Harm Reduction Drugs age you physically faster then normal?

[jasperkent]

Tobacco
Alcohol
Methamphetamine
Junk Food (some people are hooked on this shit as if it were a drug)

 

[December Flower]

You are existentially subordinate.

Meth doesn’t make you look like this:

It makes you look like this:

Methamphetamine is good for the body, good for the brain, so long as you don’t abuse it.

Methamphetamine is brain-candy in low doses.

Methamphetamine is the missing evolutionary link.

Stop With The Lies Already:

Epigenetic Effects Induced by Methamphetamine and Methamphetamine-Dependent Oxidative Stress

Methamphetamine is a widely abused drug, which possesses neurotoxic activity and powerful addictive effects. Understanding methamphetamine toxicity is key beyond the field of drug abuse since it allows getting an insight into the molecular mechanisms which operate in a variety of...

www.hindawi.com

First sentence in your link "Methamphetamine is a widely abused drug, which possesses neurotoxic activity and powerful addictive effects." Neurotoxic. Second link "oxidative stress". Not quite sure what you are trying to achieve, but your links are telling me it's toxic as fuck.

"Missing Evolutionary Link", that cracked me up, too. That must be why soldiers went completely bananas during WW2. Smoke less Meth, that would help you understand the articles you're posting. Both articles are not very positive on the subject.

 

[Keif' Richards]

I didn't ever want to be accused of misguiding people, but this whole Opioids in relation to aging thing has always interested me.

I think it's so true that sticking needles into your skin constantly is just not tenable. We have skin. It's meant to protect us from bad shit, yet we develop ways of bypassing the city walls of our own biology. I think repeated injections, coupled with a graudal reduction in hygiene, self-care, access to sterile water et cetera all contribute to what we all know and understand as one of the many "junkie diseases".

I have known women, beauties, who have been able to return from Opioid use to their previously beautiful and thriving state. I could only hope a lady would say the same of myself. Yet, I have also seen many "good girls" go down the rabbit hole of Crack Cocaine and Methamphetamine and these drugs appear to be much less forgiving than Opioids. I think we have known this for a long time, but it's not so obvious that I shouldn't point it out here. Stimulants burn people out faster than stuff like Opioids.

You can live to be 100 with a serious Heroin addiction and in this day and age, even the most conservative of doctors is inclined to admit that there are no glittering, obvious consequences of Opioid use. I guess I would have to say in the end, that stimulants really seem to take the body, the physical first, but Opioids are so.... bliss. They wrap up the mind. It's like a gilded cage. It's got soft walls to bounce around in, but you're stuck in that little soft room.

 

[blues runner]

I'll get to the point quickly with this. Until 2015, I had 2 decades of mainly CNS downer abuse, a slew of mental health issues such as anxiety and constant, low grade depression, not to mention that by the time I was 30 I'd started having tonic/clonic alcohol withdrawal seizures, was a perpetual shaking nervous wreck. Then, toward the end of 2015, I tried methamphetamine, which going by its total physiological effects, turned out to be the near panacea I was always on the lookout for but had largely given up hope of finding. Suddenly a chemical had made it possible for me to powerfully improve my focus, regain nearly perfect hand eye, have lightning quick reflexes that were very useful/helpful in my day to day, as well as to feel relieved of the need I had for alcohol or other downers when I was on it. Within a year I had not cut out drinking, in fact I'd started doing "controlled drinking" and to this day, I haven't allowed myself to get drunk in years, despite the fact that I drink often. But when I do, my intake is less than 1 Oz per hour of alcohol so I might drink a bottle of wine in under 16 hours, the only effects of which are likely placebo and possibly a very mild anxiolytic effect.

