Drug rehabs are giving their substance abuse treatment patients the straight truth about cocaine use. They say more emergency room visits occur each year from cocaine than any other drug in the United States. Substance Abuse Treatment Center patients who use cocaine should be aware that the drug harms the brain, heart, blood vessels and lungs. Drug rehabs warn that cocaine increases heart rate and blood pressure. At the same time, it constricts arteries that supply blood to the heart, which could result in a sudden heart attack.
This combination can cause a massive heart attack, even for substance abuse treatment center patients with healthy hearts. Cocaine also causes arrhythmia, a deadly abnormal heart rhythm. Additionally, cocaine constricts blood vessels in the brain, which causes strokes. Cocaine can also cause seizures.
Smoking crack can lead to permanent lung damage. Also, cocaine use in any form is terrible for a person’s stomach. It causes oxygen starvation in the gastrointestinal tract, which can cause ulcers and tear the stomach lining. Kidneys can fail when using cocaine, as well. This failure happens through a process called rhabdomyolysis, and substance abuse treatment center patients with high blood pressure who use cocaine are at an even greater risk for this sudden kidney failure.
Last but not least, if their substance abuse treatment center patients aren’t getting the message, drug rehab doctors assure their patients that cocaine can impair sexual function drastically in both men and women. In men, delayed or impaired ejaculation occurs frequently for heavy cocaine users.
