What's your knowledge like on physical activity and the impact it can have on your body?
Well what does the term physical activity mean? Physical activity is any bodily movement produced by the skeletal muscles which causes energy expenditure greater than at rest and which is health enhancing.
This definition is deliberately broad to incorporate all types of physical activity that can benefit health. This includes walking or cycling, dance, gardening, housework, individual or team based sport, and for children, active play.
In Ireland, almost 2 out of 3 adults (64.8%) engage in recreational walking. 4 out of 10 (43.9%) walk for transport compared with 1 in 10 (10.2%) who cycle for transport. 4 out of 10 (40%) people engage in individual focused sports compared with less than 1 in 10 (9.1) who engage in team focused sports.
Adults need to be active for at least 30 minutes a day at a moderate level of intensity, for 5 days a week, in order to meet the national guidelines for health enhancing physical activity. All bouts of moderate level activity that last for at least 10 minutes can count towards meeting this.
Children should take part in at least 60 minutes of active play throughout the day for their health and wellbeing. Active play includes games such as hopscotch, tag, hide-and-seek, skipping, jumping rope and ball games.
Only 1 in 3 Irish adults are sufficiently active on a regular basis to gain health benefits, although 2 out of 3 think they are sufficiently active. There is extensive evidence to show that being more active, more often can enhance your health and wellbeing, improve quality of life and help you live longer by reducing the risk of: heart disease, depression, dementia, type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, and colon cancer.
What about sedentary behaviour? Sedentary behaviour refers to any waking activity that is characterised by an energy expenditure of ≤1.5 metabolic equivalents and a sitting or reclining posture. Common sedentary behaviours include TV viewing, video game playing, computer use, driving and reading.
Just over 1 in 4 adults in Ireland spend 8 hours or more a day sitting. On average, Irish adults spend 6.5 hours a day sitting. People who watched the most TV in a 8.5-year study had a 61% greater risk of dying than those who watched less than 1 hour per day. The evidence is that even if you exercise regularly, sitting for 6 hours or more a day increases your risk of death by 40% compared with someone who sits for less than 3 hours a day. A high level of moderate intensity physical activity limits the increased risk of death associated with sitting for long periods of time.
Health benefits of physical activity There is significant evidence that physical activity of moderate intensity promotes physical and mental health and wellbeing, prevents disease and improves quality of life. These benefits apply to all people irrespective of gender, ethnic background, ability, disability, weight, or age.
Wider health benefits of regular physical activity There are a number of wider health benefits of regular physical activity including healthy aging, establishing social connections, and the enhancement of wellbeing in the workplace.
Physical activity and weight Regular physical activity can help to maintain a healthy weight or lose weight. Even if an individual does not lose weight they will gain health benefits from being more active. To achieve and maintain a healthy weight they may need to change their diet as well as increase activity. To avoid gaining weight, they need to be more active than the guidelines recommend - approximately 60 minutes a day of brisk walking or 30 minutes of jogging. To lose weight, individuals may need to do 60 - 75 minutes of brisk walking a day. If they have a very high BMI (30 or above) or are extremely inactive, they should start with bouts of 10 minutes and gradually increase the duration and intensity until they reach the adult guideline of at least 30 minutes a day.
Some practical tips Identify regular times in your day when you can be active. Be active with a friend or in a group. Choose an activity that you enjoy. Make your commute to work, school or shops more active. Start today - it is never too late.
Summary Regular physical activity is strongly linked with better health and a lower risk of illness and disease. Healthcare professionals have an important role to play in influencing patients' physical activity habits. Conversations about physical activity need to be undertaken in a sensitive and non-judgemental way.
4 key messages Some is better than none. Start with short bouts of 10 minutes and build up to 30 minutes a day. The more you do - the more benefits you get. Walking is free, easy and low risk and you can fit it into your everyday routine.
For more information - see Making Every Contact Count (MECC).
Check out the Get Ireland Active website and your local sports partnerships for more information.
The Cross Border Directive (CBD) allows you to get healthcare in another EU or EEA member state.
You can access this healthcare in the same way you'd get public healthcare in Ireland. The healthcare must be planned, you need a valid referral, and you must qualify for the healthcare you want as a public patient in Ireland.
Once you go abroad, you must pay for any healthcare that you get. But under the CBD you can then apply to the HSE for reimbursement towards the cost of the healthcare. You can not claim reimbursement for: the cost of any medicine you'll need afterwards or any travel costs.
You can access healthcare abroad using the Cross Border Directive (CBD) in much the same way that you would access public healthcare in Ireland.
How you usually get public healthcare in Ireland
The typical steps you would take when getting healthcare or treatment in a public hospital in Ireland are:
1. Visit your GP to discuss your condition.
2. Your GP refers you to a hospital consultant.
3. You are put on a hospital waiting list to see the consultant.
4. You get called for a consultation with the consultant - this is called an outpatient appointment.
5. The consultant will decide to either to put you on a waiting list for treatment, or discharge you back to your GP - this means they don’t believe you need further hospital treatment.