6 months into what was to become an ongoing prescription (I'm currently on 20 mg of dexamphetamine twice a day) I started doing calisthenics again, which I haven't stopped. I'm 46, 6'2 and about 185 lbs. The long lasting action of this chemical (give or take 6 hours when orally taking capsules) is one that I often extend, play music the whole while. I've been a guitar player and teacher most of my adult life, but thanks to a consistently more effective focus and improved awareness, my musical ideas and execution, as well as my writing, public speaking (much higher confidence levels), thinking habits, mental approach, communication in all its facets...all of these surged when I started taking dex, and while I've had quite a tolerance for years now, I still benefit from its intended therapeutic effects.

I'm in the best shape I've ever been in, and I put in the work. However, I'm also careful to never really overdo my intake too much. I don't know how else to report the changes its use made possible for me than to list them matter of factly. I now take this, and thanks to a most unexpected phenomenon several years ago, I no longer have any of the addicted 'needs' I had to continue drinking, doing opiates, benzos, etc. I can and do take these sometimes, but only occasionally and for specific purposes instead of an ongoing inability to effectively, safely stop. In short meth has indeed proved to be quite the effective antidepressant, performance enhancer, and general mental health supplement. I am thankful for what it's made possible for me, just as I've seen the occasional individual who can't seem to handle these without suffering psychoses as a result of their use, and that's a pity. I, however, am grateful and better overall thanks to this "neurotoxic killer etc etc etc...".

I'm glad I found it.

 

[Hexenstahl]

It's not the drugs that make you age faster, it's the abnormally high stress levels that addicts have because they're always worried about scoring, how and where to get the money for the drugs, the cops, getting caught, etc.
Stimulants are an exception. They make you age faster regardless of stress levels that you otherwise have...

 

[blues runner]

It's not the drugs that make you age faster, it's the abnormally high stress levels that addicts have because they're always worried about scoring, how and where to get the money for the drugs, the cops, getting caught, etc.
Stimulants are an exception. They make you age faster regardless of stress levels that you otherwise have...

From what I've seen over many years, alcohol ages people quickly. It doesn't only bloat faces and bellies and atrophy the musculature, it destroys every system in the body. I've known at least two people it killed. In their youth they were vibrant, attractive, intelligent, highly capable people. 15-20 years later they were nearly unrecognizable and had developed irreversible "wet brain" damage, suffered grand mal seizures, couldn't sign their names without first downing about 6 shots, and so on. Unfortunately now, one is a walking corpse, the other died of cardiac arrest during an episode of delirium tremens. Horrible drug. I've heard it kills more people per year than all the illicit drugs do combined.

 

[brokedownpalace10]

i read somewhere that smoking weed can cause men to grow tits

im still waiting for mine tho so idk about that

If I had tits, I'd never leave the house.

 

[Hexenstahl]

From what I've seen over many years, alcohol ages people quickly. It doesn't only bloat faces and bellies and atrophy the musculature, it destroys every system in the body. I've known at least two people it killed. In their youth they were vibrant, attractive, intelligent, highly capable people. 15-20 years later they were nearly unrecognizable and had developed irreversible "wet brain" damage, suffered grand mal seizures, couldn't sign their names without first downing about 6 shots, and so on. Unfortunately now, one is a walking corpse, the other died of cardiac arrest during an episode of delirium tremens. Horrible drug. I've heard it kills more people per year than all the illicit drugs do combined.

Alcohol is the worst drug. I once wrote about it here on BL why I hate alcohol because of the effects it had on my grandfather. He shot himself while in a delirium tremens. I was a little child back then but I remember this very vividly.

 

[tokayeahok]

I’ve seen stims age people horribly. Know a lass my age, 27, who has used amps since her late teens and she easily could pass for 40. For some reason - which I’m probably about to go on a rabbit hole in regards to this, but - opiate users seem to look incredibly young. Maybe because we sleep all the time?

I have read from a few sources that pharma grade opiates actually aren’t incredibly toxic to the body, but the street stuff is packed with loads of fillers which would definitely come with a health risk.

