Heroin Addiction

June 13, 2014

Heroin Addiction-The hard facts about Heroin

Heroin is an addictive drug and has great negative effects on human life

One of the most addictive substances in our streets today is heroin it’s appropriate to make emphasis that is an extremely addictive opioid synthesized from the opium poppy, morphine. It is currently categorized with other narcotics under the Schedules I and IV of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and internationally UN estimates that there are over 50 million regular heroin users today thereby confirming its extreme addictiveness throughout the globe. Because of this addictive nature heroin addicts normally register an intense rush on the first use of the drug and after the rush the can describe the feelings of euphoria, ambition, drowsiness, relaxation and nervousness.

Nevertheless the short-term effects will come down after the initial use. There are three major ways of intake of heroin, it can be injected, smoked or snorted irrespective of the method used when used in greater units to reach the desired limit/high and users begin to develop tolerance to heroin then addiction takes place. Long-term effects of heroin include:

Substance addiction
Collapsed veins
Heart infection
Pneumonia
Decreased liver function
Systemic abscesses.

These effects can result to an opioid withdrawal syndrome can begin within 6 to 24 hours of discontinued drug use.

Heroin Addiction-Psychological symptoms

Anxiety
Depression
Lack of motivation
Decreased libido

Physical withdrawal symptoms are numerous and can be extremely dangerous.

Heroin Addiction-Physical withdrawal symptoms

Vomiting
Fever
Insomnia
Severe muscle and bone aches
Diarrhea

In order to minimize heroin withdrawal symptoms, some addicts look to methadone treatment. Methadone is a synthetic opioid used for moderate to severe pain management. It is also used to appease physical heroin withdrawal symptoms and its maintenance stops the rapid cycling between intoxication and withdrawal. However methadone itself can be addictive and its use for treatment can only be recommended to people who have tried to detox numerous times from heroin with little success. It is important that during methadone maintenance the patient should be under observation by a medical professional to reduce the risks of further addiction.

After a medically monitored detoxification, people who are addicted to heroin can seek treatment. A heroin addict can check into a residential treatment center specializing in substance addiction. In a rehab facility, the addict works with professional therapists and psychiatrists on the issues surrounding their addiction. Issues can include family problems and childhood difficulties. Often heroin addicts are dual diagnosed by a psychiatrist meaning that along with their substance abuse, they also have an emotional disorder.

Heroin Addiction-Emotional disorders

Depression
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Eating disorders

In addition to individual therapy sessions, patients participate in group therapy. Group therapy can include topics of relapse prevention, codependency, and anger management. In these groups a heroin addict can interact with fellow addicts. They learn to share their stories and experience a common bond beyond chemical dependency.

Although there is no cure for addiction, heroin addicts learn a new freedom to live free of chemical dependency. With the help of therapists, 12-step programs, and sober fellowship, heroin users can recover from their addiction and lead happy, sober lives.

Heroin Addiction-Heroin Overdose

As with all narcotics, when an individual uses heroin, they are running the risk of overdose. A heroin overdose is simply when the user takes too much of any one, or any combination of substances into their body, causing a shutdown of normal body function. Heroin is very dangerous with many fatally overdosing from use. The lethal range of heroin is from 200 to 500 mg, but habitual users can survive doses of over 1800mg.

Yet, a very common misconception is in how easily it is to overdose on heroin. Many believe that it is very easy to overdose on heroin alone. But the fact is that an individual, who is addicted to heroin and uses habitually, is very unlikely to overdose by accident. The user generally knows and manages the amounts that are taken in. The majority of overdoses involving heroin are usually because the opiate had been mixed with either sedatives or alcohol.

When a heroin overdose is sparked by heroin alone, usually it was during a relapse, in which the addict went back to an old dose that they no longer have the tolerance to handle. The reason that a heroin overdose can be so deadly is because the overdose simply provides an over the top effect of the opiate. Heroin is a pain killer derived from morphine. Its most basic effect is that it attacks opioid receptors in the brain resulting in a flood of endorphins. But what causes heroin to be potentially deadly is its effect on the repertory system. Opiates slow breathing, and when an opiate overdose occurs, the lungs slow to an almost nonexistent rate, and sometimes stop completely. So essentially when someone dies of a heroin overdose, they suffocate under the weight of their own chest. And the user is too numb from the pain killer to recognize that they are suffocating. The basic symptoms of a heroin overdose are unconsciousness and skin turning blue from lack of oxygen

Heroin Addiction-How to kick Out Heroin Addiction

As had been mention above heroin is a semi-synthetic substance derived from the opium poppy, is powerful and extremely addictive opiate. It can be taken orally, as a suppository, intravenously, smoked, and snorted. Although different methods create different highs, heroin is invariably addicting and tolerance-building. By the time one is dependent upon or addicted to heroin, they generally have a great struggle attempting to quit by themselves.

