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Understanding the Distress in People with Cancer

Understanding the Distress in People with Cancer: What is normal or abnormal?

Understanding the Distress in People with Cancer

Understanding the Distress in People with Cancer will help in offering quality ant timely treatment solutions.

With the prevalence of chronic diseases like cancer, there are certain questions that we need to answer well if we want to keep distance from such diseases. Being distressful is one common problem that is associated with cancer, and this brings us to the first question to respond to. “How do you know when your distress level is normal or more serious?” according to the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center, responding to this question directly may be very difficult due to the fact that some distress are normal and are expected when one is struggling with cancer. However doctor Akoury, who is also the founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center, says that certain signs and symptoms can warn you that your distress level is too high and is becoming serious. Some of those sign and symptoms may include:

  • Feeling flabbergasted to the point of panic
  • Being overcome by a sense of anxiety
  • Being overwhelmed with sadness to the point that you think you won’t make it through treatment
  • Being unusually irritable and angry
  • Feeling unable to cope with pain, tiredness, and nausea
  • Poor concentration, fuzzy thinking and sudden memory problems
  • Having difficulties in making certain decisions including very little and simple things.
  • Feeling hopeless – wondering if there is any point in going on
  • Thinking about cancer and death all the time
  • Trouble getting to sleep or early waking (getting less than 4 hours of sleep a night)
  • Trouble eating (a decrease in appetite, or no appetite) for a few weeks
  • Family conflicts and issues that seem impossible to resolve
  • Questioning your faith and religious beliefs that once gave you comfort
  • Feeling worthless and useless

Understanding the distress in people with cancer can be very complicated because a lot of things can be involved. Like for instance in some cases and many of them historical things from the past may put you or your loved one in danger of greater distress and in need of help. The following are some examples of past events that can cause distress to be worse when you have cancer:

  • Having a loved one who died from cancer
  • Having a recent serious illness or death of someone close to you
  • Having had depression or suicidal thoughts in the past
  • Memories of painful events from your past that come back as nightmares or panic attacks

If any of these describe you or a loved one, then you need to talk to your doctor immediately for direction. This could be an indication that you need help in dealing with distress. Remember that currently doctors and nurses and even other health professionals have established that emotional distress is closely associated with having cancer and should be treated along with the physical symptoms of cancer. If you are looking for the best cancer treatment centers, remember to have this problem of distress treatment in mind. Look for facilities that offer both cancer and distress treatment all together.

Understanding the Distress in People with Cancer: Tools to help measure distress

Sometimes it’s hard to talk about distress in a way that helps your cancer care team understand how much distress you’re having and how it’s affecting you. There’s a distress tool that’s much like a pain scale to help measure your distress. The pain scale works like this:

When asking about pain, the doctor might say, “How is your pain right now on a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being no pain and 10 the worst pain you can imagine?” This has proved to be a helpful way to measure pain. A score above 5 is a sign of significant pain, and tells the cancer care team that the patient needs more help to manage it.

Some cancer teams measure distress in the same way, using a 0 to 10 scale. Just as with the pain scale, you are asked to choose the number from 0 to 10 that reflects how much distress you feel today and how much you felt over the past week. Ten is the highest level of distress you can imagine, and 0 is no distress. Most people can use this scale to rate their distress in a way that helps the cancer team. If your response is 4 or more, you are likely to have a moderate-to-high degree of distress. Your doctor and/or cancer team should find out more and offer some help with your distress.

Not only does this tool tell your team about your emotional health, but it also gives you a chance to talk and work out problems during your visit. Surveys done in cancer clinics have shown that up to 4 in 10 patients have significant levels of distress. It therefore means that no matter how distressful you may be, you are not alone in your distress situation.

Another part of the distress tool is the “Problem List,” or a list of things that may be causing your distress. For this, you read through a list of common problems and mark possible reasons for your distress. This helps your doctor to know whom you need to see to get help. The list of physical problems helps you remember those you should tell your treatment team about.

Understanding the Distress in People with Cancer: Do you need extra help for your distress?

