How Drugs and Alcohol Affect Your Immune System

Your immune system protects you against bacteria and germs, helping you stay healthy and well. It filters out toxins and other harmful substances. The proteins, cells, and organs of your immune system interact in complex ways scientists don’t completely understand. However, when you mix drugs and the immune system, you often get results that can make you sick and even threaten your life. At Coalition Recovery in Tampa, FL, our nutrition and wellness program focuses on understanding and reversing the damage caused when you use drugs or alcohol.

What Your Immune System Does

Your immune system neutralizes germs including viruses and bacteria. It also gets rid of harmful substances that enter the body. Additionally, the immune system can turn on itself to get rid of mutated cells such as cancer cells. If your immune system does not work appropriately, you become susceptible to numerous illnesses that can affect your health and well-being.

Drugs and the Immune System

There’s an adverse impact on your health when you mix drugs and the immune system. Typically, your immune system can protect your body adequately. However, when you introduce harmful substances such as alcohol and illicit drugs, your immune system can go haywire. In turn, this can lead to infections and diseases.

Many illicit drugs cause fatigue, dehydration, and abnormal sleeping and eating habits. This can compromise your immune system and increase your risk of developing a serious illness.

Alcohol and the Immune System

When you mix alcohol and the immune system, you can get dire results. Alcohol suppresses the immune system and drinking copious amounts of it can cause a number of diseases. Alcohol abuse disrupts the proper functioning of your digestive system by damaging cells responsible for digesting food.

The long-term effects of alcohol on the immune system include liver failure and breaking down various organs in your body. Your liver stores vitamins that your body needs to function properly. However, drinking can lead to malnutrition and liver damage.

Alcoholism can trigger autoimmunity, in which your body attacks healthy tissues. It also impairs the functionality of the white blood cells responsible for killing rogue white blood cells that cause cancer.

How Do Other Drugs Impact Your Immune System?

It’s important to understand what happens if you mix drugs and the body. Let’s look at the impact of the following drugs on your immune system:

• Heroin is a highly addictive substance. Once you begin to use this street drug, you soon become obsessed with getting more of it. It often causes users to neglect their physical needs, such as getting enough sleep and eating the right foods. Without proper nutrition, your immune system cannot function well. We have a dedicated heroin rehab program to help you turn your back on heroin addiction.
• Cocaine users are more susceptible to hepatitis, HIV, STDs, and other ailments. Using cocaine disrupts the production of a protein your immune system relies on to function properly. The longer you remain in thrall to cocaine, the more damage you do to your immune system and the rest of your body.
• Prescription drugs such as morphine block your body’s message system to the brain. This reaction benefits patients suffering from debilitating pain but can lead to the suppression of certain white blood cells. Enroll in our morphine rehab program to get help.

Addiction Treatment at Coalition Recovery in Tampa, FL

Before abusing alcohol and other illicit drugs, consider the correlation between drugs and the body. When you seek addiction treatment in Tampa, FL, you begin the process of reversing the adverse relationship between addiction and the body. Contact us at 888.707.2873, or contact us online to find out more about our nutrition and exercise programs, as well as other holistic programs that strengthen your body as you focus on your recovery.