Quitting heroin causes withdrawal symptoms, some of which seem unbearable to its user.

A detoxification program is often the best chance an addict has of cleansing their body.
In most cases, heroin withdrawal requires medical attention.
Trained professionals may prescribe medications lessen the pain of detoxification, as well as drugs like Naltrexone, which inhibits the opioid from binding to their receptors, preventing the user from being able to get high from heroin.
After detox and in order to maintain their sober body, a treatment program is recommended.
Residential programs are the safest environments as there are no drugs to tempt the recovering addict.
Professionals are available at every hour to assist patient needs.
There is also outpatient programs, in which people only partake in activities for a portion of the day, and are allowed to leave during the remainder.
Generally, in treatment programs, recovering addicts might attend group therapy sessions, individual counseling sessions, family counseling, and learn how to live life sober.

Transitional living, such as a halfway house or a sober house, is a great way to ease back into real life. Transitional livings allow recovering peers to work together, find camaraderie, and learn how to take on everyday tasks with a new attitude. All this put together with the help of a team of experts from AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under the able leadership of Doctor Akoury’s will go a long way into helping you get better and better. Doctor Akoury will focus on Neuroendocrine Restoration (NER) to reinstate normality through realization of the oneness of Spirit, Mind, and Body, Unifying the threesome into ONE

Heroin Addiction-The hard facts about Heroin

Athletes and Drug Abuse

June 13, 2014

Athletes and Drug Abuse-Olympic Athletes

Athletes involvement in drugs is raising great concern in the sporting industry

The global society is experiencing a new trend of entertainment which is appreciable by their funs across the board. In a bid to achieve these athletes would go an extra mile to ensure they remain on the top and in the process indulge themselves in drug use. It is important to note that it doesn’t matter whether at high school, college, or professional athlete, drug use is a jeopardous mixture with sports. Due to the physically high demands, drug abuse puts too much at risk. Athletes push themselves and their bodies, already putting themselves at risk for injuries.

Professional athletes, especially those in the spotlight, must recognize that they are role model figures to many young upcoming athletes. But it is known that many of them do subject themselves to drugs, in many cases with performance enhancement drugs such as steroids. There are also the unfortunates that become full blown addicts to substances like crack, alcohol, and meth, destroying their careers and experiencing public humiliation. The high demands of their careers can make using drugs seem like an answer or as practical as training. The reality is that being dependent on drugs is no way of living.

Performance Drug Abuse

When addressing the topic of athletes abusing performance-enhancing drugs, statistics are inaccurate. In sports, performance-enhancing drug abuse is much like the “pink elephant” nobody dares talk about; a blind eye is turned to the issue. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy agrees that many athletes abuse performance-enhancing drugs but were not able to establish to what extent. Athletes and drug abuse must not be tolerated. Prevention, treatment and recovery can dramatically change the abuse in the world of sports.

Commonly Abused Performance Enhancing Drugs

Anabolic Steroids and Androstenedione: A synthetic testosterone, steroids increase strength and muscle mass. When taken as prescribed these drugs can aid in an athlete’s training and injury recovery. However steroids are far too commonly abused. When taken beyond the recommended dose they risk: liver problems, tumors, and high cholesterol. The psychological impairments include dramatic mood swings of anger, violence and depression.

Stimulants: Athletes gain energy from taking stimulants such as caffeine, cocaine and methamphetamines. Stimulants can mask fatigue but is followed by a crash. Even abusing caffeine puts the athlete at great risk. Side effects of stimulants include increased heart rate that can result in a heart attack, insomnia, weight loss causing muscle deterioration, convulsions, and brain hemorrhages.

Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery of Athletes and Drug Abuse

Early in an athlete’s career, like rising stars of high school basketball and football, education and prevention of drug abuse should be highly influenced. There is something to say about the influence and responsibility that a sports prodigy has. The rise and fall of an athlete’s career can be greatly shortened by the abuse of drugs and alcohol. Prevention and abstinence should be the primary concern for these athletes. Unfortunately many athletes are already in the grips of drug abuse and addiction. Finding treatment and recovery is imperative to their health and career, as well as ending the suffering from addiction.

