Addiction, Pregnancy, and Public Health: Biological and Social Realities
Pregnant, Addicted and Fighting the Pull of Drugs
By JENNIFER SCHNEIDER
The Associated Press
CINCINNATI – The baby’s father was a drug dealer. The mother was a drug addict.
Their daughter, born in a Cincinnati hospital, was addicted to cocaine.
“I was scared to death,” said the baby’s grandmother, who asked that her name not be used. “I didn’t know what to expect.”
The baby, now 10 months old, is one of about 1,000 babies born in Ohio each year with drug-related problems, according to the state health department.
The number of babies born addicted to drugs has been rising steadily in Ohio and across the country, and the problem is expected to get worse as more women use drugs during pregnancy.
“It’s a growing problem,” said Dr. David K. Johnson, a neonatologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. “It’s a problem that’s not going away.”
The number of babies born addicted to drugs in Ohio has more than doubled in the past decade, according to the state health department.
The number of babies born addicted to cocaine has dropped in recent years, but the number of babies born addicted to prescription drugs has risen dramatically.
“We’re seeing more and more babies born addicted to prescription drugs,” said Dr. David K. Johnson, a neonatologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. “It’s a problem that’s not going away.”
The number of babies born addicted to prescription drugs has risen dramatically in recent years.
Is That Drink Worth It to You?
I was at a party recently and I was talking to a friend of mine who is a doctor. He was telling me about a patient he had who had a very serious problem with alcohol. This patient had been in and out of the hospital for years with alcohol-related illnesses. He had been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and was told that he would die if he didn’t stop drinking.
My friend told me that he had tried everything to help this patient. He had referred him to alcohol treatment programs, he had prescribed medication to help him stop drinking, and he had even had heart-to-heart talks with him about the dangers of alcohol. But nothing seemed to work.
Finally, my friend decided to take a different approach. He sat down with the patient and asked him a simple question: “Is that drink worth it to you?”
The patient looked at him and said, “What do you mean?”
My friend replied, “I mean, is that drink worth the pain and suffering you’ve been through? Is it worth the damage it’s done to your liver? Is it worth the risk of dying?”
The patient thought for a moment and then said, “No, it’s not worth it.”
My friend then asked him, “Then why are you still drinking?”
The patient didn’t have an answer.
My friend told me that after that conversation, the patient never drank again. He realized that the pain and suffering he was experiencing was not worth the temporary pleasure he got from drinking.
I thought about that conversation and I realized that it’s a question we all need to ask ourselves. Is that drink, that drug, that unhealthy food, that unhealthy habit worth it to us? Is it worth the pain and suffering it causes us? Is it worth the damage it does to our bodies and our minds? Is it worth the risk of dying?
I know that it can be hard to give up things that we enjoy, but we need to remember that our health and our lives are more important than any temporary pleasure we might get from unhealthy habits. We need to make the choice to prioritize our health and our lives over our desires.
Electronic cigarettes suffocate the heart muscle
Smoking electronic cigarettes significantly affect the health of the heart by reducing the levels of blood flow in it.
The study was conducted by researchers at the American Heart Association’s Tobacco Center and will present its findings to the Society’s annual conference, which will be held November 16-18 in Pennsylvania.
The American Heart Association recommends that people stop smoking using nicotine substitutes, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, which have proven safe and effective, the researchers said.
If they choose to use e-cigarettes during their trip to stop smoking other tobacco products, people should also plan to stop e-cigarettes, given the lack of information about their long-term safety, and the growing number of data monitoring their physiological effects on body health, they said.
The researchers followed 476 healthy people between the ages of 21 and 45 who did not suffer from cardiovascular disease, including 94 who did not smoke e-cigarettes, and the rest smoked only e-cigarettes or traditional cigarettes only, or both.
The researchers compared cholesterol, triglyceride and glucose levels in the study, factors that negatively affect heart health.
Cholesterol The researchers found that levels of bad cholesterol, triglycerides, and glucose were higher among those who smoked e-cigarettes only, those who smoke only traditional cigarettes, or those who smoke both e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes, compared to those who did not smoke.
In a separate study, the researchers analyzed the heart’s blood flow, a measure of coronary vascular function, for 19 smokers aged 24 to 32 years before and after smoking electronic or conventional cigarettes.
The researchers found that smoking electronic cigarettes is associated with the dysfunction of coronary blood vessels, and affects the flow of blood in the heart, similar to the smoking of traditional cigarettes.
“Although primary health care providers and patients may think that using e-cigarettes if used instead of traditional cigarettes does not affect heart health, our study proves otherwise,” said Dr. Sana Majid, co-researcher.
“We were surprised by the low blood flow in the heart at rest, even in the absence of stress, after inhaling electronic cigarette smoke. This poses a risk to heart health, especially for people at risk of cardiovascular disease.”
Electronic cigarettes work through a heat heater to heat a liquid containing the nicotine inside, turning the liquid into the nicotine vapor inhaled by smokers.