quote:Originally posted by Tyrone Mushylaces:
Er right.
Promised I wouldn't reply to this thread, but crap is being talked.
1.) Coke is dangerous to women.
Whatever. Any neurological differences there are between the genders do not involve radically different neurotransmitter systems of so this is highly unlikely. Plus I know tons of women who do it all the time to no noticable ill effect.
Actually, Harvard researchers just did a study on this very thing!
quote:Though estrogen is produced during a woman's luteal phase, its protective effects appear to be mitigated by the progesterone that is also produced.
Yet even during the luteal phase, estrogen may bestow a benefit. In a previous study, the researchers found that cocaine produced a 20 percent reduction in blood flow in men, compared with the 10 percent drop that luteal phase women displayed. "If we had studied more people this might have turned out to be a significant difference," he said.
Although the researchers did not look for actual brain damage in these studies, chronic cocaine users are known to have higher rates of stroke and silent ischemic attacks than non-abusers. In addition, cocaine's squeezing off of the blood supply has been shown to produce subtler kinds of damage, such as changes in electrical activity. "Most of the brain damage that is associated with cocaine is extremely subtle--you don’t find it unless you’re really out hunting for it," says Kaufman.
He believes that by preventing such damage, estrogen could provide a much-needed adjunct to existing drug-rehabilitation therapies, many of which are plagued by high drop-out rates. "Most treatment is designed to get people to stop using drugs," Kaufman says. While engaged in such programs, people often continue to use cocaine, which leads to more brain dysfunction and, in turn, to cognitive and emotional deficits that can impair a person's ability to maintain jobs and relationships—and ultimately their therapy program.
"One thing we are learning is that relationships, jobs, and environmental factors are critically important in influencing the outcome of drug treatment," Kaufman said. "So if we can give something that helps people work better in their environment by protecting their brains and their ability to think, behave, and hold a job, that should improve outcomes as opposed to what we’re seeing now."
The prospect that estrogen—long known for its role in female sexual development—might be enlisted in the war on drugs is not a complete surprise. Researchers have known for some time that chronic cocaine abusing women generally experience fewer disruptions in cerebral blood flow and less neuronal loss in the frontal areas of their brains than men with comparable cocaine use histories. But what gave women the advantage was unclear.
So, there is a gender-based difference - but it favors the fairer sex. Go figure. |
