Does heroin keep you young-looking (provided, that is, you don’t die of its other side-effects first)?
I had assumed this was just an old junkie-wives’ tale, but today I heard someone on the usually-sober BBC Today programme refer to heroin’s youth-preserving side effects. Is there any truth in this, and if so, how would it work? I can’t seem to find anything via Google.
I have severe doubts about this whole concept.
Not in Keith Richard(s) case.
Oh, Crikey, no. I met a woman who shall give me nightmares for years. Really, really scary. Enough so that my exTREMEly blase, urban, sophisticated, roll-your-eyes so sophisticated and jaded, was also stunned into silence.
When we walked away from this woman I said, after a long period of silence: what drug did that?
His reply: heroin.
Me: I’m never going to touch that stuff.
Anyway, that’s anecdotal, and we were both guessing. I can’t see how heroin would do anything but degrade one’s appearance. The only thing that wrecks a person’s looks faster has got to be meth. That crap can change a person’s total appearance in months.
Every heroin addict I have seen has looked aged beyond their years.
I don;t have a subsciption, but there’s an article out there entitled: " A Stigma Reversal Phenomena In Disfigured Heroin Addicts". Goggle Scholar does give a snippet "surgery as a rehabilitative device for disfigured offenders, both heroin addicts(who … are un- desirable in terms of the norms of appearance, they symbolize … "
Another:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-1465(196806)9%3A2<131%3AISTBAR>2.0.CO%3B2-1
“Soon, some of the older adolescents, all core members of a fighting gang, began
to show signs of skin-popping heroin. Their drowsy appearance, puffed eyes and …”
Other cites note hair loss, lesions, a “haggard” look, puffy eyes, “emaciated”, and so forth.
Take a look at this image from BBC under “heroin chic”, or search Google for image of this “look”.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/110000/images/_113528_heroin.jpg&imgrefurl=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/113528.stm&h=180&w=150&sz=5&hl=en&start=4&tbnid=Vu5ocNXZxWwtKM:&tbnh=101&tbnw=84&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dheroin%2Bchic%26svnum%3D100%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG
So, I guess there was a certain school that liked the “zombie emaciated” heroin chic look. However, real junkies don’t look like the “heroin chic” model anyway:
"Heroin Chic
A fashion for pale, skinny models with dark sunken eyes and fine, blow-away hair gave rise to the term Heroin Chic.
Much was made of the fact that the models looked ill because they really were taking lots of drugs and it was thought that they might encourage kids to do the same.
But anyone who took a quick look at the genuine junkies begging on London’s streets could see that this was clearly not the way to get the look. "
But no one thinks it “preserves youthful appearance” :rolleyes: - just the opposite.
…leads to ageing. I was shocked-once I served as a volunteer server at a homeless shelter-and I learned that some of the men were in their early 20’s-they looked like 60! (lined faces, skin eruptions, hair loss, etc.). But red wine seems to retard the ageing process.
:eek:
God, NO!
Hang outside of a methadone clinic once and see if it’s true. Those people look like shit.
It isn’t just the alcohol, of course. Living rough with no preventative medical care, particularly dentistry, can do it just on its own. (Alcohol helps.)
In the UK we have a National Health Service - stay with me on this - Most every person has a General Practioner.
The General Practitioner has a budget that is determined by the numbers, ages, and mix of patients on their roll.
A doctor with lots of diabetics will have a higher budget, and also if they have a lot of ‘elderly’ patients their budget will also increase.
The age at which someone is ‘elderly’ and triggers the higher payment to the General Practitioner is 65.
This is for Joe Public.
A similar arrangement is in place for prisoners, however, the trigger age for increased medical funding is differant, a prisoner is considered elderly at 50.
This is largely because they have very poor health for many reasons, but the principle one is the use of drugs, and Heroin abuse is a significant percentage of that total.
There has been serious discussion about reducing this definition of elderly for prisoners to 47 years, it may well happen soon.
Make of that what you will.
I took a college sociology class in the late 80s that taught that the long term side effects of heroin were only diminished sex drive and constipation, and all the other problems were due to hard living (such as spending all the money on heroin and not on food).
[QUOTE=ralph124c But red wine seems to retard the ageing process.[/QUOTE]
An ingrediant in red wine. Sure a glass of red wine a day seems to be good for you- YMMV. But even alcholics who sup only red wine look like hell.
Yeah, other than “I heard something on the BBC today” there has been nothing yet to support the OP’s premise (not to offend the OP- the OP came in here to ask a question, I’m not demanding that the OP support the premise).
