Opioids Speedballing and the effects on the heart

[LLueBight]

Here is a ponderous thought~

It is a fairly popular notion that speedballing is terrible for you because of the large amount of stress it puts on your heart. The claim is that the opiate slows the heart rate and the cocaine (or any other stimulant) speeds the heart rate...causing unneeded stress and confusion on the heart.

Now I know that a 'speedball' refers exclusively to H and coke in the same rig, but in the broader sense (combining and opiate or downer w/ a stimulant) is obviously going to have the same effect of stressing the heart...

So my question is...If mixing opiates and stimulants are truly so terribly bad on your heart, then why is it soo common for doctors to prescribe opiates and stimulants like ampethamines to a patient? For example, someone who takes adderall for ADHD and then complains of chronic pain and gets prescribed oxycodone..or vice versa. Again this is quite common and I've heard of many people who have scripts to both of stimulants and opiates/downers.

This makes me wonder if mixing opiates with stimulants is truly as bad on the heart as media portrays it to be..?

 

[HdoubleODeezy]

i can say from personal experience uppers and downers mixed do do a number on the heart.. i used to roll every other day (take ecstasy) and a lot of the times mix with heroin,OC's and benzos and ever since i stopped stims and only do downers, i have chronic tachycardia and bad palpitations.. im on clonidine and atenolol and my heart rate is still in the hundreds. with out the BP meds my resting heart rate is around 160 beats per minute, which gives me panic attacks, so there is some proof there that keeping the heart slowed can be a treatment for anxiety disorders.. back on topic.. i just know i was fine before i was doing that and now my heart is fucked. i feel like im having heart attacks all the time. some one else might have been doing real speedballs (with coke instead of ecstasy) and they may be fine.. so i think it depends on the individual, im also bipolar and stims make me hypomanic anyway.

 

[dokomo]

Take into account that cocaine is directly cardiotoxic, and also that doctors prescribe therapeutic dosages not recreational ones.

 

[Cane2theLeft]

If a patient is receiving therapeutic doses of medication, they take stable doses that are appropriately titrated and most of the side effects subside rather quickly.

Juxtapose this with recreational users who are taking far greater doses to the point where they are slowing their respiration down, nodding in and out of consciousness and I think you can see exactly where the difference is.

Combine this with how cardiotxic cocaine is and you have a dangerous combination.

When I was taking necessary, stable doses of opioids for years for chronic pain, my BP and respiration were perfect. Can you say this about someone who just did a big fat shot of H?

Stimulants and sedatives can certainly be used together safely and therapeutically in the right context at appropriately titrated doses.

 

[Provoke]

Ya it's bad...you'll probably die.

 

[drugssexandmusic]

cocaine causes your body, your heart and your nervous system to speed up, the heroin causes your body to slow down, If you take the two drugs together then it closes down both systems and makes you incredibly vulnerable to death or coma.

 

[Cane2theLeft]

^its not as simple as that... Not by a long shot. The speedball danger isn't due purely to CNS depressant + CNS stimulant.

 

[JustaJunkie]

If mixing opiates and stimulants are truly so terribly bad on your heart, then why is it soo common for doctors to prescribe opiates and stimulants like ampethamines to a patient? For example, someone who takes adderall for ADHD and then complains of chronic pain and gets prescribed oxycodone..or vice versa. Again this is quite common and I've heard of many people who have scripts to both of stimulants and opiates/downers.

I Get prescribed Subutex 8mg and Ritalin 20mg and I take them together everyday. So I am confused cause some of you are saying it is bad and others don't know.... Do we have a DR. or someone taking med classes to help us out here or someone that knows from longtime personal experience?

Nevermind, Someone answered the question above what I was thinking about.



I Have one other question though. I have a gram of H right now and lots of Ritalin 20mg, I've done it before.... but this talk about vulnerability to death kind of scares me so can someone tell me if you think I can do these together or separate or even use the Ritalin cautiously with the H by using smaller amounts of Ritalin. Someone please answer this within 30 min or so if possible.