By Dr. Dalal Akoury Dr. Dalal Akoury June 5, 2015

Various health complications of Heroin abuse: Short and long term effects

While looking at the elaborate information about heroin addiction in our previous article, we noted that various studies have established the undoubted prevalence of heroin addiction in this generation. Doctor Akoury establishment of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center has been taking the lead role in creating awareness about the scourge of addiction and most importantly offering lasting solutions to the victims. This is the spirit that every other organization should have and meticulously implement for us to have a vibrant healthy and economically productive society. Because of the addictiveness nature of heroin, the various health complications of heroin abuse are very indiscriminative and everybody is vulnerable in equal measures. With the help of professionals from AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under the able leadership of doctor Dalal Akoury, we are going to explore with a view of understanding some of the effects of heroin abuse in our health.

As we had mentioned before that there are three major means of administration of heroin into the body with injection being the most predominant, it has also been established that soon after injection or inhalation and heroin crosses the blood brain barrier. And while in the brain, heroin is converted to morphine and binds rapidly to opioid receptors. With these done abusers will typically report feeling a surge of pleasurable sensation, a “rush” which now brings us to the understanding of some of the short term effects of heroin abuse.

Various health complications of Heroin abuse: Short-term effects of heroin abuse

“Rush”
Depressed respiration
Clouded mental functioning
Nausea and vomiting
Suppression of pain
Spontaneous abortion

The intensity of the rush is a function of how much drug is taken and how rapidly the drug enters the brain and binds to the natural opioid receptors. It is important to note that heroin is particularly addictive because it enters the brain so quickly. With heroin, the rush is usually accompanied by a warm flushing of the skin, dry mouth, and a heavy feeling in the extremities, which may be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and severe itching. Doctor Akoury further explains that after the initial effects, abusers usually will be drowsy for several hours. Mental function is clouded by heroin’s effect on the central nervous system. Cardiac functions slow. Breathing is also severely slowed, sometimes to the point of death. Heroin overdose is a particular risk on the street, where the amount and purity of the drug cannot be accurately known.

Various health complications of Heroin abuse: What are the long-term effects of heroin use?

One of the most detrimental long-term effects of heroin is addiction itself which is a chronic, relapsing disease, characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, and by neurochemical and molecular changes in the brain. Heroin also produces profound degrees of tolerance and physical dependence, which are also powerful motivating factors for compulsive use and abuse. Other long-term effects of heroin abuse may include the following:

Addiction
Infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B and C
Collapsed veins
Bacterial infections
Abscesses
Infection of heart lining and valves
Arthritis and other rheumatologic problems

The common denominator with all addictive drugs is that their users will become their prisoners. In the same way heroin abusers will by and by spend more of their time, energy and resources in obtaining and using the drug. And once addicted and are now prisoners of drugs, their primary purpose in life will be to seek for the drug and use it disorderly thereby making very significant changes in their brains. Besides that as they continue abusing the drug, physical dependence develops with higher doses of the same. This will then cause the body to adapt to the presence of the drug and withdrawal symptoms occurring should the drug use be stopped abruptly. When we talk about withdrawal, it is important to note that this can take place even within few hours from the last usage. The following are some of the symptoms of withdrawal restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting, cold sweats with goose bumps (“cold turkey”), and leg movements. Major withdrawal symptoms peak between 24 and 48 hours after the last dose of heroin and subside after about a week. However, some people have shown persistent withdrawal signs for many months. And even though heroin withdrawal may never be fatal to healthy adults, this may not be so with unborn children in the womb, it can cause death to the fetus of a pregnant addict.

When using heroin, it is important to note that the continued use of this substance may lead to the user being addicted to it. And this happens; many addicts will have to endure many of the withdrawal symptoms to reduce their tolerance for the drug so that they can again experience the rush. In the past explains doctor Akoury, physical dependence and emergence of withdrawal symptoms were believed to be the key features of heroin addiction. However studies have revealed that this may not be the case entirely, since craving and relapse can also occur weeks and months after withdrawal symptoms are long gone. We also know that patients with chronic pain who need opiates to function (sometimes over extended periods) have few if any problems leaving opiates after their pain is resolved by other means. This may be because the patient in pain is simply seeking relief of pain and not the rush sought by the addict.

Various health complications of Heroin abuse: What are the medical complications of chronic heroin abuse?

Finally medical consequences of chronic heroin abuse include scarred or collapsed veins, bacterial infections of the blood vessels and heart valves, abscesses (boils) and other soft-tissue infections, and liver or kidney disease. Lung complications (including various types of pneumonia and tuberculosis) may result from the poor health condition of the abuser as well as from heroin’s depressing effects on respiration. Many of the additives in street heroin may include substances that do not readily dissolve and result in clogging the blood vessels that lead to the lungs, liver, kidneys and the brain. This can cause infection or even death of small patches of cells in vital organs. Immune reactions to these or other contaminants can cause arthritis or other rheumatologic problems. And of course, sharing of injection equipment or fluids can lead to some of the most severe consequences of heroin abuse – infections with hepatitis B and C, HIV, and a host of other blood-borne viruses, which drug abusers can then pass on to their sexual partners and children. With these explanations, it is only prudent that if you are struggling with heroin addiction, then you need to seek for immediate treatment which can be done professionally if you schedule for an appointment with doctor Dalal Akoury MD and founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center. Up on receipt of your request they will slot you in for treatment and help you all the way to reclaim your life back professionally and confidentially.