6. If you are on a waiting list for treatment, you will be called for hospital treatment - this is called inpatient treatment.
7. You will then have a follow up appointment with the consultant.
8. You will then be discharged back to your GP.
At any stage in the steps outlined above, you can decide to leave the Irish system and get healthcare abroad under the CBD.
To get healthcare abroad and be refunded under the Cross Border Directive (CBD) you must:
Be ordinarily resident in Ireland (Ordinarily resident means that you've been living in Ireland for at least one year or can prove your intention to remain in Ireland for at least one year).
Be entitled to public healthcare in Ireland
Not be in receipt of any state benefit from another EU or EEA member state
Travel abroad for the healthcare
Have a referral for public healthcare from a GP or hospital consultant in Ireland
Provide a copy of a letter of referral or a letter from a hospital to say you're on a waiting list in Ireland
Apply for repayment towards the cost of your healthcare abroad, after you have paid for it
Only a GP or a consultant you are attending as a public patient can refer you for CBD healthcare. Having private health insurance does not exclude you from CBD. But you cannot use your private health insurance to access your referral for healthcare abroad. You can use a referral for public healthcare in Ireland to access healthcare abroad under the CBD. You don’t need to be referred specifically to a healthcare provider abroad. If your referral is to a public hospital in Ireland you can also use that referral to go abroad. But your healthcare abroad must be the same medical specialty you've been referred to in Ireland. This referral usually comes from a GP or hospital consultant. You'll see your GP first and discuss your condition. They will then decide if you need a referral to a hospital consultant or if they can manage your condition. Once you go abroad, you must pay for any healthcare that you get. But under the CBD you can then apply to the HSE to claim repayment towards the cost of the healthcare once you meet certain conditions. If you meet these conditions and your application is successful, you will be reimbursed whichever is the lesser: the cost of your healthcare abroad, or what the healthcare would have cost in Ireland
Types of healthcare available
There is no list of specific healthcare you can get abroad under Cross Border Directive (CBD) scheme. Generally, if the healthcare is available publicly in Ireland, you can be referred for the same healthcare abroad. Your GP or consultant can tell you if the healthcare you want to get abroad is publicly available in Ireland and if you qualify for it.
Healthcare available under CBD
Examples of healthcare available under the CBD scheme: day, inpatient and outpatient care in acute hospital services, including psychiatric services, community-based outpatient care, dental and orthodontic services (with some exceptions, such as dental screening services in schools), speech and language services, occupational therapy services (with some exceptions, such as assessment for aids at home), psychology services, physiotherapy services, disability services, ophthalmic (eyes, cataracts) services, orthopaedic (hip replacements) services, mental health services, methadone programme.
Healthcare not available under CBD
Examples of healthcare you can’t get under the CBD include: organ transplants, any long-term care that helps people do everyday tasks such as nursing home care, vaccination against infectious diseases, clinical trials, drug therapies that aren't currently provided publicly in Ireland.
Time to start those mid-year resolutions. You know, the ones you said you'd do back in January...
Every morning can be the first data point of a new goal. Setting goals and reviewing them frequently is one way to keep your focus on what’s important, and to help you take action that will ultimately move you closer toward where you want to go. Yes it totally screams of effort, but the time is going to pass whether you do or don't. Pick something. Anything.
Happy New Year to everyone who has ever read this blog. If any post or part of it has ever helped you in any way then I'm happy. Wishing you health, happiness and prosperity in 2018. I'll continue to try to create some posts moving forward, but I feel this year is going to be my most industrious one so far. New year, new me and all that jazz.
"A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true" ~ Greg Reid
Adopting a psychoanalytic stance to bodybuilding, Melanie Klein states that 'bodybuilding is, at the very least, a subculture whose [male and female] practitioners suffer from large doses of insecurity; hence, compensation through self-presentation of power to the outside world' (1993: 174).
Allegedly caused by antecedent personal and/or gender inadequacy and a masculinity-in-crisis within the larger society, bodybuilding...represent(s) an 'atavistic' strategy for concealing self-perceived flaws (Klein, 1993).
Figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the number of suicides registered in Ireland fell by 6% last year. The CSO's yearly summary shows 475 suicides were registered in 2013, compared to 507 in 2012. The CSO statistics show several counties recording rates of suicide well above the national average of 10.3 per 100,000 population. Males accounted for over 83% of all suicide deaths last year. The number of registered suicides in the 15-24 age group fell by 23% last year, however Ireland still has the fourth highest suicide rate in that age group in the European Union (RTE, 2014).