Performance enhancement drug use in the Olympics is not a new concept. For as long as mankind has been performing in physical competitions, athletes have been looking for ways to improve their performance. Even Ancient Olympians have used peculiar methods, hopeful to increase their strength and stamina. In 1967, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) put a ban to performance enhancement drug use. That ban may have deterred many from using, but abstinence to these substances has yet to be the case for competing Olympians.

Testing for Olympic Doping

The IOC, in attempt to control Olympic doping, has integrated testing for these substances. Upon admission to the Olympics a testing regimen is required. You would think that these athletes would sustain from using drugs? The actual amount of athletes that fail the drug test is scary. The 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games had a startling number of 30 athletes that failed the drug test, in Beijing they had 70 athletes fail. They were banned from the competitions. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) annually compiles a list of substances banned.

The list of drugs that WADA prohibits includes:

Anabolic Agents: A lengthy list of steroids, testosterones and other chemicals
Hormones, Growth Factors, and Hormone Antagonists
Diuretics and masking Agents
Oxygen Transfer Enhancements
Physical and Chemical Manipulation
Stimulants
Narcotics
Cannabinoids
Alcohol
Beta Blockers

The IOC has a no tolerance policy for the athletes that fail, they are banned from competing. As the list declines of Olympians using, hope for future Olympic athletes rise. Enhancing performance by means of drugs is essentially cheating; a clean competition is a fair competition.

Expectations of an Olympic Athlete

The high demands of an Olympic competitor consequently fuel the illicit drug use. In many cases athletes are prescribed prescription medications like steroids to aid in their training and recovery. But many become depended to the substance and surpass the recommended does to improve their performance and stamina. Dependency comes easily for these unfortunates. The physical risks they subject themselves to generally do not outweigh the rewards of use. Health risks of illicit and prescription drugs affect their immune, respiratory and psychological systems. The risk of their career and the negative message that Olympic Doping has can cause a battery of collateral damage. While appreciating the pressure the athletes have to deliver result to their funs abusing drugs is not and must not be an option for whatever reason.

Olympic doping is a harmful concoction that should be prevented by all means and treated immediately. Like any other addiction problem the involvement of experts to offer treatment is very important and the choice of such professionals matters a lot. Dr. Dalal Akoury who is the Founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center has been administering treatment to addiction patients the world over for over two decades now and she is also offering exclusive NER Recovery Treatment to other physicians and health care professionals through training, clinical apprenticeships, webinars and seminars. Any athlete suffering from addiction at whatever level will be professionally handled in her care and walk out of AWAREmed a healthy person full of life.

Athletes and Drug Abuse-Olympic Athletes

Understanding Alcoholism In Detail

June 12, 2014

Facts about Alcoholism That You Need To Know

Have you got the facts about alcoholism or prefer to just keep moving with the drunk mob? As you walk into a pub each evening after job in the name of having fun, keep in mind that you might be putting a whole lot of aspects of your life to risk. The fleeting fun of sharing bottles and renting the air with loud laughter with so called pals might turn out to total catastrophe. You may never see it coming until it actually enters your life without knocking. Not really, it actually knocks severally but you never listen, your attention and addiction to alcohol is too overwhelming to allow any sense into you.

The two bottles multiply to five a day and the number grows rapidly, you then develop alcoholism. A condition that if you someone could take you behind its true scenes, you would really regret. Alcoholism can be defined as a chronic and usually progressive condition that involves being preoccupied by alcohol. The result is always mental disorder and compulsive behavior.

Below are facts about alcoholism everyone should keep in mind.

Alcoholism and your other half

Do you love him or does she mean the whole world to you as you say? Well, maybe you do love and truly she means a lot to you, but then love is jealous and gentle. The moment you stray away from your relationship and fall in love with alcohol, you get only inches away from losing him or her. Turning up late on his birthday with a bottle on your hand looking unkempt and properly drank might just be embarrassing. Choosing to go out with pals for a drinking reunion instead of staying with him every time, for the night might go beyond his expectations about you.

The whole relationship begins losing its clear edges because you get very angry when drunk and keep shouting. They begin thinking you don’t love them, yet you truly do, only that alcoholism has taken the better of you. You may end up losing them if it entirely gets out of hand. Watch out.

