Category Archives: Health Dangers

Alcoholism and Cocaine

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Alcohol and Cocaine

It is not uncommon for someone who has a problem drinking to also have a problem with drugs including cocaine. In fact in a lot of ways alcoholics find cocaine to be the perfect match with their drinking. Why? Because cocaine dulls the effects of being drunk and allows them to stay awake longer to drink more. While this is help for someone in the grips of alcoholism it can very possibly be fatal in the worst case scenarios.

Alcoholism is a disease that creates an irresistible and overpowering thought about getting drunk or high. Alcoholism is chronic, progressive and fatal. This means that alcoholism if not treated only gets worse, never goes away and can kill the person who doesn’t stop drinking or using drugs. Alcoholism merely perpetuates the use of alcohol and cocaine. Just because someone has alcoholism doesn’t mean they don’t do drugs. Alcoholism merely means that someone has the disease of addiction that causes them to continue using a substance such as cocaine despite all the negative consequences they may be experiencing in their life.

Cocaine is a powerful, addictive, and illicit drug. Once someone has tried using cocaine they cannot say to what extent they will continue to use it. Some of the street names for cocaine are:

  • Coke
  • Dust
  • Snow
  • Girl
  • Powder
  • White pony
  • Rock
  • Crack

Cocaine is a drug extracted from the leaves of the South American coca plant that was originally found in the Andes Mountains. It is a very potent stimulant that affects the body’s central nervous system. Cocaine looks like a white powder and can be injected, smoked, sniffed, or snorted as well as taken orally. Cocaine is the second most used illicit drug in the United States. Everyone and anyone can end up using cocaine. Cocaine creates a sense of euphoria and exhilaration in its users. Cocaine users feel invincible, carefree, alert, and euphoric and have tons of energy. The come down or loss of this high usually leaves cocaine users feeling agitated, depressed, anxious, paranoid and with no appetite. The effects of cocaine last around an hour to two hours.

Having alcoholism and doing cocaine can really create a problematic situation for someone in the grips of an addiction. Cocaine is an extremely hard drug to quit just because of the intense craving to want to do more cocaine. Luckily there is cocaine treatment for alcoholism and cocaine detox for alcoholism. These places can really give someone with alcoholism and a cocaine addiction the chance to start off on the right foot in a safe place. Having an addiction to more than one substance doesn’t end well. Using alcohol and cocaine will lead down to a path of unpredictability and unmanageability. That’s why treatment for alcoholism and cocaine is the perfect and most efficient place for someone who has not managed to stay sober on their own either from drugs or alcohol. Alcoholism and cocaine can be a deadly combo so it is best if someone is suffering from alcoholism recognize that cocaine is just another part of the problem and get help.

Source: http://alcoholism.about.com/od/coke/a/cocaine.htm

 

 

If you need help with your addiction give us a call now at 1-800-984-4003.

Alcohol’s Effect on the Digestive Tract

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Alcohol and Digestive Track

Alcohol’s Effect on the Digestive Tract

Alcohol is not digested like other food. It is almost a poison in the body, negatively affecting anything it “touches.” Your mouth is the entrance to your digestive tract, and alcohol has been shown to damage every part of it. Chronic alcohol use leads to detrimental consequences in the digestive tract.

Alcohol’s Effect on the Digestive Tract: What is the digestive tract?

Before you can understand alcohol’s effect on the digestive tract, you have to understand what the digestive tract is and what its functions are. The digestive tract is considered to be a continuous tube extending from the mouth to the anus. It is divided into different segments: oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, rectum and anal canal. The job of the digestive tract is to chemically break down the food that you eat. It allows you to absorb nutrients and eliminate waste.

The digestive tract is the site of alcohol absorption into the blood stream. When alcohol comes into direct contact with the mucous membrane that lines the digestive tract, it can cause many metabolic and functional changes.

Alcohol’s Effect on the Digestive Tract: Oral Cavity and Esophagus

Chronic alcohol abuse can cause damage to the salivary glands, which interferes with saliva secretion. Alcohol can also cause inflammation of the tongue and mouth, increased incidence of tooth decay and gum disease, and impaired movement of the esophagus.

Alcohol’s Effect on the Digestive Tract: Stomach

Even moderate drinking can cause changes in gastric acid secretion. Gastric acid secretion is secretion of hydrochloric acid and enzymes into the stomach to begin protein digestion. In low doses, alcohol stimulates gastric acid secretion. In higher doses, it causes inhibition in gastric acid secretions. When gastric acid secretions are inhibited, the stomach has less ability to kill bacteria that enter the body with food. This may lead to the colonization of the upper small intestine with harmful organisms.

Chronic alcohol consumption can also cause gastric mucosal injury. Alcohol’s effect on the digestive tract is that it can cause bleeding gastric lesions that can destroy part of the mucosa.