Women are likely to attempt suicide about three times more often than men, but men are, on average, three times more likely to actually kill themselves. These differences may be due to (1) a higher incidence of depression in women and (2) men's choice of more violent and lethal methods, such as shooting themselves or jumping off buildings. The suicide rate for both men and women is higher among those who have been divorced or widowed. Women's suicides are more likely to be triggered, although not certain to be triggered by any means, by failures in love relationships, whereas career failure more often prompts men's suicides (Shneidman, 1976). Further, a history of sexual or physical abuse significantly increases the likelihood of later suicide attempts (Garnefski & Arends, 1998).
Is suicide contagious?
Most people react to hearing the news of a suicide with sadness and curiosity. Some people react by attempting suicide themselves, often by the same method they have just heard about. Gould (1990) reported an increase in suicides during a 9-day period after widespread publicity about a suicide. Clusters of suicides (several people copying one person) seem to predominate among teenagers, with as many as 5% of all teenage suicides reflecting an imitation (Gould, 1990; Gould, Greenberg, Velting, & Shaffer, 2003). Suicide prevention charity Console has called for a real-time register of suicide data to be kept. It said it could then "act on timely and accurate statistics to put measures in place to prevent such phenomena as suicide clustering or contagion".
Why would anyone want to copy a suicide? First, suicides are often romanticized in the media: An attractive young person under unbearable pressure commits suicide and becomes a martyr to friends and peers by getting even with the (adult) world for creating such a difficult situation. Also, media accounts often describe in detail the methods used in the suicide, thereby providing a guide to potential victims. Little is reported about the paralysis, brain damage, and other tragic consequences of the incomplete or failed suicide or about how suicide is almost always associated with a severe psychological disorder. More important, even less is said about the futility of this method of solving problems (Gould, 1990, 2001; O’Carroll, 1990).
To prevent these tragedies, mental health professionals must intervene immediately in schools and other locations with people who might be depressed or otherwise vulnerable to the contagion of suicide. But it isn’t clear that suicide is ''contagious'' in the infectious disease sense. Rather, the stress of a friend’s suicide or some other major stress may affect several individuals who are vulnerable because of existing psychological disorders (Durand & Barlow, 2013).
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''The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness''~ Abraham Maslow
If you just consume fewer calories you'll lose weight. Unfortunately not always.
Most of us think that we only put fat in our fat cells when we eat too much. Your fat cells are like rechargeable fuel cells, every time you eat, you store some fat. In between meals, fat comes out of your fat cells to provide the fuels for your muscles and organs. If you're naturally thin, it's because you have efficient fat cells. Fat goes in quickly and comes out easily. Your body doesn't need much fat because the small bit of fat you do have is a reliable source of fuel. If you're predisposed to be fat, it's because you have 'greedy fat cells'.
When you eat you tend to store calories as fat instead of burning them. And when your other tissues need those calories, the fat comes out slowly, if it comes out at all. So if you don't eat, you start to starve at the cellular level. So you do exactly what your body is telling you to do - you eat more. In other words,
You're not getting fat because you're eating more,
You're eating more because you're getting fat!
If your fat cells are slow to release fuel, your body actually works to make them bigger. And they keep on getting bigger until they can release the energy that your body needs. This could mean gaining a little weight or it could mean gaining a lot! It all depends on how slowly your fat-cells release their fat. Most of us aren't born with 'greedy fat-cells', but we can certainly make them that way. When you eat too many carbohydrates, you raise your blood sugar. Since high blood sugar is toxic, your body releases insulin to bring it down. But your body can only burn a little bit of sugar at a time. So what happens to the rest of it? Your storage sites for carbohydrates are limited and you've got unlimited storage places for fat. So the body just ends up converting the carbs in to fat. And after bringing down your blood sugar, your insulin does its other job, it tells your body to store fat.
Insulin stimulates an enzyme called lipoprotein-lipase which sends fat into the fat cells. So if insulin is elevated, this lipoprotein-lipase production is really activated and it sends fat 'like crazy' into the fat cells. So if you eat a lot of carbohydrates, your insulin goes up and you begin storing fat in the fat cells.
Intra-abdominal (visceral) fat is a major culprit for insidious
effects to a person's health including; cardiovascular
disease, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.
When you have a healthy metabolism, it only takes a little bit of insulin to bring your blood sugar down and then everything goes back to normal. But over time, that can change. Cells can become resistant to the effects of insulin, so when that happens, insulin is talking with the cells, but they're not listening! They don't do what they're supposed to do. And so your body does what it has to do, it starts producing more insulin. So you've reached a point where your insulin is high just to keep your sugar levels normal, even if your not eating any sugar. When that happens, your insulin is driving fat into the fat cells and you've reached this point where all of a sudden - Bam! You get fat.
And you get fat even though you're eating the same number of calories you always did. Because now you have greedy fat-cells. So you do what the ''experts'' tell you to do, you go on a low fat, low calorie diet so you can burn your own body fat for fuel. But there's just one little problem with this: if too many carbs are keeping your insulin high, the insulin is telling your body to store the fat instead of burning it. Now you're really starving inside!