Alcoholism and your well-being

Some health facts about alcoholism on your physical and mental health might be so scaring. You risk losing a liver and that could be so detrimental. Alcoholism could also cause mental illness in extreme cases. Medics have also proven that alcoholism could result into high blood pressure. Furthermore, amazing statistics link alcohol to over fifty different diseases. Don’t be deceived, though in most cases the symptoms and complications develop and start showing overtime, the fact is that some people are more vulnerable to these ailments than others. You never know what your body is like, the only solution is to avoid alcohol as much as possible.

Statistics and research about alcoholism

Research and statistics carried out by health professionals, some from New Frontier Medicine academy, prove different things about alcohol. Below are some amazing facts about alcoholism;

Most grown-ups consider moderate drinking to be; one bottle for female, two for male.

Alcoholism affects different old folks in unique ways. Sluggish response, sight and hearing complications, and reduced forbearance to alcohol’s effects makes older people more prone to incidents such as accidents with cars, falling off and other forms of injuries that may come as a result from alcoholism.

Out of every five victims of alcoholism who try to quit the drug without seeking medical assistance lose their lives as a result of a condition known as alcohol withdrawal delirium.

Of all the facts about alcoholism, this one calls for caution if you are willing to stop the habit. Be cautious or you might lose it all.

Alcohol has a different effects in women unlike in men. A single bottle of the same brand impairs a woman almost twice as much as it does to a man. It doesn’t matter the differences in body weight. The determining factor here the level of water in the human body since alcohol is directly absorbed in to the system. Generally men have more water than women in their bodies hence won’t suffer more when under the influence of liquor.

This certainly means that women are prone to alcoholism than men are. Therefore women should avoid alcohol by all means.

This fact about alcoholism goes out to mothers and even fathers who care. It is never safe to take alcohol during pregnancy. Despite the fact that your baby runs the greatest risk of health complications, Research is yet to establish a completely safe level of alcohol consumption for pregnant women. Moreover, there is no need of putting an infant’s life in danger

Young people, teenagers below 15 years of age are twice as much prone to develop alcoholism and suffer its severe consequences.

Get Expert Treatment from professionals at New Frontier Medicine Academy

Medics at New Frontier Medicine Academy have these facts about alcoholism in mind and are equal to the task of transforming your life for the better. Our training is tailored to help both addicts and physicians who wish to get into dealing with addicts. You will be trained on all aspects of addiction, for the genetics to the epigenetics of addiction. Be sure to get a life-transforming treatment that focuses on your body, mind and spirit.

Facts about Alcoholism That You Need To Know

Stigmatization of Addiction

June 12, 2014

Stigmatization of Addiction-Find out more

Addiction is a disease like any other victims of addiction needs your support and care stop discrimination and stigma towards them.

I strongly believe that where you are in your neighborhood or in your family you have come across someone suffering from a given illness. Depending on the magnitude of the problem at hand special considerations will be taken to help ease the pain and suffering of the patient. This is normally a common and positive gesture that we extend to sick people. To be more specific let us take cancer as an example. It will not go unnoticed the great concern people will have if one of their friends or relative has been diagnosed with cancer. All the family members will express their sympathetic gasps of concern and be around the patient trying to find out the treatment options and the very detail information related to the significance of the diagnosis. Alongside all this special dedication to prayers, get well cards flowers will be sent to the patient all too express sympathy and concern.

Stigmatization of Addiction-Drug addiction

Addiction, just like cancer, is a fatal disease the only difference is how it has been stigmatized and this is a huge source of hindrance for many to understand it and give the victims the kind of support they may need.
Unfortunately addiction being a mental illness, garnering the support of others can be taxing and difficult. Majority do not understand mental illness to the degree that they understand and relate to illnesses based in physiological malfunctions. Mental illness does not come in a package seared with scars, a cast on a leg, or intravenous feeding tubes protruding from the victim’s wrists and to the nose. People suffering from this problem normally tends to be secretive and make all efforts to hide the true diagnosis from everyone and more so to their employers. Because emotions couple with mismanagement of a mental illness or lack of proper treatment put together necessitate that the patient be a way from the employment environment. In some cases, the need to be away may present itself with greater urgency than the individual’s physically ill appears due to the stigma surrounding addiction.