But, other than Revtim nobody’s offered anything to refute the premise.
All the other posts refer to the advanced aging and poor health of heroin addicts. As Revtim has pointed out, those effects may have more to do with the lifestyle of a drug addict.
If I spend all my money on orange juice, but otherwise eat poorly, often skip meals altogether for days on end, sleep in alleyways, wear soiled clothing . . . yeah, I’m still going to be far better off than a heroin addict but I ain’t going to be healthy.
I did not hear the BBC story, but I’m am certain the premise was not that heroin addiction has youth-preserving side effects.
So, what of a person with a healthy active lifestyle who occasionally and responsibly enjoys heroin use? Is there anything to suggest that this person may enjoy youth-preserving side effects beyond the regular benefits of a healthy active lifestyle?
Stories of addicts and homelessness don’t really address the OP.
Yes I think this is what I’m asking - if you factor-out the lifestyle of your typical heroin addict, is there anything about the drug itself that inhibits ageing or some aspect of ageing? I’m sorry I don’t have any proper sources for these stories, all I know is I’ve heard them several times over the years and it would be nice to if they were just myths or if there is a grain of truth in there. Any chemists or medics out there?
Not all my links and cites were about homeless addicts. Some addicts are wealthy, but still have that haggard, emaciated aged look.
Besides, who the hell is a “person with a healthy active lifestyle who occasionally and responsibly enjoys heroin use”? Do you have a cite that you can be a “healthy active lifestyle who occasionally and responsibly enjoys heroin use”? :dubious:
It’s true users aren’t always addicts. But this study shows that such users are hard to find:
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1360-0443.1988.tb03022.x
But most studies have shown that use usually leads to addiction. I can’t find any studies about this mythical “person with a healthy active lifestyle who occasionally and responsibly enjoys heroin use”. Occasional non-addict use, sure. But responsible? :dubious:
In any case, we don’t have to prove the negative. It’s up to someone who wants to support an outrageuous statement such as “heroin use could preserve a youthful appearance” to support it. Nothing on Google scholar shows even a possible link to heroin use and “preserving a youthful appearance”- in fact just the opposite.
Scroll to the bottom of this page and see a before & after shot of a heroin user. I don’t think it did anything to preserve her youthful appearance.
I’ve seen those pictures previously in a caution against methamphetamine use, not heroin.
Icky pictures of heroin usage destroying parts of a woman’s arm in this article: http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006320106,00.html
(link disabled; cut and paste if you want to view)
It’s not about the money. There are rich alcoholics too and they look the part, not because alcohol does it to them but mostly because they almost don’t eat. Even the rich heroin addicts will have a lifestyle change because of their addiction. People waste away on TV, much less heroin. This isn’t the question however - television does not make you fat and pale, but leading a lifestyle associated with watching a lot of television does.
I don’t know if it makes sense to me that heroin would be youth preserving, but until I see a cite that heroin itself has some sort of a direct effect on your appearance, I’m not buying that it has affects it in one way or another.
People in this thread are presenting really silly evidence and really silly arguments that this is true/false. Something that sounds to me like the age old argument that growing your hair out prevents hair loss because “have you ever seen a completely bald person with long hair?”. However, I doubt there is a reasonable study that has ever been done on the subject - something like a twin study where one twin is administreted heroin without the associated lifestyle changes perhaps?
The class I previously mentioned used wealthy and upper middle class folks who were long-term heroin users to demonstrate that the only long-term effects were reduced sex drive and constipation. These folks didn’t have to skip food and medical treatment to pay for their habits.
Sorry, but no cite other than the memory of the class I took 20 years ago or so.
I agree with groman on this.
Even anecdotal instances of people who are heroin addicts or ex-addicts, and still look young, are meaningless, as I’m sure as many, if not more, examples exist of addicts and ex-addicts who look like death warmed over.
I happen to know 2 ex-heroin addicts who still look youthful. Two recovered addicts I know slightly seem to look a bit older than their age. The only other ones I’ve known are dead, except for one who’s got aids, and that hasn’t made her look any younger, I can assure you.
BTW, I’m just a retired teacher living in the suburbs, and a huge fan of live music, though one of the persons mentioned is a relative by marriage, one other is the son of a good friend, two are musicians etc. Drug addiction does touch people from all sorts of backgrounds.
Could the original poster be confusing this with the use of arsenic by court women in the 1700’s and 1800’s to preserve a youthful appearance?
Because I know that was done. I think Cecil even had a column on it.