Cocaine Intake and its Impact in the Body and the Brain
I was seeing a Nollywood movie titled (Tiger's tail) today, and I saw a young child die from cocaine overdose. This got me worried, as a lot of people have been taking cocaine around the world, and it is so surprising how even children about the age of 12 also take cocaine.
While people take a lot of drugs, cocaine is one of the most used drugs in the world. It is no doubt that Coca leaves have been used in South America for a very long time as both stimulant and medicine. While Coca leaf has its own benefit, the cocaine alkaloid in the leaf is what is regarded today as cocaine which is the drug in it. Cocaine is a drug that is frowned at by all law enforcement agencies around the world, so to understand why it is frowned at, we need to understand what cocaine does to the body.
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Cocaine consumed in different ways and form, from being swallowed, smoked, injected intravenously, or snorted through the nose, in solid, or liquid state. While the method of taking it into the body might differ, the effect in the body is the same although the timing of the onset and the duration of its effect will differ depending on how it gets into the bloodstream easily. In 2021, about 1.7% of the United State population within the age of 12 years and above reported using cocaine in the past 12 months. In Nigeria, according to the 2018 National Drug Use Survey, there are around 14.3 million drug users.
A lot ot people take cocaine intravenously, but this can lead to the damage of the blood vessel as a result of contaminations. People who smoke it would suffer from tooth decay, lung damage and abscess but then the most common way people take cocaine is via snoting it through the nose.
Let's look at inhaling it through the nose, it is no doubt that it can be very dangerous. To explain, the nasal cavity has the Superior conchea, middle Conchea, and inferior Conchae which are passage ways where air will pass through to get through the mucosal membranes which are vascular, then to the lower respiratory tract. Cocaine actually destroys the vessels in the nasal cavity and this is because cocaine is a vasoconstrictor and when it is snuffed into the nostrils, it stays in the mucosal membrane, where it then gets absorbed into the blood vessel. The remaining part can get into the lower respiratory tract but its major way of absorbtion is through the mucosal membrane into the blood vessel.
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Why does it stay in the mucosal membrane? The answer is simply when forreign particles get into the nose, the mucosal membrane release mucus to stop them from getting into the body, and that is what happens to cocaine as well. When the nasal mucosal is clogged with cocaine, it would prevent oxygen from getting into the itself, the body tissue and the brain. The inability of oxygen to get into the nasal septum, can cause it to get a septal perforation which is a hole in the septum. This hole is permanent, and it can also get worse as the skull starts to degenerate leading to conditions such as midfacial osteomyelitis.
Cocaine journey in the blood vessel starts from its entry region, then to the heart where it is pumped out to the entire body. In the brain, cocaine passess through the blood brain barrier through diffusion or directly since it is lipophilic (having the ability to dissolve in oil and fat). When it gets into the brain, the brain neurotransmitters dopamine, seratonin, and norepinerphrine are affected. For easy understanding, neurotransmitters help to synapse with other neurons, after which it would excite, inhibit, or alter signals sent to the neuron. Cocaine when it gets to the brain, blocks dorpamine, seratonin, and norepinerphrine transporters, causing them to stay at the synaptic cleft and acting continuously. Since dorpamine is the reward neurotransmiter, it would give the person a continuous feel of reward. Seratonin on the other hand is responsible for sleep, digestion, breathing, and mood, and norepinephrine is the primary driver of the sympathetic nervous system such as pupil dilation, sweating, blood leaving and going to internal organs, and cocaine affects all of them. This is why people who have taken cocaine suffer from locked jaws, social isolation, dilated pupils, thirst, weight loss, mood swing, runny nose, nose bleed, and changes in sleeping and eating pattern. It is no doubt that cocaine gives a perceived boost in confidence but it leads to a talkative habit, and many other events. Cocaine also binds with plasma proteins, metabolic enzymes, and voltage gated ion chanels
Cocaine is very addictive, and this is proven through Dopamine addictive Hypothesis which say that with increase doparmine level, there is a new based line for dorpamine. When the stimulant for the dorpamine wears out, the dorpamine level begins to drop, creating a cascade of event which would lead to intake of more of the stimulating substance. Cocaine would have effect on the cardiovascular system, the urinary system, and the immune system. Cocaine can be overdosed, and this can lead to desastrous outcome. The rate of overdosing on cocaine can be dependent on weight, sex, and how it was administered as this would affect the concentration of the cocaine that get's into the blood. Overdosing on cocaine can lead to heart attack, seizures, cardiac arrhythmias, strokes, difficulty breathing, high blood pressure, and anxiety. If cocaine is converted into Cocaethylene by the liver (a combination of cocaine and alcohol) then it would last longer in the body than cocaine alone and can lead to liver failures.
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Is it true a chemical version of cocaine is sometimes used by doctors for anesthesia when they do surgeries, or is that something they did in the past?