The Brain and the Effects of Drugs
The human brain is a complex organ that we really do not know much about. When my brother was born he was deprived of oxygen for an unknown amount of time during labor. The doctors weren’t sure how long because it was while he was coming out. When he came out he was not breathing and the doctors immediately took him to the NICU to be given oxygen so he could live. They determined that he was deprived of oxygen to his brain, but they were not sure what effects that would have later in life. He stayed in the NICU for six weeks until he could come home. The doctors did everything they could do to save his brain and give him a normal life, but sometimes we think that it didn’t help. Later in life, he was diagnosed with almost every mental illness in the books. He struggles in life and cannot make cognitive decisions most of the time. He has had many brain scans and they all say that he is normal with nothing wrong, but I am convinced that something more is wrong with his brain because of the deprivation of oxygen when he was born. We just do not have the knowledge or the technology to determine what he actually has wrong with him.
There are many different brain disorders that manifest themselves as other symptoms, this is why the brain is such an important organ in our bodies. One of these diseases that I suffer from is defined as a personality and mood disorder, this disease is an obsessive-compulsive disorder. “Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is a personality disorder that’s characterized by extreme perfectionism, order, and neatness.” Most of the time, this disorder is also correlated to anxiety. This disease is mainly characterized by having to repeat certain things a certain amount of time before continuing with life. An example of this is having to wash your hands so many times before you can continue with whatever is happening, sometimes it is 5 times before eating and 3 times after using the restroom. Me, I do not exhibit these signs, rather I pay great attention to detail and everything must be perfect. The exact cause of OCPD is greatly unknown, but there is some correlation to perfectionism in early years of development. Some studies are showing that people with OCPD have excess activity in the frontal regions of the brain. This is usually a chemical imbalance which is causing the brain to think and do different things than what is considered ‘normal.’ This is currently being treated with deep stimulation in the brain which is causing the compulsive actions to be suppressed and the personality of the person to come into the light.
Since OCPD is a chemical imbalance in the brain, it causes changes within the entire body, this is where the actions of this disorder come from. Since there are associated behaviors with this disorder we can discuss it in terms of Ayurveda because it affects the whole body. The Ayurvedic view on OCPD views it as a type of anxiety where the person cannot control what is happening because something else is happening inside of their body. The cause is the idea of Prana Vata which weakens the nervous systems to then cause a mental imbalance in the brain of the person. This is caused by the neuro-hormonal system and nerve impulses being weakened and the body is in imbalance and needs to be reset. Therefore, the treatment for OCPD with the idea of Ayurveda is the use of internal medicines. This will allow for a peaceful mind and allows the body to regain self-control over its thoughts. Compared to western medicine, when someone is diagnosed with a mental illness, physicians prescribe medication to block and suppress the symptoms instead of looking at the whole problem.
OCPD is a personality disorder that is caused by an imbalance in the brain, there are other brain diseases/injuries that can cause a change of personality of the person. One of these things is a traumatic brain injury, which is an insult to the brain caused by external physical force that may produce a diminished state of consciousness and usually results in impairment of cognitive abilities or physical functioning. The most common TBI that we think of is concussions and most often in sports. I have suffered from many concussions from when I was playing soccer in my younger years. One of the worst ones that I can remember distinctly (mainly after being told what had happened), was my freshman year in high school. I had been hit in the head and immediately started feeling ill, but the athletic trainer let me play the game. After the game ended, I started to throw up and my mom rushed me to the ER where they thought I had a brain bleed, but I did not and my brain had just shaken in my skull an excessive amount. Through this experience, I could not remember where I was and did not (still cannot) remember the score of the soccer game. This was a really scary experience because I had lost some memory and changed as a person for a temporary time period. My mom also talked about pulling me from playing sports altogether because she did not want me to be permanently damaged because of head injuries.
Concussions are scary injuries in sports because they range from mild to dangerous. There was just an incident in the National Football League where a quarterback got hit and suffered a mild concussion. After he got hit, he stumbled on the field and was taken off to be checked, he then returned to the game. He then sat for a little and returned to play during a different game where he got hit again and lost consciousness and could not move his hands for a temporary amount of time. This was a huge deal in the NFL and caused a change in concussion protocol and examinations. The paper Frequency and Outcomes of a Symptom-Free Waiting Period After Sport-Related Concussion, it is a study where many student-athletes are analyzed after concussions to see what the symptom-free waiting period is before the athlete returns to play. They found that most of these waiting periods for the athlete were longer than in past studies. This could be caused by a number of things, but I believe that everyone is different and each concussion is different. This is why the whole person should be evaluated and not just the area of the brain.