So once again your body does what it has to do: it slows down your metabolism. You stop losing weight and you get tired. And people can end up being, in most cases, larger than they were when they started out - but now with a lower metabolic rate. And this can be extremely frustrating for many people.
For every pound of fat you put on, you gain 7 new miles of blood vessels!
So some people get fat and stay fat because they're living on foods that tell their body to store the calories in their fat cells - which just makes you hungrier. In some people the fat-cells and the other tissues become insulin resistant at about the same rate. The good news for them is that they don't gain weight, the bad news is that insulin resistance can kill you even if you're skinny.
The demanding of your pancreas that it produce ever greater amounts of insulin to keep your blood sugar normal, is ultimately going to cause 'beta-cell burnout'. So the pancreas is producing all it can produce and that's not enough anymore. When that happens, the beta-cells get damaged, they can't produce anymore and your blood sugar goes up and now you're becoming diabetic. And further, when your blood sugar goes out of control, it can damage your arteries and lead to heart disease.
It's not easy struggling with something that keeps you alive. But you can blame away, you are in charge of yourself. There's no one giant step that does it, it's a lot of little steps. And that doesn't just relate to putting the weight on, but also for getting rid of it. Human nature is very addictive and human nature is very flawed. It is extraordinary that it takes such a long time for the penny to drop with some people. But it shouldn't be a surprise as the seeds of it are really deep. All the problems of being overweight are remedial. But the younger you put it on the bigger you can go. And the further you let yourself go, the longer of a battle it is to get back (O'Shea, 2012).
~ (Fat Head, 2009)
________________________________________________________________________ ''I found there was only one way to look thin: hang out with fat people'' ~ Rodney Dangerfield
Krokodil, or crocodile, is Russia's deadliest designer drug. The average user of krokodil, a dirty cousin of morphine that's spreading like a virus among Russian youth, does not live longer than two or three years, and the few who manage to quit usually come away badly disfigured.
The active component is codeine, a widely sold over-the-counter painkiller that is not toxic on its own. But to produce krokodil, whose medical name is desomorphine, addicts mix it with ingredients including gasoline, paint thinner, hydrochloric acid, iodine and red phosphorous, which they scrape from the striking pads on matchboxes. The high lasts about an hour and a half, and it takes about an hour to cook it. It is around 8-10 times more potent than morphine.
In 2010, between a few hundred thousand and a million people, according to various official estimates, were injecting the resulting substance into their veins in Russia. It is so far the only country in the world to see the drug grow into an epidemic, primarily due to the difficulties users have in procuring heroin. Predictably, it has spread the fastest in the poorest and most remote parts of the country, like Vorkuta.
Pavlova, an ex-user remarks, ''The winters there last eight months of the year and the young people are in a constant state of boredom. Most of them drink and few of them work, the same as in hundreds of towns and villages across Russia's frozen north. Besides her, Pavlova says there were about a dozen krokodil addicts she hung around with, including her brother. "Practically all of them are dead now," she says. "For some it led to pneumonia, some got blood poisoning, some had an artery burst in their heart, some got meningitis, others simply rot."
The "rotting" explains the drug's nickname. At the injection site, which can be anywhere from the feet to the forehead, the addict's skin becomes greenish and scaly, like a crocodile's, as blood vessels burst and the surrounding tissue dies. Gangrene and amputations are a common result, while porous bone tissue, especially in the lower jaw, often starts to dissipate, eaten up by the drug's acidity.
As the number of users continues to rise, despite the widely known symptoms, the Russian government is struggling to get the situation under control.
Just like Xylazine in Puerto Rico, Russia's own private drug hell is gaining momentum with the latest in a new strain of illegal narcotics.
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What is Major Depression? Symptoms can include; weight loss, insomnia, a negative self-image and even suicidal thoughts. It's not the mood itself that denotes pathology, but its extent, severity, and duration. When left untreated, depression can often go away by itself, but for many people - it persists. Depression can begin as a reaction to specific life experiences, such as the death of a loved one, job loss, divorce, or reacting to growing old.
Many people with major depression think they have only physical problems, so they seek help from a physician, and in fact they may never get to a mental health practitioner at all. Depression can come in many forms from the mildest, that may go undetected, to the most acute, requiring hospitalisation.
The milder forms of depression may be exemplified by a high executive who flies a corporate jet and who feels a lot of physical symptoms occurring over a period of time with a gradual onset.
They may feel a sense of malaise, decreased energy, or a decreased enjoyment of life, but can still work and function as far as others are concerned. But as far as he's concerned, he's only working at 30 or 40 percent of his usual capacity.
This person may be very unhappy, their life may be extremely difficult for them and others may not even notice. The fact is that many people are working and functioning in this state. This same person may respond to treatment and feel one hundred times better once their actively treated. But to the outside world, they may look exactly the same. That's the mildest form of the illness.
In acute or severe depression, the psychomotor retardation is even more intensified. The person moves slower, speaks slower. The person actively withdraws from social contacts, he doesn't want to be involved with other people, they just want to be left alone. They can no longer function as well as they could. They have no motivation to work, to be involved in anything. Nothing seems worthwhile.
