Give an account of the physiological effect of 3 recreational drugs on the human body

Name: Behrooz Khoshooee

Student Number: 283644

Biology, April 2006

Introduction

This paper would look into three different recreational drugs and their physiological affect on human body. These drugs are Nicotine, Alcohol and Ecstasy. We will study each drug and explain how they would affect different body systems.

Nicotine

For many years people have been smoking or chewing the leaves of tobacco plant which is a main source of nicotine. Nicotine is an organic compound made of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen; this type of compounds is called alkaloid and they have intoxicating effect on human body. Another alkaloid compounds which we enjoy their effect on our bodies is caffeine (O'Connell).

In human body nicotine would spread through skin, lungs and our Mucous membranes (i.e. the lining of our nose or gum). So from those areas nicotine would move into the blood vessel and than move to brain before spreading to the rest of body. Nicotine doesn’t stay very long in human body and it has half-life of about 60 minutes (O'Connell).

Effect of Nicotine on Body

Nicotine would change the way brain and body works. One of the first changes would be a rapid release of adrenaline. Adrenaline is normally known as the Fight or flight hormone. As a result of this there will be more glucose released in blood, this is due to needing energy to get out of a dangerous situation and for energy we need sugar (O'Connell).

Nicotine might block insulin hormone and stops its release in body. Insulin is the hormone that tells our body to start storing or disposing excess sugar from blood. So using nicotine would make us hyperglycaemic, high sugar level in our blood. When body and brain sees the extra sugar in blood it would blocks or lower the hormones that are known to us as hunger. This is the reason for some people not eating as much and loosing weight when smoking. A bigger weight loss could be expected by using nicotine as it would increase the basal metabolic rate and causing in burning more calories as you would normally do. Although this weight loss is not healthy at all and in the long-term it would raise the level of bad cholesterol (LDL) in blood. This would damage the arteries by sticking the cholesterol to its wall and it could cause blockage in arteries. If the blocked arteries are placed on heart it would result to not transporting blood to the heart muscles and they would get damage. This would put you in more risk of having heart attach or stroke (O'Connell).

Figure 1 (How nicotine works)

One of the main thing that nicotine effects, is brain and our nerve system. It is in brain where we store and use information. Neurons are the nerve cells and they transfer and integrate information. Although information travel through nerve cells as electric charges but to help different neuron to communicate, it uses chemical messenger called neurotransmitters; which navigate between neurons and can attach to special proteins receptor in postsynaptic cell. By attaching to these receptors than any physical changes could be passed to neuron and than move the signal in neuron. There are different types of neurotransmitter and each can attach to a specific receptor. Nicotine would attach to receptors that would normally bind with acetylcholine neurotransmitter. This type of neurotransmitter would transport signals from brain to muscles, controls our energy level and have role in learning and memory and more (O'Connell).

Figure 2 (More than a kick)

Nicotine is able to become aware of any changes and activate the neuron, like acetylcholine. But nicotine is not synchronized with our body it would activate cholinergic neurons in many different area of our brain at the same time. This could result to:

Developing a better reaction time, being able to concentrate better and feeling that we could work better than normal by releasing more acetylcholine from the neurons. As a result there will be more activity in cholinergic pathways. This would send signals to our body ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Figure 2 (More than a kick)

Developing a better reaction time, being able to concentrate better and feeling that we could work better than normal by releasing more acetylcholine from the neurons. As a result there will be more activity in cholinergic pathways. This would send signals to our body that we need to re-energize ourselves and resulting in having better concentration etc (O'Connell).
Neurotransmitter dopamine would be released in our reward pathway of brain. This were brain would make sure we do staff that needed for our survival like drinking when we are thirsty (O'Connell).
Glutamate would be released, which is involves in memory (O'Connell).
Endorphins could be produced more than normal and this is body’s normal pain killer (O'Connell).
Accelerate the cellular activity of dermal fibroblasts and this result in cells having shorter life long. Dermal fibroblasts control the texture of skin. This is the reason why usually smokers don’t have good skins (More than a kick).

Although some affects of nicotine might be helpful to some people but if a normal person uses nicotine it could cause cancer, heart disease and stroke. So as you can see the benefits of nicotine are nothing compare to its problems (O'Connell).