In recent years, negative ideas and connotations surrounding addiction have definitely improved, particularly since the earlier part of the century. Alcoholics are no longer sent off to psychiatric wards and mental institutions; a breadth of knowledge on the subject is readily available. Scientific and psychiatric communities alike recognize alcoholism as a legitimate disease. Treatment methods include regular attendance at 12-step meetings, forming a relationship with a higher power, reaching out to others in a support network, and staying active in one’s recovery. The biggest success stories boast stories of a renowned sense of spirituality. In terms of addiction, the plight is the same. Drug addicts recover from a debilitating addiction through spiritual means; by reaching out for help; and by being accountable to a group of individuals who have trudged the same road. However, knowledge based in the recovery process from both addiction and alcoholism is often limited to specialists in the relevant fields or family members of addicts and alcoholics only.
One of the barriers preventing afflicted individuals from seeking addiction treatment lies in the stigma surrounding addiction. Addiction stigma is directly correlated with the language frequently used to describe addiction-related topics. Addicts suffer from low self-esteem. They become withdrawn and isolate in their bedrooms anything to avoid being out in public or immersed in social situations. They want to stop, but find they cannot. Terminology that perpetuates the stigma of addiction only serves to intensify these deep-seated negative feelings. For example, the following list is inclusive of terminology that exacerbates an addict’s sense of guilt, shame, and isolation:

Calling an addict a “junkie” or an “abuser” doing so leaves no discrepancy between the human being and their disease; implies a lack of will power or character.
Drug Abuse in general, addicts abuse drugs; but using the term “abuse” can have long-term negative effects, due to the connotation of the term. It attributes the disease of addiction solely to the individual, ignoring environmental and genetic predispositions.
Referring to an addict’s test results as “dirty” causes the addict to feel filthy; unclean; undeserving of love and support.
Claiming that an addict “has a drug habit” doing so evades the medical assessment of addiction; negates the fact that addiction is characterized by a physical allergen, a mental preoccupation, and a spiritual sickness.
Labeling an addict a “user” leaves the addict feeling shameful, alone and a supposed drain on society’s resources; can also be misleading due to its part in describing individuals who have experimented with drugs but not necessarily suffered from a full-blown addiction.
Over time, we encourage the general public to conduct further research on the disease of addiction. Through increased access to addiction information, and factual awareness on the subject, individuals will learn to replace terms like “junkie” in describing an addict seeking recovery services with “a patient undergoing treatment for a substance misuse disorder”.

Stigmatization of Addiction-Media influence

The media is not doing much to help solve the problem of addiction stigmatization either. Today nearly all the different forms of media outlets are full of negativities in relation to addiction, the kind of movies, television shows etc. does not highlight the effects of addiction in a dignified way as they do to other illnesses like cancer which we looked earlier. This is one campaign that the civil society and all likeminded people should involve in to bring about the much needed change of attitude towards addiction as a disease.

Learning institutions is another avenue which can be very helpful in the fight against stigma and to recognize addiction as a serious disease of which like any other disease needs professional care and treatment. This can be done by incorporating the use of non-stigmatizing terms such as:

Harmful use of drugs and not “reckless use of drugs”
Hazardous drug use
Risky drug use
Substance free rather than “dirty” when referring to drug-free screening results
Replacing “user” with “person involved in risky substance used”
Medically monitored treatment regimen as an alternative to the term “substitution therapy” which refers to the addicts receiving counter-indicative drugs throughout the detoxification process; inaccurately describes addicts prescribed antidepressants in early sobriety
Instead of “drug habit” use terms such as “an individual engaged in active addiction”, or an individual suffering from “a substance misuse disorder”

In all this experiences we as a society have a duty to offer care and support to those suffering from addiction. In bid to offer the much needed care and support doctor Akoury founded AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center a facility which is fully dedicated on offering solution while focusing on Neuroendocrine Restoration (NER) to reinstate normality through realization of the oneness of Spirit, Mind, and Body, Unifying the threesome into ONE. These are the kind of people we need to fight and eradicate stigma completely. If you ask me to recommend for you someone with great experience on addiction and much more I would not hesitate to recommend doctor Dalal Akoury, oh wait a minute I just did. Go for it friend and live your life to the fullest.

Stigmatization of Addiction-Find out more

Neurons and Neurotransmitters

June 12, 2014

Neurons and Neurotransmitters-The Brains of the Nervous System

Neurotransmitters neuron is a specialized nerve cell that receives, processes, and transmits information to other cells in the body.