In psychotic depression, there is a break with reality, here the person experiences delusions, usually associated with guilt or self blame - more extreme forms of what we see in milder forms of depression. They may have hypochondriacal delusions about their bodies, such as cancer. In the most pronounced forms of depression, called 'depressive stupor', all of the previous symptoms are aggravated. Here the same person does not respond to the outside world at all. Some are even spoon-fed to be kept alive.
In general, the subjective case of the depressed person is that they're living life beneath a cloud. People are hopeless that anything will take the pain away. It's like being tortured and seeing no way to get out of it, no way to end the pain. And that's when people not only consider suicide, but that suicide seems like a merciful exit for them, a way to get out of what seems to be a no-exit situation.
According to the WHO and the latest Burden of Disease Estimation, suicide is a major public health problem in high income countries and is an emerging problem in low and middle income countries. Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the world, especially among young people.
Nearly one million people worldwide die by suicide each year. This corresponds to one death by suicide every 40 seconds. The number of lives lost each year through suicide exceeds the number of deaths due to homicide and war combined. These staggering figures do not include nonfatal suicide attempts which occur much more frequently than deaths by suicide.
*2013 - 475 (6% drop, withmales accounting for over 83% of all suicide deaths last year.)
A large proportion of people who die by suicide suffer mental illness. Recent estimates suggest that the disease burden caused by mental illnesses will amount for 25% of the total disease burden in the world in the next two decades, making it the most important category of ill-health (more important than cancer or heart diseases.)
A significant number of those with mental illnesses who die by suicide do not contact health or social services near the time of their death. In many instances, there are insufficient services available to assist those in need at times of crisis. Lack of access to appropriate care is one of the many factors that magnify the stigma associated with mental illness and with suicidal ideation and behaviour. This type of stigma, which is deeply rooted in most societies, can arise for different reasons.
For some people, the term 'suicide' alone evokes panic and one of the causes of stigma is a simple lack of knowledge - that is, ignorance. This type of stigma can be directly addressed by providing a range of community-based educational programs that are targeted to specific subgroups within the society (that is, by age, educational level, religious affiliation, and so forth). Negative attitudes about individuals with mental illnesses and/or suicidal ideation or impulses (prejudice) is common in many communities. These negative attitudes often do not change with education about mental illnesses and suicidal behaviour.
Many health professionals who feel uncomfortable dealing with persons struggling with mental illnesses or suicidal ideation often hold negative, prejudicial attitudes towards such patients. This can result in a failure to provide optimal care and support for persons in crisis.
Stigma is also the underlying motive for discrimination - inappropriate or unlawful restrictions of the freedom of individuals with mental illnesses or suicidal behaviour. Such restrictions can occur at a personal, community or institutional level. One extreme example is the criminalization of suicidal behaviour, which still occurs in many countries. Discrimination can prevent or discourage people affected by mental illness and/or suicidal ideation or behaviour from seeking professional help, or from returning to their normal social roles, after receiving treatment for an episode of illness or crisis.
In both high-income and low and middle-income countries stigmatized conditions such as mental illnesses and suicidal behaviour receive a much smaller proportion of health and welfare budgets than is appropriate, given their huge impact on the overall health of the community.
Unless the stigma is confronted and challenged, it will continue to be a major barrier to the treatment of mental illnesses and to the prevention of suicide. Events like World Mental Health Day (October 10th) and World Suicide Prevention Day (September 10th) are ideal times to highlight and inspire people to work towards the goal of developing creative new methods for eradicating stigma and helping to save lives.
_____________________________________________________________________________ Each morning when you open your eyes, say to yourself: “I, not external people or events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. It’s up to me. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow hasn’t come yet. I only have today and I’m going to be happy in it.”
It is a fact of life that people have always altered their consciousness and future generations will continue to do so. Drugs are here to stay.
Drugs are a 350 billion dollar industry. Research published in the medical journal the Lancet in 2007, rates the following as the most dangerous drugs. The problem with rank ordering drugs by harm is that some of the drugs are used in combination, however, the following is the order of harm in which science sees 20 of the UK's most dangerous drugs. The ratings were based on the following three factors, 1. What the drug does to the person who takes it. 2. How addictive is the drug. 3. What are the consequences to society.
20) Khat (green leafed shrub): makes you feel alert and energised. It is not particularly addictive or harmful but excessive consumption can lead to insomnia, impotence and high blood pressure.
UK deaths per year: 0
Price: £4 a bunch
Alkyl Nitrite
19) Alkyl Nitrite: Legal drug. Street names: Poppers, Liquid Gold.
Delivers a short, sharp high and relaxes sphincter muscles. Sniffed straight from the bottle.