After getting so many concussions while playing soccer, my soccer club made us wear these cushioned helmets that were supposed to absorb some of the impacts from heading the ball. These protective headgears are supposed to prevent sport-related concussions from occurring. There are studies coming out that these actually are not doing the job as well as some people like to think they are. One study took many different high school-aged soccer players and split them into two groups. The control group did not wear the headgear and the intervention group had to wear the headgear. 130 athletes got a concussion during their season, about half from the control group and half from the intervention group. This shows that there is no substantial evidence that headgear prevents concussions during the play of soccer. I had always wondered about the science behind the headgear but never questioned it because I knew if I wanted to play that I had to wear the headgear. I had about five people on my competition team that had to wear them because we had gotten concussions before, but we were among the many that still got concussions in future competitions after starting to wear the headgear. I have a theory behind this now, I believe that you are more susceptible to concussions once you get your initial concussion. This is why the best time to start wearing the headgear (if it actually does anything) is before the person gets the initial concussion.
A concussion is a shaking of the brain, which can cause the person to experience many different symptoms. In terms of Ayurveda, the best thing to do for concussions is to prevent them but also there are natural ways to treat the concussion symptoms. The first step is prevention, easily put, the person should not put themselves in situations where concussions or other TBIs are possible. Although, there are dangers in everyday life that can be encountered. The best thing to do in the prevention of TBIs is to be knowledgeable and know the difference in symptoms to be able to keep the concussion from getting worse. Though sometimes concussions are not preventable, there are some natural things that can be done to treat the symptoms of the concussion. In the world of Ayurveda, the best natural medication is an antioxidant called Bacopa monnieri (Brahmi). This is a plant that can be used to help treat the symptoms and heal the person faster than without. It is a type of therapy that uses a brain tonic to improve memory, concentration, and learning capacity, allowing for a speedy recovery and trying to heal the brain from the injury. Meditation and yoga are also used as a way of recovery from the TBI.
As a person who works in the healthcare system at the moment, I see many brain disorders that affect people very differently. One of the most common ones that I see while working with the older generations is dementia. Dementia is the deterioration of intellectual abilities due to disease, there are many different diseases that can cause dementia. Some of these diseases are strokes, Huntington's disease, and Alzheimer's disease. Dementia is most commonly characterized as a forgetfulness disease. Most people with dementia will start to lose their memory and motor function. I used to work as a CNA in a memory care unit, where we had people ranging on the entire spectrum of memory loss disease. Most often it was Alzheimer's. This was really draining and emotionally exhausting because they wouldn’t remember who I was and would fight me on everything that we would do even though it was the same routine every day. I think dementia is a very sad disease mainly because people will forget their families and won’t know who they are.
There is no known cause of Alzheimer’s at the moment but there is research happening to better understand the cause. Though the exact cause cannot be pinpointed, there are some things that most people with the disease share, also it is mainly a genetic disease so it is passed down through the generations. The first thing that many Alzheimer's patients share is that they have plaques in their brains. These are areas where proteins (beta-amyloid) kill the normal cells within the brain and cause memory loss. The second thing is that there are tangles within the axons of the neurons of Alzheimer’s patients, these cause the microtubules to break apart and collapse and eventually die off. These are things that people who develop Alzheimer’s mainly have in common. It is interesting that we are able to find these things within the brain and determine what is happening in the brain and within the entire body.
Alzheimer’s is (most of the time) a genetic disease, which means it is passed on from generation to generation. This means that there is usually it is not preventable or reversible. Although, recent studies, they are finding that an unhealthy lifestyle that includes things such as smoking, poor diet, diabetes, or physical inactivity is putting people more at risk for Alzheimer’s. Therefore, the only preventative measure that can be taken is to live a healthy life, and hopefully, Alzheimer’s will manifest itself later in life compared to earlier. I think that Alzheimer’s disease is crazy because we do not know much about it, but it is affecting so many people and killing so many people. I think it would be interesting to do a study with different probes in the brain to determine the function of a person with and without Alzheimer’s. This way we could possibly pinpoint where in the brain the disease is coming from!
As we know, dementia is a disease that degrades the brain in a way that the person who has it loses function in the brain in memory and physical function. There is no known cause or cure for the disease, but there are some things that can be done to prolong life without the disease before it manifests itself in a person. The other way to look at dementia is in the terms of Ayurvedic medicine. There is no direct research on the Ayurvedic approach to dementia has not been mentioned, but symptoms of forgetfulness and memory loss have been described. The treatment/preventative measures to these are a holistic approach of different herbs. These interact with the nervous system to stop certain nerve impulses and the degradation of the cells. Through some of the studies of certain herbs, they have found many side effects that are leading to the worsening of dementia and not helping at all. These are causing different chemical reactions in the body that are not helping memory loss. Therefore, there is really no cure or preventative measures to take (within medicine) to stop the onset of dementia.
