Drugs produce many different effects in the human body. Aside from altering perception and creating the high some people chase, they change functions and processes all the way down to a cellular level.
Did you ever wonder, “How do drugs affect your health as a man?” Drugs affect men and women differently.
How Do Drugs Affect Your Health If You’re a Man?
Whether using alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, or steroids, men face a unique set of adverse health effects. Read on to learn 8 effects of drugs that men should know.
1. Cocaine Seduces More Men than Women
Cocaine research suggests that men are 50% more likely to use cocaine than women. Furthermore, men seem to experience a more intense high than women, with increased euphoria, putting them at a higher risk from the drug.
Cocaine can cause serious side effects including:
- Nausea
- Decreased appetite
- Hallucinations
- Hyper-stimulation
- Anxiety
- Paranoia
- Panic
- Blood vessel damage
- Organ damage
- Tooth decay
- Psychosis
- Heart attack
Click on the link for more helpful information on cocaine use. Because, as a man, you are at increased risk for initial use and subsequent use, you should avoid exposure to the drug altogether.
2. Drugs Can Affect Your Manhood
If you want to perform well, then stay sober. Drugs like nicotine, alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, barbiturates, amphetamines, and heroin can all lead to impotence.
A major reason for this is that drugs affect blood flow in the body. Your dude downstairs depends on a healthy blood supply to get up.
Drugs also affect your mental state, which is typically why people tend to use them in the first place. Emotional factors can affect your ability to perform as well. Sometimes, sexual desire disappears altogether.
Usually, occasional drug use will not create a permanent problem. But continual drug use can permanently affect your mindset, blood vessels, and heart, which will lead to long-term erectile dysfunction.
3. Marijuana Stops Your Swimmers
Some guys find that they can smoke and have sex just fine. In fact, some feel that marijuana improves libido.
However, they should know that the drug still impacts them downstairs. Though they may escape the performance issues, THC does affect sperm quality.
The quality of your swimmers stands on three factors:
- Sperm count: number of swimmers in a given sample
- Sperm morphology: whether or not the sperm has normal, functioning parts
- Sperm motility: whether or not sperm can swim
So, how does Mary Jane affect these?
Marijuana research reveals that it lowers sperm count and concentration of sperm in a semen sample. They also found that it makes your sperm as lazy as it makes you, decreasing motility. Even worse, it can affect the morphology of sperm, affecting the function and quality of the lazy few you get left with.
4. Alcohol Can Break Your Heart
You may drown your sorrows in booze. But you should know that doing so can seriously break your heart.
Alcoholic males carry more of a risk of developing a condition called alcoholic cardiomyopathy. This heart condition stems from alcohol abuse and results in thinning and weakening of the heart muscle that affects its ability to pump blood.
Symptoms of this condition include:
- Weakness
- Dizziness
- Fatigue
- Edema
- Decreased appetite
- Rapid heart rate
- Difficulty concentrating
- A cough with pink, frothy discharge
These symptoms create a major inconvenience to normal life. They also signal a serious decline in organ function due to the inability of the heart to efficiently pump blood. It can eventually end in heart failure.
5. Drinking Can Cause Cancer
As a man, alcohol use increases your risk of developing cancer in your mouth, throat, esophagus, liver, and colon. If you smoke too, the risk for mouth cancer multiplies by 100.
6. Steroids Cause Serious Side Effects
Many men who live a healthy lifestyle, as far as diet and exercise go, use steroids to supplement their workouts. Newsflash: steroids are potent drugs too.
Sure, during puberty, the male body naturally makes the hormones that anabolic-steroids push through the bloodstream, and they work to make your muscles bulge.
But you should know the side effects you face from juicing. They include:
- Acne
- Fatigue
- Difficulty sleeping
- Hypertension
- Serious mood swings
- Decreased sperm count
- Impotence
- Shrunken testicles
- Increased breast tissue
- Mania
- Stroke
- Heart issues
Most men want to look big and buff. But do they want tiny balls, big boobs, and a raging temper? To each their own, but you may want to forgo the juice.
7. Steroid Use Can Literally Leave You Ripped
This is a perfectly horrible example of what drugs can do to your body, in case the side effects did not make you want to skip juicing. Steroids make people stronger, to a certain extent.
However, some people overuse them and end up seriously injuring themselves. They put themselves at risk for serious muscle tears and tendon ruptures.
Both conditions lead to serious pain and a long recovery time, which means atrophy all around. Some girls dig ripped guys, but not guys who are literally ripped, so easy on the roids, Mr. Hulk.
8. Molly Messes with Your Mind
You may have heard that women face greater risks from taking MDMA than men do. However, more men die from using ecstasy.
Let’s say you don’t take enough to overdose. Molly still messes with your mind. The little pill causes your body to flood with serotonin, essentially chemical happiness, producing that amazing high during the moment.
Unfortunately, your brain uses up your happy stores for the next few days to a week, leaving you feeling down. Frequent users increase their risk of depression and run the risk of feeling desensitized to everything that makes life great when you’re sober.
Live Life for the Natural Highs
How do drugs affect your health? If they affect it at all, ask yourself what you’re searching for.
People who do drugs often choose so to feel something amazing. Instead of drugs, do things like travel, learn, eat really good food, and skydive. Chase the highs that don’t hurt your health.
Whatever high you choose, do so informed. For more man-stuff, check out our blog!
