Nowadays, drug abuse is a universally condemned action such that selling certain drugs are illegal. Children are not allowed to take drugs until they reach a certain age such as 21 for most states in India. Lots of problems start occurring when you are addicted to a certain drug. It is also nearly impossible to stop since the nerve cells change the way they function due to drugs. 

These nerve cells overstimulate the 'reward circuit' of the brain. This means that your brain constantly needs to be 'rewarded' and this reward comes in the form of drugs. There are many reasons why people become addicts and here are some of them.

People want to get high: This is perhaps the most common reason why people become drug addicts. The moment they take in one drug, they love the feeling they get so much that they keep wanting to go back to it.
People want to fit in: This is also a very common reason. When all your friends and perhaps even your bosses and other superiors are taking drugs, you do not want to feel left out or ostracized by your friend group. This is why many people start taking drugs.
Unintentionally taking drugs due to injuries or medical conditions: Sometimes a doctor prescribes a medicine for a certain time period but it does not work or works too well and so you keep taking the drug so that you will feel better. This happens more often than you think.
People take drugs to relieve stress: This is another very common reason why people take drugs. You may easily rationalize with them thinking that taking drugs is a good way to relax from work and family pressures. However, the long term effects of taking drugs are much worse than the stress.
Boredom from daily life: In young teens and adolescents especially, life can be so boring that they want to try something new and thus resort to drug abuse.

5 Reasons Why People Get Addicted To Drugs

Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome is the name given to the symptoms seen in you if you consume heavy doses of alcohol frequently and then suddenly quit or reduce your alcohol intake considerably. These symptoms may surface anytime between six hours to a few days after you last drank.

Common symptoms of alcohol withdrawal syndrome:

Hallucinations
Fever
Nausea
Tremors
Anxiety
Vomiting
Immense sweating
Insomnia
High blood pressure
Sweating

All these symptoms may worsen over a few days and may even last till a few weeks.

What is the root cause?

Alcohol arouses your nervous system. In case you are a heavy drinker, your body gradually gets dependent on alcohol, and cannot adapt too easily to the lack of alcohol after you have abruptly quit. This is the root cause of Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome (AWS).

Who is at risk?

You are at the maximum risk of AWS if you are an alcohol addict, or you cannot gradually cut down on its intake.

How do doctors diagnose AWS?

Usually, doctors will search for a few symptoms in you, like irregular heart rate, dehydration, fever, and tremors or minor fits. A toxicology screen also helps your doctor finding out the levels of alcohol in your body.

How is AWS treated?

Treatment depends on the severity of the symptoms. Usually are:

1. Home Care-

Mild symptoms of AWS can be treated at your home. You need to go for your regular routine checkups and tests. You may also have to go to rehabilitation programs for recovering alcoholics.

2. Hospitalization-

If your symptoms are more severe, you may have to be treated in a hospital, where you will be monitored and kept on a fluid diet to help prevent dehydration.

3. Medications

You can also be treated with sedatives.

Do you recover fully?

Usually, chances are that you will fully recover from AWS. If you quit drinking, take your medicines on time, and lead a healthy life thereafter. However, sleep disturbances and fatigue may persist. But, if you have severe symptoms of AWS, you should seek medical care as soon as possible to prevent any further fatal complications.

All you need to know about Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome (AWS)

In this fast-moving world, there is no room for self. Growth of IT firms and other long-hour demanding work has led to compromises in your lifestyle - long hours in front of computer, sleeplessness, late-night sleeping, quick bites, leaving us with emotions of anger, anxiety, stress and so on. This is a major reason why people today are hypertensive.

Diseases due to Hypertension: Tension and stress are the building blocks of numerous serious ailments like cardiovascular diseases, asthma, spondylitis (back pain) and grey hair. You may also suffer from gastritis leading to ulcer.

Natural ways to treat Hypertension : Ideally, tension and stress are not diseases. If you can control these, you can control the conditions that take root because of them. Naturopathic (or alternative medicine) treatments for tension and stress are most ideal.

