Biomedical Instrumentation

Archive for the ‘Health Injury’ Category

Definitions of drug abuse vary. The medical community and the FDA have created one set of formal definitions; society has created another set; and individual people have created others that reflect their own drug histories and attitudes. The FDA makes these distinctions: drug use is the taking of a drug as medicine, correctly-that is, for a medically intended purpose, and in the appropriate amount, frequency, strength, and manner. In contrast, drug abuse is the deliberate taking of a drug for a non medical purpose and in a manner that can result in damage to a person’s health and ability to function. Both legal and illegal drugs can be abused.

The FDA also defines drug misuse as the taking of a drug for its medically intended purpose, but not in the appropriate amount, frequency, strength, or manner. Recreational use of drugs is not defined by the FDA. Medical terminology describes drug abuse simply as any non-medical use or overuse of any drug. These definitions classify any use of drugs for non-medical reasons as drug abuse; there is no such thing as mere use for example, to produce pleasure or hallucinations. Medically speaking, then, a person who drinks alcohol excessively to get high or who uses tobacco is abusing a drug. Someone who takes too large a dose a prescription or over-the-drug is misusing the drug. Such drug misuse can lead to drug abuse.

Different factors may lead people to abuse drugs. Among them are the nature of the person, the legal consequences, and the nature of the drug. The nature of a person influences the person’s relationships with drugs in several ways. One is genetic, or physical. Some researchers are looking to people’s genetic make ups in hopes of finding inborn tendencies toward drug abuse. Others are exploring the personalities of youngsters to identify traits that predict such tendencies. These traits may be hereditary, may result from the way parents raise their children, or both.

Curiosity can be strong motivator drug abuse. Some people try drugs to see what they are like. Of these who experiment, some continue to use drugs and become drug dependent. The desire to fit in socially motivates many people to abuse drugs. Drugs are often part of social events. Everyone needs to have a sense of belonging to some group, and drug-taking can provide a reason for being together. My dear friends! I am sure this article is useful and that will enhance your knowledge regarding why people do people abuse drugs.

Dear friends! Seeking pleasure is an inborn instinct, universal to all creatures on earth. In nature, this instinct normally drives creatures to act in ways that benefit them without harming them. Eating is a pleasure that, in nature, leads to nourishment of the body. Sexual activity is pleasurable and leads to propagation of the species. Exercising and then relaxing after exertion are pleasurable, and lead to improved fitness and high energy. All of these activities can themselves be abused, and can lead to harm-overeating cause’s obesity; indiscriminate sexual activity can lead to unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease, and over exercising can lead to injury.

All these concerns are addressed elsewhere in the book; the point here is that reasonable pleasure seeking by healthy means is beneficial, but that obsessive pleasure seeking through risky behaviors can be harmful. The acts of eating, engaging in sexual activity, exercising, and relaxing produce pleasure by stimulating the brain to produce endorphins, pleasure producing chemicals. These chemicals are similar to mind-altering drugs, but there is a key difference- they are continuously produced in response to healthy activities. The taking of a mind-altering drug produces pleasure directly in the brain, but intermittently, and causes the brain to produce fewer endorphins on its own.

When the effects of the drug wear off, there is a lack of endorphin production. The drug-taker feels the low endorphin concentration as an unpleasant sensation, known as dysphoria. The person may then use drugs to chase away the dysphoria, unaware that the unpleasant feelings are the after effects of the drugs themselves. A drug is physiologically addictive if, when it is withheld, brainwave patterns change, mood alters, and drug-seeking behavior follows. Physiological addiction also involves tolerance, necessitating increasing doses.

Physiological addiction always has a psychological component a strong carving for the drug. But psychological addiction can occur without physiological addiction, and the craving can be for some other habit or behavior, such as excessive sexual activity, overwork, or over exercise. Almost any behavior can be employed in psychological addiction, and such an addiction can be as powerful as a physiological addiction. My dear friends! I am sure this article will enhance your knowledge regarding the effect of drug addiction.

Hypertension: The term hypertension refers to excess pressure in the arteries. Hypertension has a hereditary component; it runs in families. Learn your own family’s characteristics in this respect. People who are middle aged or elderly, black, obese, heavy drinkers, users of oral contraceptives, or suffering from kidney disease or diabetes are especially prone to hypertension. The most effective single step you can take to protect yourself from CVD is to know your blood pressure or at least to know whether it is above normal or not.

You can see a health care professional to get an accurate blood pressure reading; self test machines often give inaccurate readings. If your blood pressure is above normal, the reading should be confirmed. Depending on how high it is, and on your age, physical state, and family history, different treatments are appropriate. To understand how the blood pressure can rise too high, consider how the body works to raise it when it falls too low.

Smoking: The link between smoking and lung diseases is easy to visualize-hot smoke drawn into the lungs damages the delicate tissues. But the link between smoke in the lungs and disease in the arteries of the heart seems remote until you consider how the damage occurs. The heart and the lungs are both working together on the same unending project supplying the entire body with ample oxygen so that it can produce energy to do life’s work. When tobacco smoke enters the lungs, it delivers to the blood a load of nicotine, a stimulant that triggers the stress response. This raises the blood pressure and an increase the heart rate, and it is greatly increases the heart’s need for oxygen.

At the same time, carbon monoxide from the smoke is mistaken picked up by the blood, because it closely resembles oxygen- but instead of providing oxygen to the tissues, the carbon monoxide continues to ride the blood, starving the tissues. Smoking thus increases the demand for heart activity, partly from the stress effect and partly from the oxygen-starved tissues, while starving the heart muscle of the oxygen it needs to support its work. My dear friends! I am sure this article will enhance your knowledge regarding hypertension and smoking.