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Cocaine Cocaine heart question

E

Espiritus

Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 6, 2016
Messages
67
No experience with coke here..it's said to be very damaging to to heart. It can cause cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death, but how come a lot of people use it on many occasions without having cardiac events? I don't know if I'm overestimating its danger, but i'd think that there's like a 90% chance of developing ventricular tachychardia from a single use, but there are heavy users out there who haven't had that problem. At least not yet? Eventually they'll develop heart problems right?

If cocaine or stimulants in general can cause Ventricular tachychardia and fibrillation, how come it doesn't always happen to everyone? What are factors that actually result in such scary cardiac events?
 
How did you come up with 90℅? I'd think it's fairly obvious that number isn't accurate, considering cocaine has been, and remains a popular recreational drug. That said, I'm really not sure if many of your questions answered.
 
Can I latch onto this thread and ask my own question? If you experience chest pain from coke, would it be wise to take an aspirin?
 
It would not be wise to take an aspirin. While aspirin is frequently recommended to decrease the likelihood of heart attack or stroke, this is because it is a blood thinner and decreases the occurrence of blood clots. Cocaine on the other hand is a vasoconstrictor and causes heart attacks by constricting veins to the point that oxygen cannot get to the heart. Not only will a blood thinner not dilate your veins, it may make matters worse by making your blood less oxygen rich.
 
Vasoconstriction isn't the only issue with cocaine. Cocaine can interfere with your heart's electrical system and disrupt the signals which makes the heart beat out of sync.
 
Clarkes sez:
The estimated minimum lethal dose [of cocaine HCl] is 1.2 g but susceptible persons have died from doses as small as 30 mg when applied to mucous membranes; [those tolerant to cocaine] may be able to tolerate up to 5 g a day. Toxic effects have been noted with blood concentrations in the range 0.25–5 mg/L and fatalities have occurred with concentrations of 1 mg/L or more.
Click to expand...

Mind you this is for pure cocaine - much street grade stuff is lower purity, either via intentional cutting or via unintentional hydrolysis due to exposure to moisture or transportation as a solution.

Chronic, regular cocaine use, or specific individuals who are hypersensitive to the negative cardiac effects, account for the majority of cardiac problems. If you don't have a history of cardiac problems and have used cocaine in the past without incident then having a bump on special occasions won't kill you. If you are doing multiple Scarface size rails every day and an 8-ball is "taking it easy" when you sesh then you may be at risk.

Also recall most people doing coke don't wear an EKG. So if there's a little v-tach or just a high heart rate .. who's gonna notice if you're partying, and after all, you're supposed to have a fast heart rate on coke, right?

Cocaine also has a very short half life, so any cocaine induced problems tend to go away in an hour or so if you stop consuming it.
 
sekio said:
so any cocaine induced problems tend to go away in an hour or so if you stop consuming it.
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I remember reading that the risk of having a serious problem persists even if one stops feeling the effects of cocaine. So I think that it probably takes a few hours not only an hour for the possibility of having coke induced problems. I'm not saying that the above statement is wrong but it sounds a little more optimistic than the reality. I'll try to find the studies which I have read regarding this and share it.
 
KS78 said:
Vasoconstriction isn't the only issue with cocaine. Cocaine can interfere with your heart's electrical system and disrupt the signals which makes the heart beat out of sync.
Click to expand...

this is exactly right, the two issues are constricting veins which limits the amount of oxygen flow, and blocking ion channels which facilitate electrical impulses that regulate heart beat.

I have heard the latter problem goes away to a great degree if you take magnesium and potassium supplements.
 
KS78 said:
I remember reading that the risk of having a serious problem persists even if one stops feeling the effects of cocaine. So I think that it probably takes a few hours not only an hour for the possibility of having coke induced problems. I'm not saying that the above statement is wrong but it sounds a little more optimistic than the reality. I'll try to find the studies which I have read regarding this and share it.
Click to expand...
actually you'll stop feeling the cocaine, but the time it takes for a 'no risk' scenario is for the full time to process it, with is snorted half life is approx. 1 hour, which is half the drug has been processed in your system, and everyone is different, so 2-3 hours later, you should be completely risk free and ready to go run a marathon if you wanted, smoked cocaine, lasts about 20-40 minutes, the half life is actually VERY short however, its half life is 15-20 minutes, meaning in an hour, it's completely out of your system.
 
If you drink alcohol while consuming cocaine, which many if not most people do, another chemical called cocaethylene is formed inside your body. It has potentially stronger effects on its own, in terms of both euphoric effects and negative cardiovascular effects. Just another factor worth considering.
 
I don't have anything scientific to back this up but I don't think that once you metabolize most of the coke then it's out of the system, you are fit to run a marathon or even work out heavily. The extra load that we put on the cardiovascular system doesn't just lift once a few hours pass. Anybody who used let's say a gram of quality coke knows that the work out will be a little harder on the body the next day. Simply, I think the negative effects that comes with the harsh treatment of heart probably doesn't just disappear when the coke is out of the system. Then again, this is just my logic.
 
No sources to provide mostly due to the latness of the hour where I'm at and laziness. I've used coke serveral times in life but not too much... Mostly rock.

But I was obsessed when using due to fear of heart damage. I distinctly recall reading several different medical sites, such as Mayo, Doctor Reference Journals... Etc.

Part of the reading was for a College thesis on illegal stimulat use in America.

Anyway, several reputable sources concluded that cocaine use in any form increased risk of heart attack and or sudden death for three days after use.

Didn't detour me, just thought I'd toss it in the discussion.
 
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