What Does Heroin Do to Your Body?
Though heroin has been around for over a century, people still have questions about it. How toxic is heroin? When people use heroin, what effect does it have on them physically? Mentally? Hundreds of thousands of Americans use heroin every year; so what is happening to their bodies when they do this? And if heroin is so dangerous, why do people go on using it?
To understand exactly why people, unfortunately, experiment with heroin, it's essential to answer the above questions in order to show people the real dangers, harms, and risks that come from using heroin. When people know the truth about this drug, they are far less likely to experiment with it.
What is Heroin? How is it Toxic?
Heroin is an addictive drug made from morphine, the psychoactive substance taken from the resin of the opium poppy plant’s seed pod. Given its opioid base, heroin is an extremely addictive substance that causes both physiological and psychological dependencies in those who use it.
When someone injects, sniffs, snorts, or smokes heroin, the opioid chemicals enter the brain and bind to the brain's opioid receptors. So bound, the chemicals influence the opioid receptors and strongly alter the individual's feelings of pain and pleasure. Pain symptoms drop, pleasure symptoms spike. The user feels a rush, followed by a sense of euphoria and a relaxed, calm state.
The intensity of the initial rush is a function of how much of the drug is taken and how rapidly the drug enters the brain and binds to those opioid receptors.
When someone takes heroin, the rush is usually followed by a warm flushing of the skin, dry mouth, and a sort of heavy, leaden feeling in the extremities. Nausea, vomiting, and severe itching on the surface of the skin often follow next.
After the initial effects of using heroin begin to fade, the user will start to feel drowsy, foggy, clouded, and mentally or cognitively numb or at least hampered/slowed mentally. On the physical side, one's heart rate begins to slow, breathing slows, sometimes to the point where breathing stops altogether. Halted breathing can lead to a fatal overdose. Slowed breathing can lead to coma and permanent brain damage.
What are the Effects of Heroin Use on the Body and Mind?
The real toxicity of heroin reveals itself in the short-term and long-term effects of heroin use on the body and mind. Some of these include:
- Dryness within the mouth
- A warm, flushing of the skin
- Heavy, leaden feelings within the arms and legs
- Nausea, vomiting, stomach pain
- Severe skin itching
- Clouded thinking, reduction in cognitive function
- A feeling of euphoria and an intense calm
- Switching back and forth between consciousness and unconsciousness
- Increased risk of HIV and hepatitis (from needle sharing)
- Coma
- Overdose
- Difficulty sleeping
- Weight loss, loss of muscle mass
- Damage to the nasal passages for those who sniff or snort heroin
- Abscesses on the skin
- Heart infections
- Constipation, stomach pain, cramping
- Liver and kidney disease
- Lung problems and complications
- Mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression
- Sexual dysfunction
- Changes in menstrual cycles
- Chemical dependence
- Psychological reliance
- Severe damage to the lungs, liver, kidneys, heart, and brain
The more someone uses heroin, the harsher the above side effects will become. And in addition to that, the more someone uses heroin, the higher the likelihood they'll suffer a fatal overdose.
Overdoses—The Most Dangerous Effect of Heroin Use
As covered above, there are many harmful effects on the body that come about from heroin use. But without a doubt, the most severe impact is that of a heroin overdose. A heroin overdose is the most common way by which heroin addicts die from their habit, as heroin overdoses can easily be fatal.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recorded total overdose deaths and published their findings. According to the data:
- In 1999, 1,960 people died from heroin overdoses in the United States. In 2016, 15,469 people died from heroin overdoses in the United States.
- Heroin overdoses in the last several years have been almost eight times higher than they were at the turn of the century.
Many heroin overdose deaths are actually the result of addicts using synthetic opioids such as fentanyl that have been mixed with the heroin. Often, addicts do not know what is in the drug they are using.
Heroin overdose deaths took off in 2010, which is around the same time that opioid pain relievers were becoming more scarce. Addicts began turning to heroin as a substitute.
Addiction Treatment—Freedom from Heroin Addiction
Thankfully, there is a pathway out from under the jackboot that is heroin addiction. Drug and alcohol rehab can give heroin addicts the tools they need to walk away from heroin for life. Rehab centers, particularly residential rehab centers, offer programs and tools for addressing both the physiological dependency on heroin (via withdrawal and detoxification techniques) as well as the psychological, spiritual, and behavioral reliance on heroin.
Sources:
- https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/heroin/what-are-immediate-short-term-effects-heroin-use
- https://teens.drugabuse.gov/node/22966
- https://www.drugabuse.gov/drug-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates
- https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html
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