MOTHER'S ADDICTION COSTLY

The heart shoots meth through the twists and turns of the circulatory
system. The drug grabs hold of the nervous system, forcing it to pump
out massive amounts of norepinephrine, the chemical that regulates
the heart rate.

At the same time, meth is barricading off norepinephrine's escape
route, holding it hostage in the murky bloodstream. Along with the
meth, norepinephrine is pumped through the body's tunnels, caves and
slippery slides that are its plumbing -- spiking the heart rate, yet
constricting blood vessels.

The storm confuses the heart. It should slow down to relieve the
pressure, but the organ ignores its better judgment and continues to
pound wildly. Huge volumes of blood blast through tiny, strangled
tubes, and the blood pressure skyrockets.

Like any machine, the heart requires fuel. And the faster it beats
the more fuel it burns, building up a surplus of heat. Like a bottle
of soda that's been left in the sun, the body begins to push out some
of that unmanageable heat by evaporation, forcing the heat -- in
liquid form -- through sweat glands.

But sweat is mostly water, and the body has a limited supply. Once
all available water has been pumped through the sweat glands, the
blast furnace continues building, baking the internal organs until
their building blocks -- proteins -- begin to break away.

The kidneys -- charged with filtering wasted proteins -- have limited
capacity and require lots of oxygen to operate. But with constricted
blood vessels, precious little of that oxygen finds its way to the
kidneys, and -- if there's enough meth still driving this runaway
system -- the kidneys quit their impossible job and shut down.

Meanwhile, the circulatory system is collapsing.

It can't handle the high pressure and blood cells can't reach their
destinations -- the body's organs -- with their precious cargo of oxygen.

Without oxygen, the remaining organs have to call it quits, too.

Eddie Glenn writes for the Tahlequah Daily Press. This piece is based
on research, including information from Montana State University, and
is meant to present a scenario of the effects of methamphetamine on
the human body.