Drugs and the Immune System
What drugs are most dangerous for the Immune system and why?
Driving Question: What connections can you see between the commonly used and abused drugs and their physical and psychological aspects on the systems of the body?
I decided to narrow our driving question down to the affects of certain drugs on the Immune or Lymphatic system.
About the Lymphatic/ Immune System
The immune system is made up of the white blood cells,bone marrow, tonsils, thymus, spleen, lymph nodes, adnoids, and lymph vessels. White blood cells are stored in the spleen, thymus, bone marrow, and various places in the body called lymph nodes. The purpose of the immune system is to protect the body from disease and and to collect all the fluids lost from blood vessels to return them to the circulatory system.
Dangerous Drugs
Steriods
All kinds of steroids are dangerous no matter if they are anabolic (performance enhancing) of corticose (medical like inhalers). Steroids are a stimulant meaning they speed up heart rate and heighten blood pressure.
Effect: Steroids suppress the immune system that defends the body from bacterial and viral infections like pneumonia. This makes the body more prone to disease.
SSRI Antidepressants
SSRI is an abbreviation for Selective Serotonin Reputake Inhibitor. These drugs are supposed to help the immune system by giving it a boost. The problem occurs when they give the immune system too strong of a boost and cause the body to go into autoimmune disease. Autoimmune disease is basically the body attacking itself.
Examples: Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil
Opiods
Opiods are pain killing drugs. The drugs block the systems ability to attack viral and bacterial infections which again means the body is more prone to diseases. This also makes it more difficult for the body to fight off diseases that it already has. Opiods are usually your hard core pain killers like hydrocodone, oxycodone, codine, and morphine.