Street Price: £2-6 per bottle UK Users: 400,000 UK Deaths per year: 0 recorded
18) Ecstasy :
MDMA (methylenedioxy-methylamphetamine)
The second half of that word should be a red flag to anyone.
Class A drug.
MDMA
Street Names: E, Love drug, XTC, Hug Drug.
Street Price: £1-8 a pill
UK Users: 500,000
UK Deaths per year: 27
First synthesized in 1912 by Merck chemist Anton Köllisch. it was originally patented to control bleeding from wounds. But in the 1970's it was introduced illegally into the 'dance scene'. Its ranking massively conflicts with its reputation. Hospitals rarely deal with someone presenting with problems with ecstasy. Deaths are usually due to dehydration. It's a stimulant drug and can bring on mild hallucinations. It produces feelings of euphoria, enhanced sociability, empathy & energy and causes increases in body temperature and heart-rate. It affects NMDA Glutamate receptors, and once ingested, it causes the release of the chemical messengers serotonin within the brain which is responsible for regulating mood and memory.
''Most people who take it once, take it again''.
Experts weighing up all the available evidence had little doubt that ecstasy deserved to be no higher than no. 18. All drugs are harmful to a certain extent - even Aspirin, but in terms of the risk to the individual and society, it is nowhere near the other drugs on the list. Thus it seems that it may actually be in the wrong Class.
17) GHB (gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid) : Class C
Street Name: Liquid Ecstasy
Street Price: £5 per dose
UK Users: Not known
UK Deaths per year: 3
As a sedative, a small amount makes you happy, sensual and uninhibited. There are concerns about it being used in 'date-rape', but evidence is quite low, with few cases reporting GHB as being used (because you can smell it, it is not an easy drug to hide). The difference between GHB for 'a buzz' and a dose that can kill you is barely noticeable. When it is mixed with alcohol - it can be fatal.
Anabolic Steroids
16) Anabolic Steroids : Class C drug
Street Price: £20 for 100 tablets
UK Users: 42,000 in England & Wales
UK Deaths: per year: 0
It is used for muscle enhancing. Abuse can cause enormous amounts of damage to the individual - from becoming sterile, high risk of liver failure and even strokes or heart attacks. Further, it can lead to increased aggression and acts of violent behaviour, in what is sometimes termed as 'roid rage'.
Methylphenidate
15) Methylphenidate : Class B
The active ingredient in drugs such as Ritalin.
Street Name: Vitamin R
Street Price: £15 a hit
UK Users: 40,000
UK Deaths per year: 0 recorded
It is an effective treatment for ADHD sufferers. Used by around 40,000 prescription users. When used illegally, the tablets are crushed and snorted for a quick high. It's a powerful stimulant and abuse can lead to vomiting, convulsions, tremors and delirium.
14) LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide) : Class A
Street Names: Lucy, Trips, Paper Mushrooms
Street Price: £1-5 per tab
UK Users: 83,000
UK Deaths per year: No recently recorded deaths
It used to be a prescription drug. Initially developed as a circulatory and respiratory stimulant in the 1930's. Then in a 15 year period beginning in the 1950's, it was prescribed as a psychiatric treatment to over 40,000 schizophrenic patients worldwide. In the 1960's it was taken up by the army who tested it on their troops to see if it could be used in battle to incapacitate the enemy (see below) . Later that decade, LSD leaked out into the recreational market which panicked the establishment and was made an illegal class A drug.
LSD first acts on the brain's serotonin system, the part of the brain responsible for feelings of well-being. It subsequently acts on the pre-frontal cortex which processes some of our uniquely human abstract thoughts. It also seems to reduce communication between different brain areas, leading to a loss of inhibitions and an ability to open up, and the complex neurological effects can result in powerful hallucinations.
Many experts today believe the dangers of LSD are more faction than fact. It's physiologically non-toxic. No one has ever died of an overdose - true one or two people in the 1960's may have jumped out of windows, but that has become a myth ingrained in history.
13) 4MTA (4-Methylthioamphetamine) : Class A drug.
A man-made drug created to sell purely on the street
as an alternative to ecstasy and is relatively new to the UK.
Street Names: Flat-liner, Golden Eagle.
Street Price: £1-8
UK Users: Unknown
UK Deaths per year: 0 recorded
''33 times more powerful than ecstasy''
It's dangers lie in that even though it is a stimulant, it does not produce the euphoric high that ecstasy does. So users take more of it thinking it hasn't worked which can lead to overdose.
12) Solvents : Legal
From glue, to paint, to aerosols
UK Users: 30,000
UK Deaths per year: 50-60 (including first time users)
A lot more dangerous than people realise. The misuse of solvents is widespread. They can be inhaled so they get into the lungs very quickly. Many have toxic chemicals and can have a very toxic effect on the heart. Somewhere between 5 and 20 children per year die of the heart stopping after solvent inhalation.
Scientists placed a mixture of legal and illegal drugs in the bottom half of the chart. But at number 11 they reached a crucial turning point with the U.K's most commonly used illegal drug.
