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do opiates cause damage to the body?

pharm grade opiates are 100% organ friendly.(unless you overdose).
btw,im not clear on what you mean with 'references please',are you saying you want a link to somewhere that says 'opiates are organ freindly?
do a google.
[ 02 January 2002: Message edited by: [u.k neuronauticals inc] ]
 
yeah thats what i thought. Some stupid fuck on a different board was trying to say that they were bad for you etc. So yeah some kind of reference would be nice!
 
What kinda dmg can opiates cause to you via IV over extended periods of time with regular use?
For instance doing heroine every day for a year or two.
 
If you want to see the damage heroin can cause you will have to expose your self to addicts who have destroyed their lives and families through the use of the drug. If you are a user you will most likely avoid or confront such exposure with skepticism. But hey some folks kick and are fine, some folks play and are fine. There are not too many references for the later two other than they know opiates won't damage your cells. They *can* really fuck up your life if you are not careful and don't have respect for them.
If you are starting to worry, you may want to see if you can stop. If you can't stop you may want to think about what that means……….and what the consequences of not stopping might be…. Then you might get worried….. but H makes the voices shut up….. hehehehe…. I know dudes who have used for 15 years and run marathons now. I know kids who have died in a year. Not from the drug per se, but because of what it did to their mental health. As Smokey the bear always says… only you can prevent forest fires.
[ 03 January 2002: Message edited by: Dr. Quack ]
 
There are plenty of medical journals archived online, I am sure there are plenty of articles about longterm narcotics therapy ...
They work by binding to opioid receptors in the brain - this is their primary mechanisim of action, even in high doses there is no neurotoxicity .. they are metabolized and again, even in high doses hepatoxicity isn't an issue .. look at the current chronic narcotics therapy situation in the US - chronic pain patients (with non-life threatening problems such as herniated discs, burn victims, etc - not terminal cancer) are on insane doses of potent narcotics .. a friend of mine that had a water heater explode is on almost a half gram of oxycodone per day, other people on fentanyl patches .. a friend that has had failed back surgery (actually 7) is maintained on narcotics and most likely will be for the rest of his life - and lets not forget the doctor that retired then told his story about his daily morphine use - over 40 years of daily use and he attributes many of his successes to the drug .. so if someone wants to dig up refrences be my guest, most of the really good sites (the ones that had all of the complete articles, not just a summary) went to pay services charging like $40 a month..
Offhand:
"There is no evidence of any organ toxicity attributable to the prolonged use of sustained-release opioids."Taken from:
http://www.hosppract.com/issues/2000/09/brook.htm?3b0bce900 (that is a VERY good article about chronic opioid therapy with a lot of attention to sustained release opioids)
You can gwet your own refrences if you go to any search engine and type "Online Medical Journals" and then dig through the reasults.. some are pay services (you get the summary for free but have to pay for the article) while others give you like 4 free articles then you must pay... some are flat-out free but they have a very limited database .. your best bet is to hit your local college library as they often have free database searches (if you live near a college) ..
I'm sure someone will have some refrences, but it's not our job to do your work...
 
Originally posted by blahblahblah:
It is a common known fact that methadone usage long term can cause damage to the body, i.e. teeth, gums and a few other things. So to answer your question correctly opiates (namely methadone) can cause damage to your body even if used correctly over extended time periods.
Damage to your teeth? Oh c'mon now, do you homework:
Like all opiates, methadone is not good for your teeth because it can restrict the production of saliva which is one of the body’s natural defences against plaque – the commonest cause of tooth decay.
Methadone is not as bad for your teeth as sweet drinks or eating sweets.
CF: http://www.ysas.org.au/treatment/methadone.html
It elaborates as to how you can keep your teeth healthy ...
Want some more?
Question: I heard that methadone gets in your bones and rots your teeth. Is that true?
That is absolutely false. Methadone has been used for the treatment of opioid-dependency for more than 35 years in millions of patients. The effects of methadone on the health of those persons has probably been studied more thoroughly than for any other medication in all of medicine. Dr. Mary Jeanne Kreek, MD, one of the best known and leading researchers in the field of methadone maintenance treatment has summed-up the findings:
"The most important medical consequence of [ongoing] methadone treatment, in fact, is the marked improvement in general health and nutritional status observed in patients as compared with their status at time of admission to treatment. Most medical complications observed in methadone maintenance patients are either related to ongoing preexisting chronic disease, especially chronic liver disease, the onset of which occurred prior to entry into methadone treatment, or to coexisting new diseases or illnesses or to ongoing polydrug or alcohol use."
[Source: Kreek, MJ. Health consequences associated with the use of methadone. In: Cooper JR, Altman F, Brown BS, Czechowicz D (eds). Research on the Treatment of Narcotic Addiction: State of the Art (NIDA Research Monograph 83-1201). Rockville, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse; 1983.]
Satisfied?
 
Interesting...it was my understanding that opiates such as heroin DO affect one's bone marrow - which would explain the incredible aching of the bones that one undergoes when in withdrawals.
Cheers,
Jennifer
 
It also depends on what kind of opiates this person was referring to. Like painkillers. Most of them have an extremely high content of Tylenol which is very bad for your liver if taken in large amounts over a period of time. Combine that with alcohol and you have a real problem. I am not knowledgable on heroin or methadone so I will not comment on those.
 
Originally posted by Music4myMind:
Interesting...it was my understanding that opiates such as heroin DO affect one's bone marrow - which would explain the incredible aching of the bones that one undergoes when in withdrawals.
You get deep muscle and bone aches durring withdrawal as it's the bodies way of manifesting physical pain in hopes of satisifying a somewhat psychological/somewhat physical dependance .. it's another reason doctors don't like to get a patient on opioids - it will kill the pain, yes, but the body can then manifest physical pain to quench it's psychological needs - for instance, say you have mild back pain and you're started on opioids, when devoid of the narcotics the pain may seem to be worse, when the reality is this is 100% psychological...
 
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