New Research into the Effects of Cocaine on your Brain is Downright Scary

I’m pretty sure that there is no one walking around right now that thinks that cocaine is healthy for you. Sure, I bet a drug dealer might try to convince you that it’s not as bad for you as it sounds as part of his sales pitch, but even they know it is still bad for you. New research from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is showing that cocaine is even worse for your brain than previously thought.
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Aside from making just about everyone who uses cocaine an insufferable asshole, this new research is showing that it causes our brain cells to quite literally eat themselves. Keep that in mind the next time someone tells you “oh, it’s not that bad.” The study, which was recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, points out that cocaine hijacks a normal function of the brain called autophagy and turns it on itself.

Dr. Prasun Guha, the author of the study, says: “Autophagy is the housekeeper that takes out the trash – it’s usually a good thing. But cocaine makes the housekeeper throw away really important things, like mitochondria, which produce energy for the cell.” That metaphor is spot on, if you ask me. I can just imagine a cocain’d up maid tearing a house apart in an effort to “clean” it.
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These results were all discovered through post-mortem examinations of mice that were given cocaine. The study also found that the babies of pregnant mice that were given cocaine showed the same autophagy damage. As if you needed another reason to stay away from cocaine, this new research is another fine example of the damaging effects of the drug. Considering that 1 in every 10 people tries cocaine at least once in their life, spreading this kind of information should serve as a warning of what drugs like cocaine can do to you.

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