Here are some natural ways to treat hypertension.



Sleep well: An adult should sleep for a minimum of 7-8 hours daily. Your body cells rejuvenate while you are in a relaxed state. Many jobs demand late-night work or night shift work. However, your body is meant to sleep early at night. Instead of working late night, you can start your work early.
Eat right: Stress leads to elevated levels of sugar in your body. Try to avoid sugary content food. Your body needs balanced diet of proteins, carbohydrates, less of fats, and more of vitamins and minerals. For proteins, eat fish, eggs or white meat. For vegetarians, you can have soy, cereals and protein drinks. Diet must include milk products like yoghurt, milk, vegetables rich in minerals and vitamins and roughage (salads).
Destressing exercises: Nowadays, most of the jobs demand sitting for long hours. Physical activity is one of the ways to de-stress your body. A 45-minute walk would also help. Alternatively, yoga or tai-chi type martial art helps to de-stress. Breathing techniques involved in meditation also play a vital role.
Anger management: Develop patience. That would automatically lead to anger management at your workplace as well as at home. Be a good listener. Laughter therapy also helps as it releases many happy hormones in the body.
Supplement for stress: This has to be the last tip when you do not perform the first four. Multivitamins containing vitamin B and minerals such as magnesium are recommended. You can count on certain herbs such as Ashwaganda, Ginseng, Rhodiola and St. John's Wort.
Despite following these tips, you may still face problems because every human is different and reaction to every remedy could be different. In such cases, approach for expert advice.

Naturopathic Treatment For Tension And Stress!

If you are a heavy drinker or consume alcohol regularly or frequently, you should know about the harmful effects of alcohol or how it affects your body negatively. When you drink, alcohol gets absorbed into your blood and gets distributed all over your body. Alcohol consumption may cause several physical and emotional changes, which can cause great harm to the body. There are many long-term effects of alcohol abuse, which put your health at great risk.

Here are some ways in which alcohol affects the different parts of your body:

Excretory system: Excessive consumption of alcohol may cause the pancreas to produce toxic substances that interfere with its functioning. As a result, pancreatitis or inflammation of the pancreas is likely. This is a serious problem, capable of destroying the pancreas. Alcohol affects the liver severely. Excessive intake of alcohol may cause alcoholic hepatitis and lead to jaundice development. Chronic liver inflammation may cause severe scarring or cirrhosis. The formation of scar tissue may destroy your liver. When the liver and pancreas do not work properly, there is a risk of hypoglycemia. The damaged pancreas may cause unbalanced blood sugar levels, which is a serious concern.
Central nervous system: Change in behaviour is one of the primary signs of alcohol being in your system. Alcohol travels through the body and quickly reaches your brain and other parts of the central nervous system or CNS. This may lead to slurred speech and it becomes harder for you to talk. Your overall body coordination is affected along with your balance and the ability to walk properly. Over drinking negatively affects your ability to think clearly, impulse control and your ability to form memories. Long term drinking shrinks the frontal lobes of the brain. Damage to the nervous system because of alcohol may cause pain, abnormal sensations in your limbs, and numbness.
Digestive system: Alcohol also affects your digestive system in several ways. Alcohol can affect the entire digestive system starting from the mouth to the colon and a single incident of excessive drinking can wreck parts of the digestive tract.
Organ damage: Alcohol abuse damages your salivary glands, which cause irritation in the tongue and month. This may result in gum disease, tooth disease or tooth decay. Ulcers in the oesophagus or food pipe, acid reflux and heartburn are other impacts. Excessive drinking may also lead to stomach ulcers and inflammation of the stomach lining.
Inflammation of the pancreas disrupts its ability to help the process of digestion and regulate effective metabolism. Damage to the digestive system from alcohol abuse can also cause diarrhoea, gas, abdominal fullness.

Alcohol - How it Affects Your Body?

Ayurveda is a renowned life science that has been credited with changing lives since ancient times. Not only can it prevent diseases and ailments, but it can also cure them with its combination of herbal medication, everyday routine and yogic poses. Weight management is a field that also enjoys various Ayurvedic remedies. Some of them are as follows.

