17 Jun What Does Cocaine Do To Your Body?
Cocaine is a stimulant that increases your heart rate and blood pressure, raises your alertness, and gives you feelings of euphoria. Whether you are using cocaine or crack cocaine, these drugs can impact almost every system in your body. But what, exactly, does cocaine do to your body? Let’s take a look.
What does cocaine do to your body?
Cocaine pupils and other eye problems
‘Cocaine eyes’ are a hallmark side effect characterized by large, dilated pupils that remain dilated even in bright lights. Users may also notice that the white area of their eyes turn red and bloodshot. Long-term use can cause permanent damage to your eyes and may even lead to vision loss in severe cases.
Tooth and gum damage
Cocaine that is snorted or applied directly to your gums can impact your gums and teeth, reducing your gum line and causing tooth decay. In some cases, it can cause a hole in the roof of your mouth, which can make it harder to eat, drink, or talk normally.
Cardiovascular damage
Your heart can also be impacted by regular cocaine use. Since cocaine is a stimulant, it causes your heart to work harder. At the same time, it also restricts how much oxygen can get to it. This causes significant stress to your entire cardiovascular damage.
Risks of needle use
Individuals who use cocaine by injecting it into their bloodstream can damage or permanently scar their blood vessels. Individuals who share needles with others are susceptible to contracting hepatitis and other communicable diseases when paraphernalia has not been properly sanitized.
Brain and cognitive changes
Cocaine can impact your brain, changing how you make decisions. Regular use ages your brain prematurely, leading to brain fog and difficulty thinking or staying focused. Cocaine can even rewire your brain and make it more difficult to be self-aware of why you need to get treatment.
Can cause psychosis
Acute use may result in feelings of paranoia and of being watched. Chronic use may result in psychosis, with 53% of regular users reporting some form of cocaine-induced psychosis in one study.
Tremors and twitches
Since cocaine restricts – and in some cases cuts off – blood flow to capillaries, it can cause lasting nerve damage. This damage can manifest as uncontrollable tremors or twitches in the limbs or eyes.
Nutritional deficiencies
Cocaine can suppress your appetite, leading some individuals to become malnourished due to inadequate intake of essential vitamins and nutrients. Dehydration is also common and can further exacerbate blood pressure, heart rate, liver damage, and more.
Insomnia, difficulty sleeping, and restlessness
Cocaine alters the body’s circadian rhythm, affecting specific genes relating to sleep. This may manifest as difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, and getting less deep sleep than people who are not using cocaine. Sleep deprivation can cause its own set of short and long-term health issues since your body does not have an adequate opportunity to repair itself overnight.
Nose damage
Individuals who snort cocaine can cause damage to the sensitive lining inside the nostrils. This can lead to a loss of sense of smell and even erode the tissue between the nostrils, causing a hole in severe cases. This hole can cause structural changes to the nose itself that may require surgery to repair.
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In sum, what does cocaine do to your body? Too much. It may be hard to believe, but the list above is not comprehensive, and there are many ways cocaine can impact your health and wellbeing.
That’s why seeking treatment is so important. Elite Home Detox brings detox directly to you, saving you the time and hassle of going to an inpatient rehab center. We offer private, customized detox and aftercare programs that will equip you with the tools you need to stay sober for good.
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