11) Cannabis:Class B
Street Names: Dope, Hash
Street Price: £40-140 per ounce
UK Users: 3 million
UK Deaths per year: 1
When smoked, it hits the brain almost immediately affecting cannabinoid receptors present everywhere in the brain. Small doses lead to euphoria, relaxation, and pain relief. With high doses it can bring on paranoia and short term memory loss. It can also lead to some form of dependency and more recently linked to lung cancer.
Some scientists have explored long term use and psychosis. The THC in cannabis may be linked to psychotic behaviour. This compound is being used to see if it can recreate similar symptoms in healthy volunteers to those suffered by schizophrenics. Schizophrenia is a psychiatric illness in which patients will experience a range of bizarre phenomenon, such as delusions (e.g. that some agency is out to get them) and with subjects often hearing voices.
''For young people it's catastrophic to include into the diet, psychoactive drugs - their brains are still developing and no where near mature'' ~ Marsden, J.
10) Buprenorphine : Class C opiate
Street Names: Subbies, Temmies
Street Price: £2 a dose
UK Users: Unknown
UK Deaths per year: 2
It is normally used for severe pain and as a treatment for heroin dependency (used as an injectable pain killer and when taken orally it can block the effect of heroin). It is used illegally because of its euphoric and hallucinogenic effects. Without medical guidance, it is highly addictive and being a strong opiate - it can very easily lead to an overdose.
9) Tobacco :
Price: €9+ per pack
UK Users: 10 million+
UK Deaths per year: 114,000
The most deadly drug in the UK. It kills one fifth of the population and reduces life expectancy on average by 10 years. It causes 40% of all hospital illnesses and it is one of the most addictive drugs available - and yet it remains legal.
Smoking alone kills more than drugs, alcohol, HIV, suicide, homicide and car crashes combined. Approximately 1 in 3 lifelong smokers will die from smoking. Probably the most addictive substance there is.
The reinforcing
actions of nicotine are very similar to those of cocaine and amphetamine. However,
the psychopharmacological and behavioural actions of nicotine appear to be much
more subtle than those of cocaine.
Dependence on
nicotine causes a withdrawal syndrome characterized by craving and agitation,
reminiscent of but less severe than that experienced by a stimulant abuser in
withdrawal.
Cigarettes today are so common that they're molded into the fabric of our daily life.
Instead of the
longer and much more intense euphoria of cocaine, the pleasure of nicotine is a
desirable but small boost in the sensation of pleasure ("minirush"),
followed by a slow decline until the nicotinic receptors switch back on and the
smoker takes the next puff or smokes the next cigarette.
8) Amphetamine : Class B
Street Names: Speed, Whizz, Dexies, Billys.
Street Price: £8-12 a wrap.
UK Users: 430,000 UK Deaths per year: 35
As a stimulant, it can make the user feel more energetic and confident. When abused, they can become incredibly addictive. As tolerance builds up - consumption increases, leading to paranoia and depression; and with heavy use bringing on panic attacks and violent mood swings.
7) Benzodiazepine : e.g. Valium
Street Names : Benzos, Downers
Street Prices : £1
UK Users: 100,000
UK Deaths per year: 406
They are minor tranquilisers, used for treating anxiety under prescription along with insomnia and seizures. After a few months they can cause dependence and side effects. When illegally abused, they can lead to memory loss, nausea, anxiety and depression. Consumed with alcohol, they are often fatal.
Withdrawal from Benzos is analogous to the withdrawal of heroin. It should not be taken casually.
6) Ketamine : Class C
Street Names: Special K, Vitamin K
Street Prices: £30+ per gram
UK Users: 100,000
UK Deaths per year: 1 recorded
Normally used as a horse tranquilizer, it has very strong pain killing effects - but has become illegally popular because it is a strong hallucinogen. It looks like cocaine and is snorted similarly. Effects include; numbness, altering reality, and dissociation from your surroundings.
It falls into 6th place on this list because in high doses it results in heart failure and even stopped breathing. It's particularly dangerous if it is mixed with any depressant drugs including alcohol. Prolonged use can lead to psychological dependence and psychosis.
5) Alcohol : Legal
Price: £1+
UK Users: 40 million (2 thirds of UK population)
UK Deaths per year: 40,000
More harmful than ecstasy, LSD, tobacco, 5 Class A's and 11 illegal drugs. Something which kills more people than all of the illegal drugs on this list combined. And which is nevertheless used by the majority of the UK population. Around since the earliest days of civilization, alcohol is the biggest public health problem faced today. There are currently over 180,000 alcohol related hospital admissions each year and deaths have nearly doubled in the past decade. Around 40% of Accident and Emergency admissions are down to alcohol and the cost to the NHS is up to £1.7 billion per year and yet the drinking continues.
Another US study attributed over half of all fatal car accidents, homicides and suicides to occur under the influence of alcohol.