Drugs are substances that can be injected, ingested, or inhaled to change a pathway in the body. Many substances are unharmful to the body if taken correctly, but there are some things that can disrupt the body so much that they can alter the quality of life. Drugs interfere with how the brain functions and send signals through neurotransmitters. Each drug releases a different neurotransmitter in a different way to affect the body differently. Each of these has a function to help the person with a short-term fix. This is why drugs are so addicting. I have chronic migraines and have suffered from them for years now, my doctors have tried many different things and nothing has worked. The only thing that will make my symptoms subside is taking an over-the-counter drug. Excedrin works in a way that aspirin blocks prostaglandins, acetaminophen blocks prostaglandins in the central nervous system, and caffeine increases the potency of aspirin and acetaminophen. I take this medication when I can no longer function because my headaches are so severe. Though I take medication safely and very rarely, my brother does a different type of drug. He does drugs recreationally to decrease the symptoms of depression and anxiety. To each their own, but I believe that drugs should only be taken under the advice of a medical professional.
Drugs are a scary thing during development because the brain needs different stimuli when young and the brain is completely different than an adult brain. It has been shown that younger brains make more impulsive decisions because the amygdala is not fully developed. Along with not having the correctly developed portions of the brain, drugs can alter a developing brain and change the way it looks. Drugs are used in a way that the brain is hijacked in the rewards center, the drugs increase dopamine production in the brain, making the person feel good and forget about the pains and worries they are having. There are many different kinds of drugs, from prescription to recreational drugs. When my brother was in high school, he started to get into drugs. He started finding them any way that he could get them. He was mainly doing marijuana, but would occasionally try something new. His pains of depression and ADDD started to subside when he was taking drugs, but that meant eventually it would not be enough for him. Therefore, he started doing harder drugs, but sometimes could not get them, which ultimately landed him in a treatment center for suicide and addictive behaviors. What was happening to him was he was taking drugs to take away his pain and when he was deprived of these drugs, his brain was tricking him that he was more depression. He started getting voices in his head that told him he needed these substances and that if he didn’t get them he should just end his life. All of this, it lead to him being completely dependent and addicted to drugs. He now cannot, go longer than 12 hours without getting a fix on something.
Mental illness is a large topic in our world today. There is a lot of talk about medications and other treatments for mental illnesses. My brother, he hated all sorts of prescription medications because he claimed that the medications altered who he was and did nothing to help with his mental illnesses. Although, he believes that recreational marijuana blocks his pain and makes him feel better than without. There is currently no research or clinical recommendations that recreational marijuana is therapeutic for ADHD. Though it is shown that adults with ADHD have a higher usage of recreational marijuana. Marijuana is a reward system drug, meaning that it causes neurotransmitters to release dopamine which makes you happy and have no pain. In my personal opinion and experience, I think that marijuana doesn’t help with any mental illnesses. I think that during the use of the drug, it releases dopamine, but after the effects have worn off, it takes the person back to their normal self. This is the case for my brother. All of his pain goes away while he is smoking the drugs, but as soon as it wears off, he is back to a world with all of the pain, to which he must do more drugs to get back to a happy state. Although, eventually those drugs did not do enough for him, which means he went searching for something new. This is why marijuana has been called a gateway drug for so many years, but my brother and I had a long debate about why it is not a gateway drug, even though I still believe it is. The reason why it is a gateway drug is that after a while it will not be enough to get high and they will go searching for something more to get high. Then eventually this is what leads to drug addiction.
Addiction is the brain telling the rest of the body that it needs something external to function. Drug addiction, also called substance use disorder, is a disease that affects a person's brain and behavior and leads to an inability to control the use of a legal or illegal drug or medicine. Drug addictions usually begin with the use of recreational drugs that get out of hand because the person is no longer getting high that they once experienced. As my brother got more into recreational drugs, he was not getting the high he used to, so he started doing more intense drugs, thankfully he stopped before it got too bad but he is still addicted to marijuana. These drugs mimic the chemical reactions in the brain and release dopamine. This gets the feeling of being “high” which means that the person is on top of the world and can do anything because they are happy without pain, but then when it wears off, the person drops. Drugs affect three main portions of the brain. Including (1) the basal ganglia, (2) the extended amygdala, and (3) the prefrontal cortex. The basal ganglia functions in the reward center, for motivation and daily routines. Drugs diminish the functions of the basal ganglia and make it hard to feel pleasure when addicted. The extended amygdala plays a role in stressful feelings, like anxiety and irritability. This circuit increases with drug addiction. The prefrontal cortex is where higher thought takes place. The drugs cause the prefrontal cortex to decrease and impulsive decision-making to increase. These are things that are heightened when the person is not on the drugs, this is why the person continues to use the drugs.