 

[Hexenstahl]

I have read from a few sources that pharma grade opiates actually aren’t incredibly toxic to the body

Opioids are actually completely non-toxic. You can be a lifelong opioid addict and get as old as a rock. Heroin is cut with substances, some of which are harmful (rat poison, laundry detergent and talcum powder), but those are actually rarely found (at least here in europe). Most often Heroin is cut with things like sucrose, starch, baking soda, caffeine, crushed OTC painkillers and powdered milk. I hate it when dealers put caffeine into their heroin. Completely ruins the high when I'm lying in my bed and arguing with imaginary people, half-sedated, half-stimulated.

 

[blues runner]

I disagree. Plenty of people are able to quit and not be on maintenance. As well, a lot of the rewiring of your endorphin system is totally temporary and gets better the longer you're sober, whereas with things like meth that are directly neurotoxic, your dopamine system can get totally ravaged after long term heavy use, no matter how long you're sober for, life just doesn't have the same spark.

Excellent point. It's the powerful uppers, mainly the neurotoxic methamphetamine, that destroy the brain's natural ability to produce an adequate and consistent release of dopamine. Long term use of opiates do not give rise to true anhedonia, or the inability to feel pleasure even when doing things that would be pleasurable to a healthy brain. Long term meth use? Definitely. What I'm afraid of is the possibility of this happening to me via long term amphetamine use. I take 40-60 mg of dexamphetamine a day. I used to take the maximum daily dose of Adderall IR when I lived in the US, but now that I live in Belgium it's 100% dex, not the 75% dex 25% levo salt combination. If I dont take it, I don't even want to get up. Everything looks grey, life feels futile, etc. Anyway, although they say that it's methamphetamine that's the neurotoxic one and not dexamphetamine, this is my current experience and fear, that I'll develop irreversible anhedonia.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Ive read this so many times online but is it true? If so approx how long do you have to abuse to start ageing? Will it happen to me

Yes, it is true. At least for methamphetamine.

The link below details exactly how methamphetamine actually makes your cells get older faster.

Methamphetamine Accelerates Cellular Senescence through Stimulation of De Novo Ceramide Biosynthesis - PMC

Methamphetamine is a highly addictive psychostimulant that causes profound damage to the brain and other body organs. Post mortem studies of human tissues have linked the use of this drug to diseases associated with aging, such as coronary ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Jabberwocky]

Excellent point. It's the powerful uppers, mainly the neurotoxic methamphetamine, that destroy the brain's natural ability to produce an adequate and consistent release of dopamine. Long term use of opiates do not give rise to true anhedonia, or the inability to feel pleasure even when doing things that would be pleasurable to a healthy brain. Long term meth use? Definitely. What I'm afraid of is the possibility of this happening to me via long term amphetamine use. I take 40-60 mg of dexamphetamine a day. I used to take the maximum daily dose of Adderall IR when I lived in the US, but now that I live in Belgium it's 100% dex, not the 75% dex 25% levo salt combination. If I dont take it, I don't even want to get up. Everything looks grey, life feels futile, etc. Anyway, although they say that it's methamphetamine that's the neurotoxic one and not dexamphetamine, this is my current experience and fear, that I'll develop irreversible anhedonia.

Take a bunch of vitamin C throughout the day.

L-Ascorbate Protects Against Methamphetamine-Induced Neurotoxicity of Cortical Cells via Inhibiting Oxidative Stress, Autophagy, and Apoptosis - PubMed

Methamphetamine (METH)-induced cell death contributes to the pathogenesis of neurotoxicity; however, the relative roles of oxidative stress, apoptosis, and autophagy remain unclear. L-Ascorbate, also called vitamin (Vit.) C, confers partial protection against METH neurotoxicity via induction of...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Since the mechanism of action for methamphetamine neurotoxicity is the same as amphetamine dopamine-mediated neurotoxicity, namely oxidative stress, the fact that vitamin C ameliorates methamphetamine neurotoxicity would also follow for amphetamines.

