Health Blurbs

A stimulant is any substance that causes escalated activity of your nervous system or muscles. This stimulating material may be prescribed for some health conditions, used illicitly, found in OTC decongestants or naturally occur, i.e. in herbal extracts, caffeine and nicotine.

Stimulant effects vary depending on the stimulant. Some of the effects from stimulants are:

• nausea
• anxiety
• anorexia
• sweating
• insomnia
• headache
• chest pain
• tachypnea
• elevated mood
• abdominal pain
• increased alertness, energy, heart rate, blood pressure

As you may note, not all of stimulant effects are desirable.

Long term stimulant use may result in effects of:

• irritability
• tolerance
• delusions
• aggression
• weight loss
• hallucinations
• impulsiveness

Some stimulants may only affect an organ, like your heart, lungs, brain or nervous system.

Stimulants are used because of their effect. For instance, epinephrine is given during anaphylactic reaction and cardiac arrest. You may down some caffeine for wakefulness and alertness.

Your sympathetic and parasympathetic systems have counter effects on each other, stimulation of one system equates to depression of the other. So, you’ll want to be cognizant of this before you reach for self stimulate effects because you may get an effect you don’t fancy.

For example, stimulating your sympathetic nervous system responds with the “fight or flight” that gets your body for ready for extreme muscle activity. Conversely, your parasympathetic system enhances digestion, sleep and sexual arousal. So, these activities will shut down because of the opposing stimulant effects.

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