[email protected]

Narco-addicts and devastation

by Shanika Sriyananda

He smiles... walks and ...talks too. Sometimes he talks too much and talks to himself. From appearance, apart from his untidy and unclean cloths he is a man innocent looking for the people around him.

His smile will make them forgive him for any wrong things that he commits. But at any given moment his good trait will disappear and bad ones will emerge. Then the young man 'Saman' is not there. A demon will jump out of his thin body.

Sometimes he cries in fear and sometimes he smiles happily. The entire life of the young father is a misery and his crave for an ugly dangerous substance little by little has eaten him.

While the three children cry for a piece of bread or sips of milk, Saman cries for a snuff of the killer powder, heroin.

Saman is a fine example of a 'sad saga' of a drug addict. According to Dr. Shantha Hettiarachchi of the Health Education Bureau who did a research on drug addicts who were serving imprisonment says drug addiction is a torment to the user.

How can one identify a drug addict: It is not simple. With loss of appetite, poor functioning of the digestive system with enlarged gall bladder, with decreasing oxygen in blood and hundreds of untold deadly symptoms a man who addicted to drugs is living in the edges of death.

As Saman, thousands of youth of this country looks at an uncertain future, with their eyes turned a bilious yellow. Screaming and most of the times begging just for a sniff of heroin, they, with damaged nerves and brains walk around dead.

Narcotic addiction has become a major problem when considering the health and economic cost involved in it.

According to health experts, when used for medical purposes, narcotic is extremely powerful and an effective painkillers. But opium and its derivatives heroin, morphine, OxyContin and codeine are addictive drugs, with potentially hazardous side effects. These drugs can cause serious health problems such as collapsed veins, skin abscesses and torturous withdrawal, and even death.

There are over 600,000 drug users in Sri Lanka and the number of heroin users are over 50,000. "The authorities need to take the issue seriously as these addicts are below 35 years. Majority of them are from urban areas", points out Dr. Hettiarachchi.

"Those who start using heroin will suffer from flushing of the skin, dry mouth, heavy extremities and become drowsy. They will have disturbed mental function due to depression in the Central Nervous System. When the person addicted to heroin he will suffer from infections of the heart lining and valves, cellulitis, liver diseases, pneumonia due to poor heath and depressing effects of respiration", he says.

Dr. Hettiarachchi says that when a pregnant woman uses heroin during pregnancy it will cause low weight and development delays in the baby. Due to tolerance the heroin addict need higher doses when used over the time and due to craving for drugs it will make the user restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhoea and vomiting.

"The cannabis addicts will suffer with acute symptoms like increase in pulse rate, low blood pressure conjunctival reddening decreased muscle strength, appetite loss, euphoria followed by drowsiness, difficulty in concentration and thinking. The chronic symptoms are functional hypoxia, and impaired cell mediated immunity", he adds.

Narcotics are extremely addictive, both physically and psychologically that is, you have to use increasing amounts of the drug in order to achieve the same high, which can create a constant craving for the drug.

Withdrawal for regular users is agonizing it can cause convulsions and even death. This is why you hear so many stories of heroin "junkies" stealing from their families and friends to support their habit.

According to Dr. Hettiarachchi the withdrawal symptoms include nausea, watery eyes, runny nose, yawning, cramps, and loss of appetite, irritability, tremors, panic, chills, and sweating.

****

What are narcotics?

The term narcotic comes from the Greek word "narkotikos," which means "to make numb," and is the name of the group of drugs that includes opium and its derivatives.

References to opium date back to 3,000 B.C. and its popularity for both medicinal and recreational use created a bustling trade between East and West. It played a major role in the so-called Opium Wars in China in 1839.

Certain varieties of poppy plants contain opium, a raw narcotic extracted from the plant in liquid form and then processed into a brownish powder known as refined opium. It is then sold to drug manufacturers to make morphine and codeine; black market manufacturers alter morphine to produce heroin.

Taken into the body, narcotics also known as opiates - plug into endorphin receptors in the brain, where they mimic the body's natural proteins that help regulate pain, pleasure and emotion. There, narcotics slow down the central nervous system and often produce a short but powerful sensation.

Effect on menstruation: Some women addicts stop menstruating while on heroin; others report delayed menstruation and other menstrual irregularities. Most observers consider this a direct effect of the heroin though Drs. George Blinick, Robert C. Wallach, and Eulogio Jerez, on the basis of experience with hundreds of young women addicts at the Beth Israel Medical Centre in New York, believe that menstrual irregularities may result in part at least from the generally stressful life which addicts lead on the streets of New York. 38.

Effect on likelihood of pregnancy. Women addicts can become pregnant while on heroin, but the likelihood of pregnancy is reduced. How much of the reduction is due to the heroin itself and how much is traceable to other aspects of being a heroin addict in the United States today (malnutrition, infection, and so on) is not known. Effect on childbirth: It is often stated that pregnant addicts suffer "a high incidence of maternal complications such as toxemia, abruption placenta, retained placenta, postpartum haemorrhage, prematurely by weight, breech delivery, and high neonatal morbidity and mortality."