People are affected differently with some people having a higher risk of serious distress. Like for instance if you have any of these experiences, then you will need some extra help:

  • Have had depression or other major mental health problems in the past
  • Have made a suicide attempt in the past
  • Suffer from other serious medical problems besides cancer
  • Have communication problems (such as a different language, trouble reading, or hearing problems)
  • Have some type of social or family problems
  • Have ever been physically or sexually abused
  • Are younger
  • Are female
  • Live alone
  • Have limited access to medical care
  • Have young children in the home
  • Lived with very high stress levels (even before the cancer)
  • Have ever abused alcohol or drugs
  • Have financial problems
  • Have spiritual or religious concerns
  • Have uncontrolled symptoms

Both you and your cancer care team may also notice when there are times when you are at risk for greater distress during the course of illness and treatment. Cancer is often said to be “like being on a roller coaster.” These times for more distress are often at points of change in the illness and treatment:

  • Finding a suspicious new symptom
  • During work-up and diagnosis
  • Waiting to start treatment
  • Changing treatment
  • Going home from the hospital
  • Finishing treatment
  • Going back to your cancer doctor for follow-up visits
  • Going back to a “normal” life after treatment
  • Cancer comes back
  • Treatment doesn’t work
  • Cancer gets worse or becomes advanced
  • Nearing the end of life
  • Going into hospice care

If your distress reaches moderate to severe levels at these times, you may need extra help. And up on understanding the distress in people with cancer, you can schedule for an appointment with doctor Dalal Akoury today for that much needed professional help.

Understanding the Distress in People with Cancer: What is normal or abnormal?

 

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Effects of Inflammation on the body organs

Effects of Inflammation on the body organs: Obesity and Depression are Symptoms of a Common Cause

Effects of Inflammation on the body organs

Effects of Inflammation on the body organs can be very dangerous especially when the victim is also obese or overweight

Some of the health conditions affecting our life are known to us yet we often don’t notice them easily. Take for instance a problem of inflammation; many of us do not take notice of this until we experience an injury either by way of swellings, redness and pain flood that affects the area. But even with this indication, when we opted for treatment our focus is always on the pain and not the internal healing process. Inflammation can damage organs and cause disease, but its interference in the brain causes two common disorders. We are therefore going to be discussing the effects of inflammation on the body organs for better understanding of the body’s vulnerability to this complication. Doctor Dalal Akoury explains that ordinarily your body’s defense mechanism kicks in, and you don’t have to think too much about inflammation because it is always there when you need it.

However even though this is so, inflammation might also occur when you don’t need it, and if it does, it can cause problems. In some people, inflammation is present at very low levels. It is no wonder that many experts now believe that this type of low-grade, chronic inflammation is responsible for a litany of chronic conditions. Therefore when inflammation extents to the pancreas the affected person is at risk of getting diabetes. When it spreads to the immune system, you get cancer. And like cancer, this type of inflammation grows and spreads, damaging organs and causing all kinds of trouble.

Effects of Inflammation on the body organs: Weakened Signals

The speed with which inflammation spreads does not only cause damages to your organs, but also interferes with your brain’s signals and to the rest of your body systems. With such many conditions the trouble starts in the hypothalamus which is the command center of the brain. The command center then receives all these hormonal inputs that inform you when you’re tired or when to eat and what to do with those calories.

When you have inflammation, a protein called pro-inflammatory cytokines distorts those hormonal signals. As a result, inflammation might be causing conditions such as depression and obesity, which were correlated through research long before inflammation became a suspected culprit. Nonetheless when it comes to depression, those cytokines communicate with the brain to induce different depressive symptoms, such as sad mood, fatigue, altered sleep and social-behavioral withdrawal. Inflammation also drives obesity in a similar manner.

Effects of Inflammation on the body organs: Metabolic Syndrome

Inflammation has recently been linked with metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of symptoms that raise your risk for chronic conditions such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Those symptoms include hypertension, low levels of HDL (good) cholesterol, above-normal blood glucose and triglyceride levels, and a large waist. Most people with metabolic syndrome are obese and inactive, so these symptoms have become associated with obesity. However, many obese people don’t have those symptoms. They fall into a category called metabolically healthy obese. It means they don’t look very good in a swimsuit, but if you look at their blood, they’re in pretty good shape. This is probably because they don’t have chronic inflammation. Therefore we can’t say that obesity causes inflammation, but we can comfortably say that inflammation drives obesity.

Effects of Inflammation on the body organs: Depression is No Simpler

Doctor Akoury says that inflammation may drive depression in a similar fashion. The links between inflammation and depression are complex and we are just beginning to understand how they affect each other. Though it is possible that depression may lead to changes that cause inflammation, experimental studies have shown that increases in inflammation can promote depression.