It is the only drug that we actively encourage people to use, which we under-price, sell aggressively and yet we pick up the consequences and damage all the time.
Alcohol is a sedative and it's effects are seen on the brain in five minutes. It affects several neurotransmitters, including GABA and also dopamine, which is found in large quantities in the brains reward pathway. Stimulation of this system not only causes pleasure but also gives alcohol its addictive qualities. Alcohol also acts as a depressant and at low doses removes inhibitions making the person more sociable and talkative. As doses increase, speech begins to slur, it effects coordination, and can bring on nausea and vomiting. Long term use can lead to damage of the heart, liver, and stomach.
If alcohol was invented today, it would certainly have a lot more sanctions on it than it currently has. It probably would be even classified up to an A level.
Alcohol can ruin relationships, jeopardise health, and pretty much put your dreams on hold.
4) Street Methadone : Class A
Street Names: The Precious, Slime, Green.
Street Price: £10 per 100ml
UK Users: 33,000 illegal users
UK Deaths per year: 295
''A drug solution to a drug problem'' ~ Loose, R.
An opiate drug similar to heroin, but ''less addictive''. Prescribed medically, it reduces the withdrawal effects of heroin and tends to lead to a reduction in heroin use. A very small amount for someone who is not used to taking it can be fatal. Because there is no rush like heroin, when you take it you can overdose easily without ever feeling high.
80% of people presenting to methadone clinics in Ireland are already Hepatitis C positive ~ Crown, 2013
3) Barbiturates : Class B
Street Names: Pink Ladies, Red Devils
Street Price: £1-2 per tablet
UK Users: Unknown
UK Deaths per year: 20
It used to be prescribed for depression, anxiety and insomnia. When used illicitly, it can make the user feel relaxed, sociable and good humoured. The problem with barbiturates and the reason they place high on the list - if you take an overdose, you are very likely to die. The small difference between a normal dose and an overdose makes them a highly dangerous drug. If you take an overdose of barbiturates, it'd be like taking an overdose of alcohol - they both work on the same parts of the brain to stop you breathing. They're so dangerous that their medical use has dramatically reduced. Nowadays they are only prescribed to treat very severe insomnia.
2) Cocaine : Class A
Street Names: Charlie, Coke, Base
Street Price: £30+ (Powder) / £10+ (Crack Rock)
UK Users: 780,000 in England and Wales alone
UK Deaths per year: 214 recorded deaths
A stimulant drug often associated with glamour, money, and fame. The two kinds of cocaine: the powder form which is snorted and also the rock form 'crack cocaine', which is a smokeable version. 'Crack' delivers a more intense high but for a shorter period of time. It has a 'mainlining' effect and it goes straight to the brain, where it affects the reuptake of dopamine. The most intense high comes from inhaling the cocaine vapour, either by 'freebasing' (heating cocaine with flammable solvents like ether), or using crack; pre-packaged, rock-like chunks of cocaine freebase.
During the 1980's, the use of crack sky-rocketed. It's cheaper, more readily available and provides a high that too many find irresistible. Unlike heroin and methamphetamine, powder cocaine users neither fall into a stupor nor hallucinate. While cocaine that is snorted reaches the brain in 3 to 4 minutes, smoking cocaine provides the fastest and most intense high. It only takes about 8 seconds for the drug to be absorbed into the brain from the lungs. The result: a euphoric state so intense that patients often describe it in sexual terms.
A subjective
experience that may follow the euphoria is a sense of "crashing," characterized
by craving more cocaine and accompanied by agitation and anxiety, giving way to
fatigue, depression, exhaustion, hypersomnolence, and hyperphagia. After
several days, if another dose of cocaine is not taken, the chronic abuser may experience
other signs of withdrawal, including anergy, decreased interest, anhedonia, and
increased cocaine craving.
1) Heroin : Class A
Street Names: Gear, Smack, Brown, Skag
Street Price: £10-20 a bag
UK Users: 300,000
UK Deaths per year: 700
If your homeless, in and out of prison, no job, numerous problems in your life - then heroin use makes absolute sense. Because it's a pain killer, it wraps people in a bubble where the pain of life can't get to you.
Rated the most harmful drug. Either injected or smoked, heroin is used both as a pain killer and as a recreational drug. It works on the reward pathway, which is why it is intensely habit forming. Withdrawal from cocaine may be more psychological, but with heroin withdrawal is extremely physical.
The thoughts of withdrawal is what poisons the outlook of the opiate addict.
When injected it can produce a fast and strong feeling of euphoria, which is akin to an orgasm. It affects Opioid receptors in the brain. One dose can last from 1 to 3 hours. As it effects the part of the brain that controls breathing, an overdose can be fatal.
''It is a drug that has a very fierce dependence liability, once created, the sense of heroin dependence is very difficult to shift'' ~ Marsden, J.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ''Whether you sniff it, smoke it, eat it, or shove it up your ass, the result is the same: addiction'' ~ William S. Burroughs
