biomedical Engineering and Psychology from Northwestern University. I finished medical school and completed my M.D. at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. I am currently in my residency for surgery- hopefully to be specializing in neurosurgery.
I want to answer questions on medical type questions. I'm a big fan of Dr. Drew Pinsky on Love Line and would like to help younger people from the mistakes I see a lot of young people do when they come into my ER.
Gender: Male
Location: I'm from all over.
Occupation: Physician- Surgeon
Age: 29
AIM: ArunKSherma
Member Since: January 23, 2005
Answers: 188
Last Update: January 2, 2009
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Melanie4981
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hey, you answered my earlier question about heart rate but I have another question that is a bit more specific.
About 4 days ago, on saturday, I smoked marijuana(bad decision, i know) However, it brought my heart rate to about about 120-180 beats per minute; about 2 or 3 beats every second(i had someone sober count my heartbeat with a timer) and it lasted for about 2-3 hours. My average heart rate is in the low 60's. I used to be a chronic stoner so I know that marijuana bringing up my heart rate by that much is by all means not normal. I am 99.9% sure that the marijuana was not laced. I am also 100% sure that it was not the placebo effect that increased my heart rate. I was also dehydrated, exhausted, and had not eaten in 20 hours at the time of smoking. I am also 16, male, and of asian descent. In addition, that was the first time I smoked marijuana in several months. Is it normal for some kinds of marijuana to affect me like that and are there any other documented cases of this happening?
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Thank you for being honest with me, so that I can give you the best answer that I can. You don't have to be ashamed about smoking marijuana- I was a teenager back in the day too- and I don't think that it is as bad as many people think that it is.
There could be several answers why your heart rate was up- marijuana contrary to the "mellowing" effect that it has on the mind- can actually stimulate your heart, breathing and other systems. If it had been a while since you smoked, so your body was getting stimulated like it had never been exposed before- another example of this is when you take a lot of caffeine- if you take it chronically the heart rate won't be that affected versus the person who doesn't take it often- who gets jittery.
Another reason is that you may have been dehydrated. One of the reasons that doctors, as soon as you go to the hospital, is we start an IV to start IV fluids. When a person is dehydrated, a persons heartrate will be faster than someone who is well- hydrated.
Also, Asians often are more prone to having a faster heart rate with small amount of drugs in their system. It has to do with genetics.
This has happened before and several hours of an increased heart rate is not a terrible thing. However, as I mentioned before, if it sustains for longer than 10 hours or so, then I would get checked out for something else going on.
I am not too concerned, and neither should you be for now.
Yours,
AK
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