Alcohol’s effect on the digestive tract includes interfering with gastric and intestinal motility. It causes damage to the stomach muscles that are responsible for mixing food and gastric fluids. This changes how long it takes food to go through the digestive tract and delay emptying of the stomach. This can cause production of gas.

Alcohol’s Effect on the Digestive Tract: Small Intestine

The small intestine is where most nutrients are absorbed. Alcohol interferes with absorption of these nutrients. It also can interfere with enzymes needed for digestion and to metabolize drugs. Alcohol can also cause erosions and bleeding in the mucosa.

Alcohol’s Effect on the Digestive Tract: Large Intestine

Alcohol consumption significantly reduces the frequency and strength of the muscle contractions in the segment of the rectum. This can reduce transit time of intestinal contents and contribute to the diarrhea that is frequently observed in alcoholics.

Source:

http://www.montana.edu/wwwai/imsd/alcohol/Vanessa/vwgitract.htm

 

If you need help with your addiction give us a call now at 1-800-984-4003.

The Other Hangover

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The Other Hangover

Everyone knows what a hangover feels like. The parched mouth, aching muscles, and splitting headache are all unfortunate consequences of a hard night of drinking. “The Other Hangover” is less easily explained. It sometimes starts with a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. You wake up and realize that something is wrong, but you can’t remember what it is. Slowly, flashes of what you did the night before begin to play in your head. Maybe you got in a fight; maybe you danced topless on the bar. Whatever it was, you begin to realize that your overindulgence the night before may have cost you a lot more than your bar tab.

This is what’s known as “The Other Hangover.” It’s the embarrassment, guilt, or shame you feel due to the dumb decisions you made under the influence of alcohol.

The Other Hangover: Anti-Drinking Campaign

“The Other Hangover” is a concept developed by University of Minnesota undergrads. This semester, the campus has been plastered with posters and ads that try to convince students not to overdo it at the bar.

The idea came from a group of advertising students tasked with creating a responsible-drinking campaign for a national competition last year. The students surveyed their peers and found that the threat of most negative consequences (DUI, alcohol poisoning, and death) was not enough to scare them into drinking responsibly.

The ads feature things like women dancing provocatively at a bar with the caption “Reputations Aren’t Drunk Proof”  and a guy with an arm around a girl and the other hand holding a drink which read “Before you got wasted, you weren’t known as ‘The Creep’”.

Some have praised The Other Hangover Campaign for relating to college students on a level they understand. Since young people tend to think they are invincible, traditional campaigns focused on the dangers of drinking don’t seem to do much good.

Critics of the campaign call it “drunk shaming” and say that it reinforces sexist stereotypes (i.e. if you are a woman and you make out with a guy at a bar, you’re a slut.) The message, they say, is don’t get to drunk, or you’ll do something stupid and everyone will hate you. They claim that there are better and more effective ways to teach college kids responsible drinking.

However, maybe the ad will work where others have failed. It is no secret that campaigns like “The Faces of Meth,” which show the physical deterioration of people who have been arrested for multiple charges of possession, has been more effective on teenagers than more traditional campaigns. Some think this is because it shows teens something that they actually care about – i.e. the erosion of their physical appearance, rather than something that they think could never happen to them-i.e. car crashes or overdoses. Similarly, The Other Hangover ads play on the social consequences of drinking rather than the physical or legal consequences. According to its creators, it targets the things that young people “truly care about.”

http://www.theotherhangover.com/

http://jezebel.com/the-other-hangover/

If you need help with your addiction give us a call now at 1-800-984-4003.

Alcohol’s Effect on Cholesterol Levels

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Alcohol's effect on Cholesterol Levels

Alcohol’s effect on Cholesterol Levels

Drinking alcohol is common in the United States. Almost half the population drinks regularly. Drinking moderately can actually be good for your health, especially for your cholesterol. In some respects, moderate drinkers are actually healthier than people who don’t drink and people who drink excessively.

Alcohol’s effect on Cholesterol Levels: Types of Cholesterol

Alcohol’s effect on cholesterol levels is beneficial if alcohol is consumed in moderation.  There are two types of cholesterol-HDL and LDL. HDL cholesterol is known as the “good” cholesterol. HDL cholesterol helps the body get rid of bad cholesterol in the blood. The higher the level of HDL cholesterol, the better. If levels of HDL are low, the risk of heart disease increases. HDL travels to the liver, which processes the cholesterol and rids it from the body. LDL, on the other hand, tends to build up in deposits around the body. It causes a buildup of plaque on the walls of arteries. When there is a buildup of plaque, the blood cannot flow as freely, and the risk of heart disease increases.

Alcohol’s effect on Cholesterol Levels: HDL Cholesterol

Alcohol’s effect on cholesterol levels is that it actually raises the level of HDL cholesterol in the blood. So it promotes the removal of excess cholesterol in the body. Consuming two drinks a day can reduce the risk of heart disease by 16.8 percent.