39 This may be true. Such complications of pregnancy, however, are also associated with poverty, malnutrition, infection, and lack of prenatal care.

No controlled studies have been made of the relative incidence of complications of pregnancy among addicted and no addicted women from the same neighbourhood and socio-economic status.

Hey guys take care of your hair too

You've heard the myths and theories regarding hair loss. You cringed at the fact that only castrated men of ancient societies managed to keep their hair on their heads. Before choosing whether to give up your macho image or having an ever-receding hair line, read up. There are ways to stagger the effects of hair loss.

The key to prevention however, is understanding what is MPB or Male Pattern Baldness and its causes. To clarify, MPB also happens to women. Surprised. MPB's proper name is androgenic alopecia (androgenic - androgynous, see.) It is also hereditary.

It is largely caused by a sensitivity to an enzyme called Dihydrotestosterone (DHT). This is the end product of testosterone conversion. This is why there are more documented cases of MPB in men since women don't have much testosterone. Partially, this is also a reason why castrated men have reduced hair loss risks.

Despite being hereditary, reversing hair loss isn't a lost cause. Researches have shown different triggers affect the onset of baldness. This only shows that MPB can be reversed or at least, controlled.

Diets with high fat content increases DHT production which speeds up baldness. For example, Asian men are found to be in lesser risk compared to American men with their fatty fast food diet. Other than fat, substances to limit or avoid to lessen hair loss include nicotine, alcohol, sugar, salt, and caffeine. Don't feel deprived as seafood are widely recommended as it contains considerable amounts of iodine, a substance that improves hair growth.

As always, a proper, balanced diet is advised to reverse effects of baldness or hair loss. Adequate rest and sleep are also important as these reduces stress and anxiety which can trigger testosterone conversion. In addition, there are also other methods to increase hair growth.

Scalp massages stimulate the blood vessels of the scalp, resulting to a more efficient circulation of oxygen and nutrients needed for hair growth. Don't snub aromatherapy as a sissy habit either.

Used as massage oil or mixed with shampoo, essential oils such as lavender or bay have been proven effective as a therapy for hair loss. Asian medicine also offers it solution to combat baldness. Water from boiled sage, rosemary, burdock, nettle, and peach leaves is an efficient hair cleanser.

Aside from keeping the scalp clean, this solution also thickens hair strands and stimulates hair roots.

Lastly, restoring hair vitality and health is not a speedy process. You shouldn't expect instant results no matter what type of prevention method you used. Be reminded though that excessive and fast hair loss should be consulted to the doctor. As this could be a symptom of a more serious matter, medical attention should be sought immediately.

Alcohol consumption increases risk of breast cancer in women

by Rosanne Koelmeyer Anderson

Many studies of different populations around the world have constantly shown that regular alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of cancer in the upper gastrointestinal tract, the oral cavity the pharynx, larynx and oesophagus.

Daily consumption of around 50 ml. of alcohol is said to increase the risks of these cancers by two to three times compared with the risk in non-drinkers, while the effects of drinking and smoking seem to be multiplicative.

On findings of twelve scientists from 15 countries who met at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) recently, the WHO identified the consumption of alcohol as one of the top ten risks for worldwide burden of disease. It was also addressed that the association between alcohol consumption and breast cancer in women consistently found an increased risk with increasing alcohol intake.

The consumption rate of alcohol in Sri Lanka is extremely high at present and we see many women taking to alcohol too, today. Then the question arises as to how many cancer patients will we have in Sri Lanka per year and what measures will we take to control the disease?

IT was also revealed that a pooled analysis of fifty three studies on more than 58,000 women with breast cancer showed that daily consumption of about 50 ml of alcohol is associated with a relative risk of about 95 per cent, compared with that of non-drinkers. More interestingly, it is said that the regular consumption of even 18 ml of alcohol per day significantly increases the relative risk of cancer.

Alcohol abuse is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Alcohol abuse is responsible for 4 per cent of global deaths and disability, nearly as much as tobacco and five times the burden of illicit drugs (WHO), while in developing countries with low mortality, alcohol is the leading risk factor for males, causing 9.8 per cent of years lost.

Moreover, alcohol abuse contributes to a wide range of social and health problems, including depression, injuries, cancer, cirrhosis, family disruption and loss of work productivity.

Surveys among the urban poor in Sri Lanka found that 30 per cent of families used alcohol and spent more than 30 per cent of their income on it.

Furthermore, it was revealed that in 2002, more than 1.9 billion adults around the world were estimated to be regular consumers of alcoholic beverages, with an average daily consumption of 13 ml of ethanol (about one drink).

On the basis of available data, per capita consumption is highest in Eastern Europe and the Russian Federation. It was evident that over the past 40 years, alcohol consumption has remained stable in most regions of the world, except in the western Pacific region predominately China - where it is said to have increased by about five times.