Alcohol

Consumption of alcohol would cause a wide range of physical harm to human body and there is no system in body which is immune from alcohol effect. Latest studies show that alcohol could cause medical illness at a much lower levels than it was thought before. Regular drinking of 60g (or 4 pints or 7.5 units) could cause different illnesses like high blood pressure, strokes, liver problem, infertility and it could damage the nerve system. In women half that amount would increase the risk of starting those diseases. Knowing these it was surprising to find out that British spend more on alcohol than they do on other things like clothes, hospitals, schools and universities (Royal College of physicians).

While using alcohol you wouldn’t show any physical, social or emotional side effects at the early stage and it is only by careful examination that you could relate an illness to alcohol (Royal College of physicians).

Effect of alcohol on body

Alcohol gets absorbed through stomach (20%) and small intestine (80%). it will enter our blood stream and dissolve into the bloods water and its blood that transport alcohol to all over the body. Once it reaches different tissues it will start affecting them, alcohol would affect most tissues in body except fat tissues because alcohol can’t dissolve in fat (Freudenrich).

Alcohol would leave the body with help of kidney and liver (and lungs) and that is where it could do a lot of damage and cause long-term problems (Freudenrich). In kidney blood will be filtered and alcohol would turn into urine and leave the body. Kidneys would do the same for any other drug which means alcohol or any other poisons will travel through our kidneys. So drinking more alcohol means more exposure of our kidneys to alcohol and more damage to its tissues. Although kidneys are tough but they are not unconquerable and consuming alcohol could cause in temporary failure or slowly getting damage and causing in permanent failure (Kidney centre).

After filtering the blood, kidneys have another function and that is to control the water level of body. So when body needs more water the pituitary gland in our brain would releases vasopressin hormone, this hormone is also called anti-diuretic hormone “ADH”. These hormones would make nephron filters to not let water leave our body and pass more water back into blood stream. Each kidney has millions of nephrons, they are collection of capillaries where waste can filter through the cell walls and can then be removed (Kidney Link). Pituitary gland is controlled by hypothalamus, this is part of brain that not only control pituitary gland but controls many automatic functions of brain through actions on the medulla. Alcohol would affect hypothalamus and as result pituitary gland would get affected too. There major effects are related to sexual behaviour of body and our urine excretion. Alcohol would slow down the release of ADH by the pituitary gland, meaning nephrons wouldn’t absorb water and producing more urine. Because of this body would find itself dehydrated (Freudenrich).

Alcohol also would slow down the nerve centre of hypothalamus; which controls the sexual arousal and performances. So although the sexual behaviour increases but sexual performance wouldn’t be as normal (Freudenrich).

Alcohol after being absorbed would pass through our liver and than to our blood stream. One of the main functions of liver is to break down or chemically change any drug or harmful substances. So liver would try to break down the alcohol into carbon dioxide and water as much as it cans (usually 5%). Because liver is exposed to a high concentration of alcohol, it is one of the organs most likely to get damaged by it (British liver Trust). Another function of liver is to change the fat eaten by human to a fat that body can store but this function would be disrupted by liver trying to break down alcohol and resulting in a disease called “Fatty Liver”. Fatty liver is having large amount of triglycerides and other fat in our liver cells (Health line). Fatty liver could be cure by just stopping alcohol consumption; but if we keep drinking, liver would get more damage and fatty liver would turn to “alcoholic hepatitis”. Alcoholic hepatitis is the inflammation of liver caused by alcohol. This is because wide spread of liver cells are damaged or ruined and replaced by scar formation. Scar tissues would reduce the blood flow to the liver cells and causing in more liver cells to die and damaging liver. And if we don’t stop drinking there, liver would get bigger, more damaged and we would accumulate fluid in abdomen and other tissues of body (one of the sign of liver failure) and there is big chance of internal bleeding (Health Line). This could lead to permanent liver failure and death.

Figure 4

MDMA or Ecstasy

Although ecstasy in some dictionaries is describe as “intense joy or delight” but the drug ecstasy is an illegal drug which can damage the nerve cells and brain. Another name for this drug is MDMA short for “3, 4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine”. This drug was first manufactured in Germany to help with appetite suppressant. At later stage this drug was used for helping psychotherapy patients to relax and talk about their feelings. Although all these treatments have been stopped and there are no medical usage for it (Washington education).

