Cocaine Effects on Body Systems

Cocaine Effects on Body Systems

Cocaine is a highly addictive stimulant, often snorted, injected or even smoked. It can also be put on the lips and swallowed directly, absorbed through the skin or put into a pocket. Once there, the chemical immediately affects the brain, causing an initial surge of energy which leads to feelings of euphoria, affection, and, often, feelings of anxiety and irritability.

Over a period of time, cocaine abusers will experience long-term effects on their brains, including lack of attention span, extreme paranoia and mood swings, loss of creativity and learning disabilities. These effects are called cocaine abuse and have negative effects on the rest of the user’s life, affecting relationships, employment and everyday activities. For this reason, cocaine effects become much more difficult to reverse as the user ages. Cocaine short-term effects limit mainly to anxiety and irritability, but these symptoms usually decrease with time. Most users do not realize how profoundly cocaine affects their brains, until they begin to experience problems associated with their short-term and long-term cocaine use.

Short term cocaine effects can include increased blood flow to the head/mind, increased heart rate, and a temporary increase in sexual desires. Long-term cocaine abuse will cause the heart rate to increase in both beating and pumping blood to the brain, cause the brain to work double time due to increased oxygen consumption, and increase the blood flow to all parts of the body, including the skin. The skin also benefits from increased blood flow, as it allows the blood to drain quickly. Over time, this will lead to severe dehydration, skin rashes, and even eventual deafness if the cocaine users are not careful about how much they drink and how often they inject themselves.

Cocaine Effects

In addition to the aforementioned long-term and short-term physical complications, cocaine use can produce psychological health problems over time, depending on how addicted the user is and how much of the substance is consumed. These problems may include anger, paranoia, mood disorders, anxiety, depression, mania, delusions, hallucinations, suicidal thoughts, irritability, and drug addiction. Psychological complications caused by cocaine addiction range widely in severity, and depend greatly on how severely the user has become dependent upon the substance. Most notably, the psychological problems are often characterized by feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, anxiety, and intense cravings that are out of control and out of proportion to any amount of actual cocaine taken.

In addition to the aforementioned long-term effects of cocaine, there is a higher risk of acquiring cancer of the nasal and sinus cavities, the throat, the mouth, the larynx/ vocal chords, the heart, and the bones of the spine. The development of such cancers is dependent on how long the drug user has been using cocaine and how much he has ingested. If one has been using cocaine for several years, the increased risk of developing a pulmonary tumor is more likely. If you snort cocaine or ingest small amounts frequently, the increased risk of having a brain or heart tumor is less likely. However, if you have been using the substance for only a few months or weeks, the increased risk of having a tumor is more likely.

When you take cocaine, the active ingredient, which is hydrochloride hydroxide, travels through the blood stream to enter the central nervous system, where it activates the production of two neurotransmitters, dopamine and norepinephrine. The production of these two neurotransmitters significantly affects many parts of the human brain, including the cardiovascular system, the immune system, the sensory systems, the reproductive system, the learning and memory systems, and the sensual and motor systems. When the production of dopamine and norepinephrine decreases with continued use of cocaine, a number of cocaine effects are likely to occur. When this happens, the user may suffer from lack of concentration, loss of interest in activities they used to enjoy, depression, irritability, anxiety, insomnia, muscle spasms, insomnia, and even serious physical complications such as heart failure or stroke.

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