Ayurveda is the holistic approach to a person's well-being, using alternative medicine to treat a person. Drug addiction is something that most people are trying to get over, although there are many side effects of withdrawal. There are studies being done to help with the symptoms of withdrawal. This is where Ayurvedic medicine comes into play. They are trying to treat patients that are going through withdrawal naturally and not with more drugs. This is helping because most people will develop addictive behaviors and become addicted to the drugs to help with withdrawal. Some of the treatments for addiction are natural oil massages and medicated oils on the body. The other things include yoga/meditation and counseling. This helps to treat the entire person and not just hang them to dry with the symptoms, because the symptoms can make the person worse compared to them being on drugs. Just like my brother. Last summer (2021) we went on a huge family vacation to Hawaii. We took a plane so he could not take any of his drugs with us, this made him go through serious withdrawals and made him very unenjoyable to be around. We tried to do everything for him to treat the symptoms but all he wanted was his drugs. He went through withdrawals because his brain was telling him that he needed his drugs. The brain is an amazing organ that can help or hurt us as human beings. This is because it is so complex and we do not completely understand the entirety of the brain.
Sources:
“Best Ayurvedic Treatment for Head Injury Rehabilitation in India.” Livonta Global Pvt Ltd, 5 Mar. 2020, https://www.livontaglobal.com/head-injury-rehabilitation/.
Crous-Bou, M., Minguillón, C., Gramunt, N. et al. Alzheimer’s disease prevention: from risk factors to early intervention. Alz Res Therapy 9, 71 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-017-0297-z
“Drug Addiction (Substance Use Disorder).” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 4 Oct. 2022, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/drug-addiction/symptoms-causes/syc-20365112.
Farooqui, Akhlaq A et al. “Ayurvedic Medicine for the Treatment of Dementia: Mechanistic Aspects.” Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM vol. 2018 2481076. 15 May. 2018, doi:10.1155/2018/2481076
“How Does Excedrin Migraine Work - and How Fast?” Excedrin the Head Expert Slogan, https://www.excedrin.com/migraines/treatment/how-excedrin-migraine-works/.
Kossen, Jeremy. “Why Does Cannabis Get You 'High' and Make You Feel Good?” Leafly, 28 July 2020, https://www.leafly.com/news/cannabis-101/why-does-cannabis-make-you-feel-good.
Mishra, Awadh Kishor, and Anita Sharma. "Management of drug abuse patient through Ayurveda." Ayushdhara 6 (2019): 2034-9.
NIDA. "Drugs and the Brain." National Institute on Drug Abuse, 22 Mar. 2022, https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction/drugs-brain Accessed 19 Oct. 2022.
“Obsessive Compulsive Disorder [OCD].” Precision Ayurveda for Disease Care & Sustained Wellbeing, 16 Feb. 2018, https://ayurvaid.com/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd.
Pfaller, Adam Y et al. “Frequency and Outcomes of a Symptom-Free Waiting Period After Sport-Related Concussion.” The American journal of sports medicine vol. 44,11 (2016): 2941-2946. doi:10.1177/0363546516651821
Petersen, Matthew P. “Economic Costs of Diabetes in the U.S. in 2017.” American Diabetes Association, American Diabetes Association, 22 Mar. 2018, https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article/41/5/917/36518/Economic-Costs-of-Diabetes-in-the-U-S-in-2017.
“Study: 'Protective' Headgear Does Not Prevent Sport-Related Concussions in Soccer Players.” UW School of Medicine and Public Health, 20 May 2019, https://www.med.wisc.edu/news-and-events/2019/may/protective-headgear-not-prevent-soccer-concussions/.
Teplin, David. “ADHD & Recreational Marijuana: What’s the Attraction?” Chadd.org, Https://Chadd.org/Attention-Article/Adhd-Recreational-Marijuana/, June 2019.
Watson, Kathryn. “Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD).” Healthline, Healthline Media, 29 Sept. 2018, https://www.healthline.com/health/obsessive-compulsive-personality-disorder.