According to Canada’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health findings, it was established that people suffering from depression had 30 percent higher levels of inflammation in the brain. This was one of the first studies to show concretely that inflammation is present in depression even when other conditions are absent. Moreover depression is still complex and unlikely to be caused by inflammation alone just like obesity.

When I started my career in the medical profession, and like many of my colleagues, I generally thought about depression as a psychiatric disorder or a mental health problem and I believe that many people still think of it that way. But nevertheless what I have come to realize is that depression is also a disorder with deep biological roots. It is as much of a physical issue as a mental one, and we should start talking about it that way. Like for instance, if you were to compare depression to a more physical illness. When you have the flu, your body’s immune system springs into action to fight it off, including increasing inflammation. In addition to the nausea and fever, you also have symptoms of depression: fatigue, aches, mental fog and an unwillingness to leave the house. In a contagious illness, those symptoms help us rest and avoid spreading the disease, but in depression they’re nothing but trouble.

Effects of Inflammation on the body organs: Reducing Inflammation

Tests that indicate your levels of inflammation are available, but they can be expensive and aren’t always conclusive. They almost certainly aren’t covered by insurance unless you have an autoimmune disorder. It therefore means that you may never know your true levels of inflammation; however you can still do your part to control it. Controlling inflammation is a balancing act. You need some, but not too much. By far, the best drug we have for this is diet.

Certain staples of the recent American diet promote high levels of inflammation. The two largest culprits are omega-6 fatty acids and insulin spikes brought on by consuming starchy carbs. The combination of insulin and omega-6 fatty acids is like a match and gasoline you get an explosion of this low-level inflammation.

To reduce it, the best foods are those with omega-3 fatty acids and high levels of polyphenols, the compounds in fruits and vegetables that give them color. These good fats and colorful fruits and vegetables, along with lean protein, make up the majority of his anti-inflammatory meal plan. Along with diet, a healthy lifestyle and stress reduction techniques help reduce levels of inflammation, especially in the brain. It is also important to maintain a healthy diet, stay active, keep a regular sleep schedule and limit the psychological stress we experience. And in all these ensure to consult with the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center for professional advices from time to time.

Effects of Inflammation on the body organs: Effects of Inflammation

 

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How does heroin use affect pregnant women

How does heroin use affect pregnant women: Protecting the Unborn Babies from Drug Abuse?

How does heroin use affect pregnant women

How does heroin use affect pregnant women. It increase in premature delivery, low birth weight and death around the time of delivery.

Life begins at conception and protection of that life begins even before conception. That is why getting it is important that when one is planning to get a baby they must make sure that they are free from any kind of drug. Just like the young children should be brought up in a drug free environment, the unborn babies should also find the environment where they are going to dwell in on conception to be free from drugs. One may be wondering how heroin or any other drug can affect the child in the womb, if this concerns you, then you are at the right place because that is what we are going to discuss under the topic “how does heroin use affect pregnant women.” Experts from AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under Doctor Akoury’s care are explaining certain points for our understanding as follows.

Doctor Akoury who is also the founder of the facility states that parental drug misuse can have an effect on the development of the fetus and long-term consequences for growing children. Some effects may be physical, but the most important ones will occur during the development of the mind and brain of the child. It is important to appreciate that some of these effects may not be visible, and, in some cases, the impact on the child´s development and behavior may not be noticeable for some years.

Although damage to the fetus can occur at any stage of the pregnancy, the first three months are the most vulnerable period for congenital malformations, while brain growth is most rapid late in pregnancy. The effects on the unborn child include:

  • Chromosomal abnormalities
  • Structural malformations (e.g. cleft palate)
  • Intrauterine growth retardation
  • Functional impairment (e.g. deafness)
  • Behavioral abnormalities (e.g. hyperactivity) and
  • Learning difficulties.

In addition, a high proportion of newborn babies, especially those whose mother used heroin before conception, will suffer withdrawal symptoms which may last up to several months and which will include:

  • Tremors
  • High muscle tone
  • Irritability
  • Diarrhea
  • Vomiting and
  • Abnormal feeding and sleep patterns

How does heroin use affect pregnant women: Heroin?