Alcohol’s effect on Cholesterol Levels: Triglycerides

It is important to note that although alcohol’s effect on cholesterol levels can be beneficial, cholesterol is not the only factor in determining overall heart health. Another factor is triglycerides. Alcohol is the major source of excess calories which get turned into fat, so the triglyceride level in the blood increases. Alcohol also slows down fat metabolism. When alcohol is present in the blood, the liver prioritizes removing alcohol in the blood over other metabolic processes, including sugar. While the liver is breaking down the alcohol, glucose gets further processed into triglycerides instead of being broken down and removed from the body. The same two glasses of alcohol that will reduce HDL cholesterol will raise triglycerides and the risk of stroke and heart disease by 4.6 percent.

Alcohol’s effect on Cholesterol Levels: Moderation

To reap the benefits of alcohol’s effect on cholesterol levels, alcohol must be consumed in moderation. Anything beyond the standard definition of “moderation,” however, is considered detrimental to heart health, and alcoholic beverages are usually high in calories, which can lead to unwanted weight gain. Those extra pounds can increase your risk of diabetes and stroke. In addition, overconsumption has been connected to liver disease and even damaged heart muscle. Moderation is considered one to two drinks a day. A drink is 12 ounces of beer, one and a half ounces of 80 proof liquor, one ounce of 100 proof liquor, or four ounces of wine. You do not increase your heart health by increasing consumption. Binge drinking one night is not healthy and will not benefit the heart, even if

If you need help with your addiction give us a call now at 1-800-984-4003.

Long term effects of alcohol abuse

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Long term effects of alcohol abuse

Long term effects of alcohol abuse

Long term effects of alcohol abuse

If all the long term effects of alcohol abuse were written out in detail the result would be something like a book. Alcohol abuse penetrates every cell in a person’s body resulting in multiple long term effects. Alcohol is one of the most threatening drugs when abused for a long period of time.

The first and most obvious long term effect of alcohol abuse is alcoholism. Alcoholism is the physical addiction to alcohol to the point of having serious withdrawal symptoms if the drinker tries to stop consuming alcohol. That’s probably one of the least worrisome long term effects of alcohol abuse. Long term effects of alcohol abuse, more generally, are the risks of cardiovascular disease, liver disease, and chronic pancreatitis.  Damage to the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system are long term effects of alcohol abuse. The long term effects of alcohol abuse are seen in every system in the body.

Adolescents are especially susceptible to the long term effects of alcohol abuse. This is because the adolescent brain is still developing. In unborn babies the long term effects of alcohol abuse are grave and could result in fetal alcohol syndrome.

The long term effects of alcohol abuse on the cardiovascular system can be life threatening.  The long term effects of alcohol abuse in the cardiovascular system are peripheral arterial disease, intermittent claudication, heart attack and stroke, cardiomyopathy, hematologic diseases.

The long term effects of alcohol abuse on the nervous system severely impair brain development. The long term effects of alcohol abuse on the nervous system are brain shrinkage, dementia, physical dependence, brain lesions, brain damage, chronic fatigue, nutritional deficiency, alcohol withdrawal, risks of stroke, loss of memory, learning disabilities, and blackouts.

The long term effects of alcohol abuse also impact the digestive system and can cause serious weight gain because of the high sugar/high calorie content of most alcoholic beverages. The long term effects of alcohol abuse on the digestive system in general are chronic gastritis or stomach inflammation, cirrhosis of the liver, hepatitis, and pancreatitis both chronic and acute. The long term effects of alcohol abuse can also lead to metabolic syndrome. The long term effects of alcohol abuse also have a large impact on the gallbladder. Long term alcohol abuse can lead to gallstones and gallstone disease.

Long term effects of alcohol abuse always negatively affect the liver. The liver clears the blood of any impurities so the liver has to filter alcohol directly from the blood when an individual drinks. Alcohol liver disease is a main effect of long term alcohol abuse. Not only that but the long term effects of alcohol abuse on the liver are fatty liver, cirrhosis, alcoholic hepatitis, liver disease and liver cancer. In worst case scenarios heavy alcohol consumption for a long period of time can result in needing a liver transplant.

Long term alcohol abuse also affects the lungs by impairing some of its critical cellular functions. This means that long term alcohol abuse can cause lung disease, and acute respiratory distress syndrome.

The long term effects of alcohol also move into the kidneys and cause kidney stones. Not just that but the list of long term effects goes on and on. The effects of alcohol abuse in the long term can end up being sexual dysfunction, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis and problems with the skin such as psoriasis or flushing and rosacea. Alcohol abuse can also affect the immune system. There is not really a whole lot long term alcohol doesn’t affect.

Alcohol can be very dangerous when used for long periods of time. The effects are grave and sometimes irreversible. What we thought was a social drink that may even be considered safe is far from safe when used for in the long term.

If you need help with your addiction give us a call now at 1-800-984-4003.