February is Heart Health Month, a time often dedicated to promoting healthy habits like maintaining a balanced diet, managing weight, and staying active. However, for those living with a substance use disorder (SUD), it’s also an important opportunity to highlight how alcohol and drug use can affect your heart’s ability to function properly.
The encouraging news is that seeking addiction treatment and starting your recovery journey can not only improve your overall well-being but also support better heart health along the way.
How Substances Impact Your Heart’s Health
Any time you use a substance foreign to your body, there’s a chance it could interact with your heart. For those with an SUD, the impact on your heart, both short-term and long-term, is dependent on the type of substance, how long, and how much you used. The American Heart Association shares that there are numerous drugs, including cocaine, heroin, and various types of amphetamines, impact the central nervous system and can change a person’s state of consciousness. In addition, there are many side effects and risks for your heart associated with substance use.
Opioid Addiction and Heart Health
Those who use opioids, a type of pain reliever, may experience structural damage to their heart over time. This includes medications and illicit drugs such as:
- Oxycodone
- Morphine
- Codeine
- Hydrocodone
- Heroin
- Fentanyl
These drugs can cause infective endocarditis, a type of infection to the lining of the heart. The most common cause is shared needles. However, these drugs also slow the heart rate and, in cases of opioid overdose, may do so at a rate that causes cardiac arrest. Your heart could stop working. Long-term use increases this risk because it leads to tolerance, increasing your desire to use more at dangerously high levels.
Cocaine Addiction and Heart Health
Cocaine users may experience:
- Reduced blood flow to the heart and angina, a type of chest pain
- High blood pressure
- Thicker heart muscle walls
- Stiffer arteries
- Heart infections
- Damage to cardiac tissue that could lead to heart failure
It’s often referred to as the “perfect heart attack drug” because of the significantly higher increase in these symptoms occurring in those who use cocaine. Those who use cocaine regularly are at the highest risk for such damage. Cocaine addiction treatment can reduce these risks.
Alcohol Addiction and Heart Health
Alcohol is a depressant, which means it has the ability to slow the central nervous system, which indirectly reduces the heart’s rate. However, excessive alcohol consumption stresses the heart, causing high blood pressure. Over time, this leads to the development of heart failure and strokes. Drinking alcohol consistently is linked to cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart muscle cannot squeeze effectively to move blood into the organs. This condition, known as heart failure, also increases the risk of early death.
Amphetamine Addiction and Heart Health
Amphetamines, including methamphetamines, are dangerous drugs because of how addictive they can be. These drugs stimulate your brain’s function, which causes the heart to beat faster. This is unsustainable over the long term. Your heart simply cannot maintain long-term fast rates and remain healthy. These substances can also cause high blood pressure, increasing the risk of a heart attack.
Ecstasy Addiction and Heart Health
MDMA, or ecstasy, is a club drug that can cause serious damage to the heart. It’s a stimulant, which means it increases the heart’s rate of speed and increases blood pressure. Over time, this is damaging to the function of the heart.
Marijuana Addiction and Heart Health
Marijuana use can cause damage to your heart in both the short and long term. The most adverse implications are associated with smoking marijuana, which damages the heart’s blood vessels. This also increases your heart rate and blood pressure. This makes it more likely to have a stroke or suffer other types of heart disease.
What You Can Do This Month To Protect Your Health
Now is the ideal time to take action. Focus on your heart from another perspective as well. Addiction robs you of following your dreams, embracing life, and living the way you desire. It makes it harder for you to maintain relationships, build a career that interests you, or make a difference in the lives of those that matter to you.
You can change that by seeking out help. With our drug and alcohol treatment services at The Ranch at Dove Tree, you can start working on your SUD, and that means working to heal your body, mind, and spirit as you do. Our comprehensive treatment programs, including outpatient and inpatient care, are available to most people. Contact us today to learn more.
