Will a hard partying drugs & alcohol lifestyle when young impact health in later years?

[kayaker]

@Jackmannii

Live fast, die in late middle age with a ravaged body, looking 20 years older.

And no regrets!

[Siam_Sam]

Will a hard partying drugs & alcohol lifestyle when young impact health in later years?

God, I hope not.

[Diceman]

@kayaker

Pre-existing occult cardiovascular disease can become problematic under the effects of cocaine.

I know that whenever some Hollywood celeb drops dead at 20 or 30 years old, they always claim it was a hard attack, and people always wonder if they were cocaine users.

[Siam_Sam]

@Diceman

I know that whenever some Hollywood celeb drops dead at 20 or 30 years old, they always claim it was a hard attack, and people always wonder if they were cocaine users.

I would assume a hard attack stemmed from Viagra abuse.

[usedtobe]

I love to give this advice:

There are two kinds of regrets:

1. All in all, I shouldn’t have done that
2. I wonder what would have happened if I had done that when I had the chance.

Your choice.

[Try2B_Comprehensive]

@Broomstick

Not too sure about the opiates, but for cocaine, the original use of it was chewing coca leaves, or making it into a tea, which has a much lower dose of the active ingredient, absorbed relatively slowly. In this form it can be used recreationally and seems to be about as damaging as coffee or tea, and somewhat similar in use.

It also means there’s gotta be a way to snort caffeine.

[gaffa]

William Burroughs was the outlier in that he remained addicted to heroin until his death at 83. When he went on book tours, someone got the job of supplying him with clean needles and good quality drugs. There are so many variables in the drugs that heroin addicts get, and the cleanliness of their syringes that it is difficult to separate the harm of the delivery system from the drug. Burroughs was the rare, highly respected and well cared for junkie.

It is definitely not a good idea to be addicted to smack, but if you combine clean needles and quality heroin, it may be possible to live a decently long life.

[Indus.1999]

Ok ill start with some answers that might seem stereotypical and lame but what the heck, Charlie Sheen (nice weather), Shane MacGowan (shit weather and cold), Ozzy on the other hand sharp as a dime.

[jtur88]

For one thing, the high noise level in a party atmosphere could lead to permanent hearing loss.

[bump]

@Broomstick

A lot has to do with how the drug is consumed. Practically no one is consuming pure ethanol, it’s typically “diluted” in the form of beer, wine, or other relatively low-alcohol beverages, and even hard liquor is typically 50% or less alcohol by content. Nor are people typically injecting alcohol directly into their bloodstream.

Not too sure about the opiates, but for cocaine, the original use of it was chewing coca leaves, or making it into a tea, which has a much lower dose of the active ingredient, absorbed relatively slowly. In this form it can be used recreationally and seems to be about as damaging as coffee or tea, and somewhat similar in use.

I bet this is the real root of the problem. I don’t know how many, or if there are even social/recreational meth/cocaine/heroin users like there are social drinkers who aren’t alcoholics, and it tends to take a while to become a serious destructive alcoholic, while say… meth is a much more immediately addictive substance.

So when comparing alcohol to other harder drugs, you’re summing up every example of alcohol misuse without any accompanying alcoholism or dependence with the crazy stuff meth-heads do, and it’s not quite a fair comparison. Everyone who does something stupid and destroys something while drunk probably gets that counted, while there aren’t really comparable recreational-use meth-heads.

[nearwildheaven]

@Mr.Nylock

It seems to be a difficult question to answer - it’s hard to isolate the effect of the drugs from all of the things that are associated with drug use. This includes making numerous poor health choices including poor diet, as well as bad sleep habits, poor exercise habits, hygiene things etc.

Heroin rots your teeth I’m pretty sure. Coke wears away part of your nose. those things don’t just grow back after you quit drugs.

Actually, the herion thing I need to revisit; I think the teeth rotting away may be due to some secondary effect of herion use,

It’s meth that rots your teeth.

Meth (and other amphetamines) and cocaine can also destroy your kidneys, due to their effects on blood pressure. Cocaine’s notorious SE of destroying nasal mucosa is due to ischemia (restricted blood flow) which ironically is one of the reasons it’s such a terrific local anesthetic, when used appropriately.

I’m not aware of heroin or other opiates causing dental issues other than those which result from a person overall not taking care of themselves.

[Siam_Sam]

I think David Bowie just found the answer to this question.

[DSeid]

Of course we don’t know which cancer got him. I’d guess lung from his smoking but liver related to IV drug use (HepC) is possible. Or his cancer could have been completely unrelated to any substance abuse.

Really probably the smoking is what ages and wears and kills the most.

[Jeff_Lichtman]

@Siam_Sam

I think David Bowie just found the answer to this question.

David Bowie died of liver cancer. Do you have evidence that this was caused by drug or alcohol use?

[DSeid]

If it was liver cancer all we can say is that smoking, alcohol and other drug (in particular via shared needles) abuse, as well as unprotected sex, are common causes of it. Not the only causes, but common ones. In the U.K. 42% of liver cancer is associated with those sorts of preventable exposures and he had those exposures.

And they each multiply the risks, so do all of them and the risk of liver cancer goes up many times.

If someone who was known to have had multiple sexual partners, smoked tons, did IV drugs, and drank a lot, had liver cancer, then it is not a big stretch to say that those factors were highly likely the cause of said liver cancer.

[botsgotme]

Can a sex addiction in your teens lead to an early death?

[Try2B_Comprehensive]

@Siam_Sam

I think David Bowie just found the answer to this question.

Really? At age 69?

And if we simply must condemn a dead guy for his lifestyle, can’t we at least wait until the body is cold?

[nearwildheaven]

@botsgotme

Can a sex addiction in your teens lead to an early death?

Yes, if you get AIDS as a result, or if you bang the wrong person and their father or current SO catches you.

j/k about the second half of the sentence.

[AskNott]

In my own case, my cardiologist tells me that longtime alcohol use injured my heart. (Congestive heart failure and atrial flutter.) I have some brain damage, too, according to a CAT scan of my head.

My heart’s doing a lot better now. I quit alcohol, went on a low-sodium diet, and I got two repairs on my heart (one stent and an atrial ablation.) Pumping efficiency is up from 20% to 45%, and the flutter is gone.

This is on a sample of one 66 year-old white male, and my results cannot be extrapolated to any general conclusion.

[DSeid]

@Try2B_Comprehensive

Really? At age 69?

And if we simply must condemn a dead guy for his lifestyle, can’t we at least wait until the body is cold?

Yes. Really. Exactly. At age 69.

Hey the thread was not reanimated to trash on Bowie, and discussing how his lifestyle likely contributed to his early death was not done in the thread mourning his loss. But this thread’s op, old as it may be, was inspired by interviews with older (50s to maybe 70s) musicians who had partied hard earlier and wondered about the lasting impacts of such.

Pointing out Bowie as a likely illustration of lasting impacts is not condemning his lifestyle. It is appropriate to the discussion of the thread.