Perhaps you are a healthy individual who eats well, drinks clean water, exercises, and avoids foods or supplements that are bad for you. Perhaps you eat McDonald's four times a day, never exercise, and do not aspire to change this behavior. As people we have the ability to make choices that can make us healthier or more unhealthy. What I find the most unfortunate, is that people may make poor health choices and not even realize it. Although health is a major focus of study in my own life, I will not be focusing too much on it in this blog, but I do owe a bit of tribute to proper health and nutrition as this does have a significant mind-altering effect. Health also has a profound impact on drug use.
Personal note: ***
General health guide ***Do I want to add a section in on this here?***
The effect of drugs is significantly impacted by how much effort is put into proper nutrition and adequate exercise. Sometimes this is an aspect that is not thought about before an individual engages in drug use, but I believe this topic is of great importance. An individual's choices in health can make or break an experience from what I have witnessed.
I believe I will be including a small section on the impacts of nutrition and exercise on drug usage as this can have such an extravagant effect.
For now, in this section, I will include a few examples from personal experience of how these aspects of health have influenced me.
ALCOHOL AND INTENSE CARDIO EXERCISE
One day a few years ago, I had gone out for a 5 mile run in the later afternoon. I had never drank shortly after working out; usually I would eat a full meal, wait a few hours then start consuming alcohol. This time was a bit different. Instead of eating a large meal shortly after working out like usual, I instead ate only a little and consumed a few shots of hard alcohol within 45 minutes of finishing this run. It was about 5PM and what ensued next could only be described as hazardous to my health. I blacked out (lost my memory) from the time the first drank was consumed until the next morning. I had managed to sweat a little during my run but by the time I had my first drink I was comfortable, not sweating and in a different set of clothes. Over the next 30 to 45 minutes after my first drink, I began to sweat profusely. My entire shirt was completely soaked and sweat was dripping off my face. I was not even sweating that much on my 5 mile run! I do not usually sweat when drinking, even when consuming high doses of alcohol. My friends told me that I was acting quite ridiculous, often saying things that did not make sense. They were surprised this effect happened with just 3-4 drinks. It seems that the alcohol entered my body rapidly as if my body were using it as a food source and my body was reacting poorly to it indeed, however I do not know exactly what happened, but I have concluded reasonably that the vigorous exercise I had performed just before drinking had a severe and toxic impact on me when the alcohol was consumed shortly after. Additionally, despite only having a few drinks, I awoke with one of the worst hangovers I had ever had from drinking alcohol. My head hurt tremendously, and despite there being 14 hours from the last drink until I awoke, I still felt mildly intoxicated that morning! I would highly advise not exercising before consuming a potent intoxicant such as alcohol.
STOMACH CONTENTS AND ORALLY CONSUMED DRUGS
This is not as much related to nutrition as it is to digestion. Some foods when eaten shortly before drug consumption greatly reduce the effectiveness of the drug. For instance, when consuming amphetamines, to maximize the amount of drug that gets absorbed in the stomach, the stomach should be empty or mostly empty. If there is food that needs to be eaten before oral consumption of these drugs then it should be neutral or basic in nature. For example, lettuces or some other fresh vegetables, rice (eaten alone), bananas or apples could be eaten. These foods are not highly acidic and do not break down amphetamines as rapidly as qvidic foods such as hamburgers, hot dogs, cakes or cookies. These foods tend to acidify the stomach, so that when amphetamines are consumed after eating these foods, they sit in the stomach and get degraded by the acids that are made by these difficult-to-digest foods. From past experience, I have ingested a 20mg Instant Release Adderall and felt far stronger effects from taking it on an empty stomach with lots of water than when I consumed the drug with a stomach full of eggs and rice with sauce, a combination of foods that can take several hours to digest. Not only did it take much longer for the Amphetamines to have an effect, but it felt nearly as strong as about 10mg (half the dose). A similar example can be made for Psilocybin mushrooms and oral LSD. These drugs also absorb far better into the body when the stomach is empty or basic with adequate digestion.
Conversely I would suggest the stomach have some foods in it when consuming opioid pain-killers, such as Oxycodone (Percocet) or Hydrocodone (Vicodin), since these drugs are notorious for causing intense long-lasting stomach pain if consumed onan empty stomach. In one instance I was prescribed these drugs for an oral surgery I had and since it was difficult for me to eat, I tried consuming one 5 milligram percocet on an empty stomach. Even though the pain in my teeth was no longer there, there was still an incredible pain in my stomach that persisted for about four more hours after drug consumption. I wanted to vomit, but there was no food in my stomach! I would highly advise that if you are taking thesr drugs, there should be a small complex carbodydrate or high fat meal before ingestion of pain-killers. This will negate most stomach pain. Some intolerant users who may have sensitive stomachs will still be susceptible to stomach pain. Consequently users who frequently consume these drugs are usually more able to consume these drugs on an empty stomach with little to no stomach discomfort.
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