 

[trogere]

The lifestyle is hard on the body. Lack of sleep, lack of proper nutrition, ...

 

[Hannah Capps]

Benzodiazepines are evil physically I’m ok but mentally it wrecks havoc on my brain moderation is indeed key

 

[Jabberwocky]

Benzodiazepines are evil physically I’m ok but mentally it wrecks havoc on my brain moderation is indeed key

Yes, long-term benzodiazepine treatment should probably be reserved for a small subset of patients that absolutely need benzodiazepines because other drugs don't work.

I Don't even stay on benzodiazepine therapy even though I have a chronic condition that causes muscle spasms throughout my entire body, that not respond to tizanidine, or baclofen, and I'm allergic to cyclobenzaprine.

I usually talk with my physician so that we switch between Librium and Valium and keep it at an extremely low dose. Usually less than 15 mg a day equivalent of Valium.

Usually 5 mg of Valium three times a day or 25 mg of Librium 3 times a day. Sometimes I skip days because it has such a long half life. I also titrate my dose down if I'm not having muscle spasms that way. I don't develop dependence because benzo withdrawal is horrible.

I absolutely refuse to touch Xanax, and I refuse to use Ativan more than 3 days in a row.

Klonopin for me is much too stoning I just need my muscles relaxed. I don't need to be a zombie. Even 0.25 mg is more than enough all day long.

I do this because it took me 3 years to taper off high dose benzodiazepines that were used to prevent alcohol withdrawal 10 years ago when I came off a really really bad 10-year heavy drinking.

I've also found that gabapentin and kava kava help lesson benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms during reasonable taper.

 

[yubacity]

Coke crank and other stimulants are hard on body but opium no in India raw opium and pods are popular and I know many people who started as a teenager and did it until they in the 80s we actually think its good for diabetes keeps blood sugar low

 

[yubacity]

Pregabalin when i went mad on them fucked my body kidney especially

 

[Hannah Capps]

Yes, long-term benzodiazepine treatment should probably be reserved for a small subset of patients that absolutely need benzodiazepines because other drugs don't work.

I Don't even stay on benzodiazepine therapy even though I have a chronic condition that causes muscle spasms throughout my entire body, that not respond to tizanidine, or baclofen, and I'm allergic to cyclobenzaprine.

I usually talk with my physician so that we switch between Librium and Valium and keep it at an extremely low dose. Usually less than 15 mg a day equivalent of Valium.

Usually 5 mg of Valium three times a day or 25 mg of Librium 3 times a day. Sometimes I skip days because it has such a long half life. I also titrate my dose down if I'm not having muscle spasms that way. I don't develop dependence because benzo withdrawal is horrible.

I absolutely refuse to touch Xanax, and I refuse to use Ativan more than 3 days in a row.

Klonopin for me is much too stoning I just need my muscles relaxed. I don't need to be a zombie. Even 0.25 mg is more than enough all day long.

I do this because it took me 3 years to taper off high dose benzodiazepines that were used to prevent alcohol withdrawal 10 years ago when I came off a really really bad 10-year heavy drinking.

I've also found that gabapentin and kava kava help lesson benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms during reasonable taper.

Everyone is different, I break klonapin In half and do fine on .25 as needed…every one is different

 

[Phobos]

You can live to be 100 with a serious Heroin addiction and in this day and age, even the most conservative of doctors is inclined to admit that there are no glittering, obvious consequences of Opioid use. I guess I would have to say in the end, that stimulants really seem to take the body, the physical first, but Opioids are so.... bliss. They wrap up the mind. It's like a gilded cage. It's got soft walls to bounce around in, but you're stuck in that little soft room.

Opioids strongly suppress sex hormone production.
So decades of daily use will absolutely have negative consequences on your health.
Reduced bone and muscle mass, decreased insulin sensitivity are the first consequences that come to my mind in terms of negatives of having low sex hormones.