Addictive Drug Use Raises Risk
As a specialist in addiction medicine, Drosnes has concerns about those who use these substances. “People with heart disease can have worse problems, and we know that methamphetamines, cocaine and alcohol abuse can cause heart disease. These all put people at higher risk,” he says. Methamphetamines also can cause respiratory problems by restricting the blood vessels in pulmonary tissue, he adds.
Those using opioids are in danger because these drugs slow down breathing, so these people “are not working their lungs like they should be.” Research has shown opioid use to increase the death rate in people with respiratory diseases.
In all, “there are very few substance-using patients who aren’t at higher risk,” he concludes. “We consider substance use a high-risk factor.
Drosnes clarifies that alcohol concerns apply to chronic, daily abusers. Casual alcohol use is most likely not a problem, the experts believe. “We are not advising people to totally abstain,” Linder says, only to follow the typical guidelines of no more than one drink a day for women and two a day for men. “Any more than that is not good for health – and that was true even in the land of a few days ago,” he says.
And if you are actually ill, avoid the liquor cabinet. “If you are sick, you don’t need to be drinking alcohol,” says Dr. Gary Leroy, a family physician in Dayton, Ohio, an associate dean for student affairs and admission and an associate professor of family medicine at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine in Dayton, and president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. “You need an intact immune system to work to make you better.”
Lax Health Habits Raise Risk
Finally, it’s important to maintain all the habits that keep you and your immune system healthy anyway:
• Eat a healthy diet rich in fruit,
vegetables, fiber and whole grains.
• Exercise daily.
• Get seven to nine hours of sleep.
• Maintain a healthy weight.
• Try to manage your stress and anxiety.
“And make sure you have your regular medicines. Check with your doctor’s office to have an adequate supply in order to keep chronic diseases under control,” LeRoy advises.
---
Sources
Jeffrey A. Linder, MD
Linder is a general internist and primary care clinician-investigator and the Michael A. Gertz Professor of Medicine and chief of the division of general internal medicine and geriatrics at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.
Dean Drosnes, MD
Drosnes is a Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and serves on the ASAM Physicians-in-Training Committee. He is a member of the American College of Academic Addiction Medicine, the Pennsylvania Society of Addiction Medicine and the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He holds an appointment as clinical assistant professor of Psychiatry at the Penn State University College of Medicine.
Tags: coronavirus, smoking and tobacco, vaping, lung disease, American Lung Association, patients, patient advice
Continued on page next pg ...
36