Why is alcohol withdrawal more deadly in comparison to “harder” drugs like heroin?
In: Biology
Prof in med school said alcohol -> withdrawal seizures -> death. Hard dugs -> more sympathetic activation symptoms (fight and flight, aggression, sweating, ++ heart beat) and not death). Apparently most death from hard drugs come from OD
At least alcohol withdrawal has the decency to kill you and put you out of the $#%$## misery.
Very interesting, although, the increase in heart related issues with opioids might be similar with those going through alochol withdrawal. Heart rate increases after initial dose and after half life ends. After that detox begins. I’d guess that heart rate increases as the body works harder to move toxins out of the body. Just like smoking, an increased heart rate does bring a higher risk of heart failure.
The result vary slightly between studies but alcohol consistently comes out on top as either THE or at least ONE OF THE hardest drugs.
That’s maybe where your misunderstanding comes from. Alcohol is at least one of the hardest if not the hardest drug there is.
If you go even slightly in-depth about the science behind different drugs, you’ll realize alcohol is the “hardest” drug of all. It’s literal poison.
Ethanol makes your CNS neurons “sluggish”, and with time your neurons get used to it by ramping up their activity to counter said “sluggishness”. When you suddenly cut it off said neurons, this hyperactivity makes them go rampant, which causes hallucinations and seizures, which can be deadly.
It’s not more deadly, it’s the only withdrawal that is deadly.
Alcohol withdrawal can lead to seizures, that are life threatening, no other drug withdrawal has that effect.
(Not counting physiological effects, depression and suicide. Purely chemically, it’s the only one deadly.)
Alcohol is legal and easily obtained I think is the answer here. You could drink every day and every night and no one would really bat an eye until it affected your personal and professional life. Alcohol is walking to Mordor and heroin is taking the bullet train.
Alcohol and drugs only replaces substances that your body already creates naturally. When you introduce outside chemicals that triggers the same brain receptors you destroy the equilibrium in your brain and you become addicted to these external substances for normal functionning.
Heroin acts on opioids receptors that regulates pain. When you stop taking heroin your body will take time restart production of natural opioids and you will feel pain constantly but it will not kill you.
Alcohol acts on GABA receptors that regulates your brain activity level (fast or slow). When you stop taking alcohol your body will not be able to slow down naturally and you’ll be in a over-excited state all the time. And you might end up dead before your body has the time to rebalance itself.
Cocaine, and Meth will will act on your dopamine receptors. And that’s what makes you feel pleasure in life. When you stop it will takes year before anything becomes satisfying again.
I am oversimplifying it. But basically your body and brain constantly are constantly looking for homeostatis or balance. And taking drugs externally is destroying that balance.
I replied with one word and auto-mod removed it ahah, but genuinely the answer is simply: seizures. Alcohol withdrawal causes seizures and in unfortunate cases these can lead to death. Heroin withdrawal is exceedingly miserable but none of it will kill you.
The body has homeostatic mechanisms which allow it to respond to stress. Heroin is merely a desulfonated amino so has only the bodily tolerance mechanism of increased excretion when it is administered. Alcohol is more dangerous, a strong sedative, so that the body is blowing out its signals ratio at all levels when alcohol tolerance is seen. The only side effect of heroin tolerance is increased excretion hardness and waiting. However, because heroin removes the sulfonyl part of the bodily process, it can be dangerous outright especially if injected or smoked or swallowed. In alcohol withdrawal this can physically produce death because the signal is so loud it is causing distortion at dangerous levels to bodily processes while in heroin withdrawal this rarely produces death, but is more uncomfortable because the satisfaction of faecal suppression is taken away in favor of large excretion.
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