Heroin and the Brain: What the Drug can Do to One's DNA
Let’s talk about heroin and the effect that this powerful narcotic has on the brain of a user. According to new research, long-term heroin use actually changes how genes are activated in the brain. What that means, simply, is that long-term heroin use will also eventually alter brain function, physically changing how the user’s body and brain operate in tandem with each other. Concerning, to say the least.
How was this scientifically proven? As morbid as the answer to that question might be, the science and experimentation involved is fascinating.
To learn more about the effects of heroin use on an individual, scientists performed research on the brains of dead heroin addicts. Yikes. The researchers focused in on one, key area of the brain most affected by heroin, the striatum. Those scientists found significant changes in the DNA of the striatum of a dead heroin addict as opposed to a dead patient who had not experimented with heroin. Furthermore, the degree and severity of those changes were directly proportional to the amount of heroin used and for how long the individual used it for. The longer a person used heroin, the greater the changes were manifested in their DNA.
How Brain DNA is Affected by Heroin
The brain is not the only factor present in heroin addiction, as there is an entirely spiritual and behavioral, personal side to this problem too. But we can’t ignore the fact that the brain, and heroin, dance an intricate tango with each other, heroin severely impacting the brain on many levels.
This phenomenon is called epigenetics. Epigenetics is when brain function is changed by environmental events, such as the introduction of heroin into the bloodstream. When heroin is introduced, the shape and “packaging” of DNA is changed, but the underlying DNA structure itself stays the same.
In epigenetics, when heroin reacts on DNA cells, DNA packaging becomes more open or closed. In this way, some genes are activated more or less often, depending on heroin use or lack of use. When DNA packaging is altered and some DNA is expressed more than others, this changes what brain proteins are produced. As a result, the very brain function itself is changed.
This is truly fascinating science because it gets right down to the very bottom of why heroin affects the brain in the way it does, and why a heroin user displays such pronounced changes in behavioral and physical mannerisms. But really, DNA changes in the brain from heroin use are only half the reasons why heroin addicts act and think in the way that they do.
The Spiritual Consequences of Heroin Use
A discussion on how heroin affects the brain would not be complete without a discussion on the spiritual and psychological ramifications of heroin abuse. When an individual abuses heroin, it sets off a chain reaction of phenomena in their mind and thought process. More important than that, however, is the reasons why they wanted to use heroin in the first place.
Some people, when faced with truly terrible, life circumstances, will seek to cope with those situations by taking a drug that helps them forget about those situations. This is the spiritual reasoning for taking heroin. Though it is flawed and unworkable on every level imaginable, people use heroin as a coping mechanism, a way to escape the trials and tribulations of day-to-day life and whatever other phenomena that might be spiritually ailing that person.
Heroin addiction is a multi-faceted problem. To address it, one has to know and understand heroin’s effect on the brain, but one must also know heroin’s effect on the person.
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