5 Ways Addiction Affects Your Overall Health

desperate addiction

The brain’s chemistry might alter due to drug or alcohol usage. Additionally, the chemical is often metabolized via various physiological systems, which raises the probability of significant damage. These modifications may cause long-lasting damage. The most typical medical issues that drug or alcohol misuse causes or exacerbates are listed below.

Damage to the Immune System and Infections

Drugs used intravenously present a very high likelihood due to infection, especially bacterial infections acquired through Sharing infected syringes or hepatitis B virus and C. Diseases from sniffing or consuming narcotics, for example, may increase the chance of developing certain illnesses.

Many intoxicating drugs, particularly alcohol, cocaine, and opioids, have euphoric effects that may reduce inhibitions, increasing the probability of participating in unsafe sexual conduct and developing an STI. Certain substances, such as cocaine, directly affect the formation of white blood cells by the immune system, hence diminishing its ability to fight against the disease.

According to experts, around half of all adult pneumonia patients have a history of alcohol misuse. Patients with pneumococcal pneumonia who misuse alcohol have more severe consequences and a greater death rate than those who do not.

Cardiovascular Conditions

CNS depressants may slow a user’s cardiac rate, whereas stimulants may increase it. A higher risk of blood clots, ischemic damage, and other circulatory issues like aortic or coronary artery dissection may be linked to elevated or low pulse pressure.

Multiple intoxicants may cause erratic heart rate. Stimulant substances like cocaine and methamphetamine may result in cardiogenic shock and overdose fatalities. Alcohol abusers have an increased risk of developing:

  • Pneumonia
  • Tuberculosis
  • Infection with the respiratory syncytial virus
  • The syndrome of acute respiratory distress

Drugs administered intravenously may potentially have detrimental effects on the heart, including local and systemic vascular inflammation, infections of the heart valves, and risk for additional exposure to several bloodborne infectious diseases.

Liver Injury

Cirrhosis of the liver (trichrome stain) – Photo by: Ed Uthman

Although the liver is involved in nutrition metabolism, it is the primary location for many detoxifying kinds of ingested toxins.

The liver may become overloaded with its metabolic duties when consistently subjected to high amounts of certain medicines, and the components of the organ begin to deteriorate. Inert substances, heroin, anabolic steroids, and alcohol may all quickly damage the liver, leading to hepatitis or cirrhosis.

Alcohol, for instance, may potentially cause various liver diseases, from relatively mild alcoholic steatohepatitis (also known as fatty liver) to more severe alcoholic hepatitis to the gradual fibrosis and destruction of the liver parenchyma (cirrhosis). Liver cancer may arise as a result of cirrhosis itself.

It is crucial to safely cleanse with a medical professional’s assistance and enroll in a thorough rehab facility with various addiction treatment choices to stop the adverse effects of intoxicating drugs. A Pearland rehab center handles all levels of drug misuse difficulties.

Respiratory Conditions

Smoking any substance may damage the alveoli within the lungs and raise the risk of upper respiratory tract infections. Some CNS depressants, particularly opioids, may cause breathing to slow down, become shallow, or erratic. Substance abusers of opiates and other CNS depressants may die from hypoxia. However, it may affect other organ systems in those who have diminished or persistently depressed breathing habits related to addiction.

Kidney Injury

Large quantities of any harmful drug in the blood have an effect on the kidneys since they filter toxins out of circulation. Some medications may cause rhabdomyolysis, a disease where Muscle tissue degrades and produces hazardous quantities of oxyhemoglobin and other significant proteins into circulation.

This may exacerbate kidney damage that necessitates dialysis due to renal failure. Kidney damage may also be brought on by drugs such as heroin or other opioids that induce respiratory depression and a corresponding decrease in the quantity of oxygen the body takes in.

Conclusion

Every day, your brain and body operate in a typical manner. The patterns build a healthy body by regulating the brain and central nervous system. The chemical signals in your brain are abruptly disrupted by introducing any substance into your body. As a consequence, your body receives conflicting messages from your brain. It is for this reason that someone who is intoxicated by alcohol or drugs behaves, thinks, and acts differently from average.