MDMA effect on body

Like nicotine MDMA would affect neurotransmitters, as we said there are different types of neurotransmitters and MDMA would increase the activity of three of them and they are serotonin, dopamine, and norepinepherine and as result the brain activity would increases too. Serotonin is involved with controlling different behaviours like sleep, appetite, pain and many more. Releasing a great amount of it would lead to very low level of this type of neurotransmitter and it would take brain a long time to reproduce them to reach the normal level which is required for vital physiological and psychological functions (NIDA 2).

In some studies the brain scan of people who have used ecstasy has shown that MDMA could be toxic to human brain. These people didn’t show any abnormal behaviour but their brain scan showed damages to the brain caused by MDMA and some memory tests has shown that these people would get lower grade than normal people. MDMA or ecstasy would distinctively damage the brain cells responsible for production and release of serotonin, which damage to these could affect your memory and learning. For time being no body knows if this damage is permanent or not (Washington education).

One of the main affect of MDMA is its disruption of cardiovascular system, as it would affect the way heart pumps. When we exercise our heart would pumps faster and more efficiency but with MDMA in body heart respond in a different way and not properly. Most people use this drug when dancing or other tiring activity which could lead to cardiovascular system getting damage (NIDA 2). So far no one knows for sure why heart react like this but it has bean mention that MDMA could affect autonomic nerve system and that could lead to heart reacting abnormally (Washington education).

MDMA would affect the body’s ability to control the internal temperature of body and resulting in body temperature to increase. MDMA user would lose water being active and urine and resulting in dehydration. Increase of temperature and dehydration could lead to hyperthermia which is known as heat stroke. It is for this reason that it is suggested to ecstasy users to drink water while using ecstasy (Erowid).

Although drinking water could lead to another problem which is called hyponatremia or water intoxication. Our body tries to maintain a balance level of salt in blood at all time. While ecstasy users sweat while doing their activity (e.g. dancing) he/she is losing salts through sweating. At the same time some people drink lots of water which it would dilute the salt in blood and the salt level would be lowered to a dangerously low level. This would cause some body systems to fail and body would start showing sings of emergency or crisis like vomiting, confusion and one of the main signs is their brain would start to swell which is called brain edema and this could lead to brain damage and death (Erowid). This has been known as the most common reason for any ecstasy related death.

Conclusion

Although by using these drugs you might feel good about yourself, feel more confidence, be able to work better, concentrate better or dance all night but at the same time you are damaging your body and some of these damages could be permanent. Another problem with these drugs is being addictive, after while using them you wouldn’t feel the same with out them and you become dependent on them. So you would use more drugs to feel the same and damaging your body more at the same time. The main outcome of this paper would be that these drugs are no benefit to human and their body and if you haven’t used them so far don’t try them and if you are using them its time to stop.

Reference:

Books:

Royal college of physicians, “The medical consequences of alcohol, a great and growing evil”

Ralph E. Tarter and David H. Van Thiel, “Alcohol and the brain chromic effects”

Electronic references:

Ann Meeker-O'Connell, “How nicotine works” Visited at: http://health.howstuffworks.com/nicotine1.htm on 20/04/06

Craig C. Freudenrich, “How alcohol works” Visited at: http://science.howstuffworks.com/alcohol10.htm on 20/04/06

Kendall Morgan, “More than a kick” visited at: http://www.phschool.com/science/science_news/articles/more_than_a_kick.html on 21/04/06

Kidney centre, “How do drugs affect your kidneys?” visited at http://www.nwkidney.org/yourhealth/druguse/index.html on 20/04/06

Health line, “Fatty liver” visited at http://www.healthline.com/gale/Medicine/Fatty-Liver/gem_02_00604.html on 22/04/06

British liver Trust, “Alcohol and liver diseases” visited at http://www.britishlivertrust.org.uk/content/diseases/alcohol.asp on 22/04/06

Kidney Link, “Complications of Alcohol – Kidney Link” visited at http://www.montana.edu/wwwai/imsd/alcohol/Jace/Final%20Drafts/kidney.htm on 20/04/06

NIDA 1, “MDMA (Ecstasy)” visited at http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofacts/ecstasy.html on 24/04/06

NIDA 2, “Ecstasy: What We Know and Don't Know About MDMA
A Scientific Review” visited at http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofacts/ecstasy.html on 25/04/06

Washington education, “What is Ecstasy” visited at http://staff.washington.edu/chudler/mdma.html on 28/04/06

Erowid, “Water Issues with MDMA use: Dehydration, Over-Hydration & Heat Stroke” visited at http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/mdma/mdma_health_water.shtml on 23/04/06