Experts carrying out studies in various have not established any clear evidence that heroin causes malformations to the fetus, nonetheless there is an increase in premature delivery, low birth weight and death around the time of delivery. Forty to eighty per cent of babies will develop a withdrawal syndrome lasting from several days to several months. The children tend to grow normally afterwards, although small head circumference may persist. There is no clear evidence of abnormal brain development in most of the children studied. Although methadone can be substituted for heroin, it may be more beneficial for the mother, and more toxic for the newborn.

How does heroin use affect pregnant women: Cocaine, crack cocaine (coke, snow)

There is considerable disagreement amongst medical experts as to whether cocaine or crack causes congenital malformations, but small head size, intrauterine growth retardation, prematurity, stillbirths, heart defects, abnormal bone development and neonatal withdrawal syndrome have been noted. Some studies have reported learning disorders and attention deficit at three years of age; however, longer-term follow up is needed to establish the importance of these effects.

How does heroin use affect pregnant women: Amphetamines?

They include methamphetamine, speed and Ecstasy, and are known to cause maternal anorexia, hypertension and reduced blood flow to the placenta. There is no conclusive evidence so far that amphetamines cause congenital malformations, but there is a risk of intrauterine growth retardation and premature delivery. It is thought that withdrawal symptoms may develop. There is no clear evidence that prenatal amphetamine exposure causes long-term effects on growth and development.

How does heroin use affect pregnant women: Cannabis (marijuana, Indian hemp, hashish?)

Cannabis is one of the most commonly used drugs in pregnant women, but little is known about its effects during pregnancy. There is conflicting data about the association of cannabis with congenital malformations and neonatal withdrawal syndrome. One long-term study found that the speech and memory performance among four-year olds whose mothers had consumed cannabis daily or several times a week during pregnancy was affected significantly

How does heroin use affect pregnant women: Looking forward for Diagnosis

Diagnosing babies and young children as affected by parental drug misuse and predicting likely outcomes is very hard to establish. This is partly due to the lack of conclusive research to date and to the fact that it is nearly impossible to accurately determine the type, amount and timing in pregnancy for each substance used especially as users often combine different drugs together, sometimes with alcohol.

Substance misuse is also frequently associated with poverty, physical or mental health issues, poor medical care and diet, which makes it even more difficult to clearly establish correlations between cause and effect. The most important thing to remember is that, by providing a stable, loving home for children affected by drugs and offering them good parenting, optimal nutrition, and appropriate stimulation, health care and educational opportunities, you can help them to reach their full potential.

Finally the innocent babies must not be subjected to such harsh toxic environment when there is something we can do to prevent this and be free from the harms of addiction. Doctor Akoury and her team of experts have been offering addiction solutions to many people and your condition will be handled professionally on if you can make that very important decision of scheduling for an appointment with doctor Dalal Akoury today.

How does heroin use affect pregnant women: Protecting the Unborn Babies from Drug Abuse?

 

 

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The Prevalence of Heroin Addiction Globally

The Prevalence of Heroin Addiction Globally: How Addicts get hooked up to Heroin

The Prevalence of Heroin Addiction Globally

The Prevalence of Heroin Addiction Globally is becoming uncontrollable going by the rate at which young people are being hooked up to drugs

Until you get out and see for yourself or listen to people share their experience, you may not know the impact of heroin addiction in your neighborhood. The prevalence of heroin addiction globally is taking a new dimension. Currently heroin and other substance abuse are no longer drugs associated with the city centers but the net is widening even in to the local estates and neighborhoods. In the previous article we doctor Akoury shared with us the story of a young man named Felix and how he was progressively lured into drugs. From a simple experiment Felix was introduced to legal medications like the painkillers and before he knew he was an addict. In this article we are going to further on that discussion by focusing on some of the experiences other people have had an opportunity to witness. There are a lot of recordings that give us a clear picture of the prevalence of heroin addiction globally. Take for example according to recent report “Donna Holaday looks out the window of her city hall office in Newburyport, an affluent coastal city 37 miles north of Boston. Ms. Holaday has been mayor of the town the past four years and was recently reelected. Over that time, she has seen her share of municipal concerns come across her busy desk. But few have been as worrying as the growing use of heroin in her idyllic community.”

Although she knew of the drug’s presence in the city, the report continues, Holaday says that it wasn’t until police reports started surfacing and concerned residents began showing up in her office that she understood the depth of the problem and the emotional anguish it was causing. She continues to narrate that “I had a mother sitting in my office crying, telling me her story about how she pulled her son out of a trailer, just over the border in New Hampshire, and [how] he would have died [if she hadn’t intervened],” she says.