The body of a human being is presumed dead when the brain stops functioning. This is because all the functions of the body are controlled by the various segments of the brain. Majorly the nervous system is responsible for the body’s control and communication network. While discharging this function in humans, they do so in three ways and that is to say that they:

Senses changes both in and outside the body-the sensory function.
Interprets and explains the changes-the integrative function.
Responds to the interpretation by making muscles interact and glands secrete hormones or other chemicals into the bloodstream-the motor function.

The nervous system itself has two main parts:

The central nervous system includes the brain and spinal cord which acts as a control center.

The peripheral nervous system includes all other nerve elements. All these elements connect the brain and spinal cord to muscles and glands.

Neurons power their functions

It is important to note that the body of a human being is made up of billions of cells which are ordinarily the basic unit of all living things. This also applies to the single-celled organisms like the bacteria which can perform the basic functions needed to sustain life. These basic functions may include gathering energy from food, reproducing and producing waste materials. Looking at the cells, nearly all of them have three parts which are:

An outer wall also known as membrane
A nucleus that contains essential chemicals
A body of clear fluid called the cytoplasm

Plants, animals and human beings are multicellular meaning creatures with many-cells. Of these cells billions of them are specialize in certain specific functions. For example, some cells would become:

Part of muscle tissue and help us to move.
Other cells make up organs, glands, blood, veins, arteries, and bones.

Neurotransmitters cross the gaps between neurons

For it to effectively serve its three functions, the nervous systems which includes the vast circuits of delicate cells which are very much elaborately interconnected and in fact the brain, spinal cord and nerves all over the body are all made up of one kind of cell. These are the nerves cells and they are also known as neurons and as had been indicated that the brain of human beings has billions of neurons. Now the question you need to ask yourselves is does your spinal cord and all the nerves that fan out from the spinal cord to your glands, organs, and muscles.

The specific functions of the neurons are to allow your brain to learn reason and be able to remember things. Through these activities the body responds and adjusts to changes in the environment. These changes are also called stimuli, they will set off impulses in our sense organs like: the eye, the ear and other organs of taste and smell and sensory receptors located in the skin joins, muscles and other parts of the body. Now having listened to all these it is important to note that every time you feel something including the effects of a drug, know that millions of neurons are firing messages to form one another.

Each neuron may have thousands of branches that connect it to other neurons and these branches are called dendrites or axons. Dendrites carry messages towards the cell body while axons carry messages away from the cell body to another neuron. Axons can extend as long as four feet in humans and in some animals even longer.

In the beginning it was believed that axons and dendrites simply run through the body continuously like a wire but letter on a space was discovered between each axon and dendrite. This space in known as a synaptic gap or synapse and it is the space between the axon of one neuron and the dendrite of the next neuron in a nerve pathway. This gap is negligibly small and it is about one millionth of an inch, it is that small.

Research finding originally believed that electrical impulses jumped these gaps like electricity does across the gap in spark plug but this theory has been ruled out as it is now known that this was never true. It is the chemicals which travel across the gap and not electrical impulses and these chemicals are also neurotransmitters.

A number of chemical building blocks for neurotransmitters such as amino acids come from the kinds of food we eat meaning that our bodies have the ability to manufacture or produce neurotransmitters. Neurons offer a storage package for neurotransmitters known as vesicles which are located very close to the endings of each axon. They (neurons) synthesize some neurotransmitters right in the vesicle while other neurotransmitters are synthesized in the body of the cell and transported to the vesicle. Most of the addictive substances have the ability to change the effects of neurotransmitters on neurons. We will be able to better comprehend how these substances work when we get to know about neurotransmitters and how they act as chemical messengers

Neurotransmitters meet three criteria

Neurotransmitters are molecules-groups of atoms joined by a chemical bond which act as a unit. For them to be called neurotransmitters a molecule must meet the following three criteria:

The molecule must be present and evenly distributed in the brain meaning that the molecules must not just concentrate in one segment but must spread out among different types of neurons and across all segments of the brain that have different functions.
Chemical criteria that is to say the enzymes which help in creating the neurotransmitter must be available in the brain. An enzyme is a catalyst protein which speeds up chemical reactions within the body. It is also important that these enzymes be available in areas where the neurotransmitters are found.
The criterion of mimicry assuming that we inject directly a neurotransmitter into a section of the brain known to contain certain neurons, this injection should be able to imitate the effects of electrically stimulating the same neurons.

Neurons and Neurotransmitters-The Brains of the Nervous System

Category Archives: addiction