Herbs: Herbs are a way of healing used by Ayurveda, and the use of various herbs can help in hastening the metabolism for healthy weight management.

Taste: Ayurveda recognizes six distinct tastes that should be incorporated into one's daily diet. These tastes include salty, pungent, sour, sweet, bitter and finally, astringent. Each of these tastes has several properties that balance the various hormones and health factors in one's body. These tastes form the various counterpoints to alleviate all kinds of health problems, which finally help in effective weight management. Also, one must eat all the seasonal fruits and vegetables to keep the body and hormones in good balance.
 
Exercise: While a daily routine of exercise is a must in any life science, Ayurveda too propagates the devotion of at least 45 minutes to one hour towards some form of exercise. Walking is said to be the most important and effective forms of exercise, followed by several yoga poses that can help in better weight management. Also, as per Ayurveda, it is important to move after each and every meal, so that a routine of eating and activity is built into the system. 

Sleep: Ayurveda recognizes sleep or rest as one of the most important aspects of a healthy lifestyle. While good eating habits and exercise form one side of it, sleep or rest completes the triangle. One can also practice the Savasana or resting pose for a period of rest. And at least six to seven hours of sleep is a must as per Ayurveda.

Meditation: This practice helps in focusing on awareness which can instil the desired function like weight management in the body. Being mindful of what your body needs can also help in eating and exercising right.

Weight management is a lifelong process in Ayurveda.

Weight Management and Ayurveda

Most people will give you a blatant No. And they are quite right to do so. But if you have been a habitual offender who can't unwind without their drink, pregnancy is going to be a big problem. So does the rule stand in all cases? What if you drank when you didn't know you were pregnant yet? What if you had a light drink here and there, will it literally spell disaster? Let's find out.

Contradictory advice everywhere: Most doctors will advice you to stay away completely from alcohol as soon as that first positive emerges in your test. Others may give you a little leeway and let you have an occasional drink. There are friends who'll confess to have cheated during their pregnancy and snuck in a beer or two and say that their kids turned out just fine. There are other friends will scorn on you for even thinking such a thing. Same goes for your relatives. Like all things in pregnancy, random advice will just not work.

How much can you drink? Let's assume that you are confident nothing will happen and want to be adventurous and give it a cautious try. Danish researchers have some good news for you. Some studies have shown that low to moderate consumption of alcohol does not harm the baby. In fact, in 2012, Danish researchers released a highly publicized study that found no major problems in children below 5 years whose mothers had consumed 1- 8 alcoholic drinks a week during pregnancy.

Unfortunately, not all research is made equal. With pregnancy, each mother, each child and progression of each pregnancy is different. It really has to be on a case by case basis and nothing can be taken on face value. Most people will still advise you to completely go off alcohol as there is 'no safe' amount during pregnancy. Some women have a larger quantity of the enzyme that breaks down alcohol. If a woman with lower levels of this enzyme drinks alcohol, it is more likely to harm her unborn child as the alcohol will remain in her bloodstream longer.

How alcohol can affect your child?

A number of disorders that can affect your child when in the womb and even after because of alcohol consumption. These disorders are collectively called 'Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder'. It is characterized by increased risk in miscarriage and stillbirth. It can also result in the baby having low birth weight and increase problems with learning, speech, attention span, language and hyperactivity. Alcohol consumption may also affect girl child and a baby boy differently. While both may turn out to have aggressive and delinquent behaviour, girls are more likely to develop mental health problems too.

If you are unable to give up on alcohol, you need to immediately get professional help to overcome your addiction. Also note that the term 'non-alcoholic' beverage is misleading as they can contain trace amounts of it. Consult a doctor today on which drinks are safe for you.

Alcohol in Pregnancy: Is it Safe?

Don't wait any longer, manage your Alcohol Addiction online with a Lybrate doctor today

Consult for Alcohol Addiction - Online and Easy!

FilterClear All

COMMON SPECIALITIES

COMMON ISSUES