As if that was not enough other local parents also told her about finding needles and syringes in the leafy playgrounds where their children romped. Addicts were seen “shooting up” on the city’s Clipper City Rail Trail, a scenic biking and jogging path. Newburyport Police Marshal Thomas Howard says his department has responded to more than a dozen heroin overdoses in the past months. Without the use of Narcan, an overdose reversal drug, he says the number of deaths in the area “would be skyrocketing.”

The Prevalence of Heroin Addiction Globally: The trend of Heroin is affecting even the once drug Free states

Ideally, Newburyport isn’t the kind of town you’d expect to have any heroin footprint at all. It is one of those communities that seem to have everything including; beauty, wealth, a vibrant arts culture, and an enviable location. Straddling the banks of the Merrimack River and its outlet to the Atlantic Ocean, Newburyport has a storied seafaring heritage that is visible at every salt-scented turn.

Its harbor once bustled with clipper ships from around the world. The city’s High Street is a showcase of imposing Federal-style homes that trace their lineage to sea captains and speculators who plied the waters of the West Indies, trading molasses for rum in the 1700s. These same homes, once maintained by black and native American slaves, later became a means of escape as part of the Underground Railroad.

Now this city is trying to end a different kind of slavery. Mr. Pettigrew, of the DEA, lives in Newburyport. As a member of the agency’s regional office, he and his fellow agents track where the drugs flowing into New England are coming from – a trail that usually leads to cartels in Colombia and Mexico and the story continues in our next article

While heroin has always been available in the region, what’s changed recently is the purity of the drugs on the street. Pettigrew notes that the heroin that addicts used to shoot up with was 2 or 3 percent pure. Today, the street purity of the drug can be as high as 80 percent.

That potency helps explain both the drug’s wider appeal and its new danger. Heroin once had to be injected for users to get the high they were looking to achieve, but it is now concentrated enough that they can smoke or snort it to get a similar effect – methods that make heroin easier for people like Felix to use it without feeling like a junkie. The higher purity is also more likely to trigger an overdose for those who do inject it.

Like everything else, you’re trying to sell your product, so [dealers are] trying to pitch it as a more potent drug for you to take and get high off of.

Stronger heroin is only one reason behind the nation’s growing addiction problem. The other – and more prevalent cause, say police and medical experts – is the nation’s pill culture.

Felix’s route to addiction is a familiar one, according to addicts: a progression from alcohol to marijuana to painkillers to heroin. There are variations on that theme: a sports injury and a prescription for opioids that goes on far longer than it should; a peek inside the family medicine cabinet to find a trove of prescription pills – such as Percocet, OxyContin, Vicodin, codeine – that can be used as recreational drugs.

Often the introduction comes through friends who want to share a high they have discovered. Or it happens at a college party where a variety of drugs are being offered.

Finally irrespective of how this scourge begun the common denominator is that, it usually takes the same impulsive route. And once hooked, users look for doctors who will sell them prescription drugs, and when that fails, desperation sets in and the only available option is in the street. The painkiller drugs are often accessible to the street at an average cost. The condition will continue to deteriorate as sources of income gets depleted. When they can no longer finance their habits they turn to the very last resort which is fairly affordable and provide the same or better result than the painkillers. The most accessible in this case is the heroin which is much cheaper compared to other drugs we have mentioned.

The Prevalence of Heroin Addiction Globally: How Addicts get hooked up to Heroin

 

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Heroin and Drug Abuse Management Options

Heroin and Drug Abuse Management Options: Why do people Abuse Drugs

Heroin and Drug Abuse Management Options

Heroin and Drug Abuse Management Options goes beyond creating awareness. The rate of addiction and usage is escalating at an alarming rate

While addressing the importance of prevention of heroin overdose in the societies from our previous article which you can make reference to, we indicated that we will discuss with you some points you need to know about the impact of heroin overdose in our societies. This is what we want to focus on in this section primarily looking at the heroin and drug abuse management options available for us in the fight a against drug abuse. Doctor Dalal Akoury is going to educate us on what we need to know about this problem and the following are some of the points we want to discuss:

  • Majority of new users get to heroin as a result of addiction to prescription drugs.
  • Quitting heroin is the easy part the hard part is staying off.
  • The users trying to quit for good run the greatest risk of overdose.
  • We could stop people from dying of overdose, except we can’t find them.

Heroin and Drug Abuse Management Options: Majority of new users get to heroin as a result of addiction to prescription drugs

Heroin users like any other drug abuser are not really copying this practice from their favorite rock musicians. Currently the available statistics is estimating that about 80% of new heroin users are lured into the drug after becoming addicted to the prescription pain medication. Due to a new medical focus on treating pain alongside false advertising by pharmaceutical companies, opiate painkiller prescriptions exploded from 76 million in 1991 to 219 million in 2011. The translation of this is that almost one for every American adult. This necessitated the authorities to begin responding to the growing addiction and overdose by cracking down on prescription excess and fraudulent pill mills. With the intervention of the authorities, those patients who found themselves addicted when their prescriptions ran out of supply, resorted for the cheap accessible pills on the street. Many switched from $50 Oxycontin pills to $10 doses of heroin. That is why in my introduction I indicated that, it is essential that government agencies and medical professionals keep working together to reduce our reliance on opiate painkillers. Nevertheless since more opiate-addicted patients are cut off from their legal supply, many more will turn to heroin. It is time to address our society’s heroin problem.

Heroin and Drug Abuse Management Options: Quitting heroin is easy the hard part is staying off

A serious heroin user who misses a dose or two suffers the painful withdrawal like that of the story in our last article where the young boy had to be jailed. Worse than the physical symptoms are the debilitating depression and the knowledge that just one dose would make all the pains go away. In a few days, withdrawal ends but the cravings do not. Long-term heroin use causes users to hunger for heroin just in the same way we often hunger for food. Most users today have been through treatment multiple times, and only five to fifteen percent stay off for good. It is not a question of low self-control, cravings never ends, it may not show for a while but when triggered, it may not matter how long you have been off the drugs you are still able to relapse. Realistically people can relapse due to the loss of their jobs, problems with relationships. Besides these your success can also be a trigger for relapse. For instance if you have made great achievement in your business or profession, you may want to reward yourself with a single celebration that can lead to total relapse.

The society is not helping either. We often feel adamant in accepting the rehabilitated addicts or those who have served their jail terms. Take for example many organizations are not willing to absorb former convicts in job positions. Actually very few if will hire someone with a criminal record, especially for heroin. Just when users need help rebuilding a stable life, their criminal records cripple their job applications and bar them from college loans, assistance programs and professional licenses.

Heroin and Drug Abuse Management Options: The users trying to quit for good run the greatest risk of overdose.

Regular heroin users know how much of the drug their bodies can take. They increase their habit slowly, building up a high opiate tolerance. But when they quit, their bodies rapidly lose this tolerance. If they stay clean for a few weeks and then inject their usual dose, the dose may be fatal. If you followed the story of the young boy who only after two weeks of freedom from jail term, borrowing his friend’s car, his tolerance dropped enough that the usual dose killed him.

Others die from taking heroin with cocaine and alcohol, or from bad batches that the dealer mixed poorly or blended with toxic substances. Bad batches are par for the course, since the dealer’s only qualification as a pharmacist is his willingness to risk his life and the lives of others. But the most common reason for overdose is relapse use. In fact, studies show that people who die of heroin overdose actually have on average lower levels of heroin in their bodies than living users. This means that it is the people trying hardest to quit who are at the greatest risk of dying.

Heroin and Drug Abuse Management Options: We could stop people from dying of overdose, except we can’t find them

Many are surprised to learn that heroin overdose deaths are entirely preventable. Naloxone which is administered by injection or nasal spray reverses overdose within seconds by dislodging the drug from the brain’s opiate receptor sites. Naloxone is available in hospitals and carried by paramedics and some police officers. In a small number of cities, community-based overdose programs train users, family and friends to administer naloxone. Now the question that begs for an answer is “if we can stop heroin overdoses, why do they still claim the lives of our people daily?” this is possibly because users inject alone and in hiding. Any heroin user who attempted to ensure his or her safety by injecting in a hospital or near a policeman would be arrested. Even when users overdose around others, fellow users often hesitate to call 911. In 29 states, if a user calls 911 to save a friend from overdose, police can arrest those at the scene for drug possession. Naloxone has great potential to save lives, but the fear of arrest prevents it from realizing this potential.

Heroin and Drug Abuse Management Options: Why do people Abuse Drugs

 

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