Exercise and Stimulants - Health Risks

Health Risks

An important risk associated with stimulants is that decreased pain feedback allows users to easily push the muscle past the point of capable regrowth to the point of serious damage, possibly resulting in torn muscles.

More seriously, the euphoric effects of most stimulants can block adequate pain feedback in conditions that place high stress on the whole body - hyperthermia, the condition that causes heatstroke, is a prominent example of this. The increase in metabolism due to the stimulant's effects increases the amount of heat the body produces, possibly aggravating the condition. The euphoric effects of the drug often then mask warning signs of organ failure until serious complications, or even death, occurs. Recent examples of players who have died from complications resulting from hyperthermia include Steve Bechler, a baseball pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles, and Korey Stringer, an American football tackle for the Minnesota Vikings. Both had used ephedrine before their deaths; however, generally these players also had other conditions such as high blood pressure, indicative of a normally high level of CNS functioning, were training in hot weather, and even without stimulant thermogenesis would have had a body temperature in the hyperthermic range, making the role of ephredrine in their deaths unclear. Later, a published pathological review of all reported ephedrine deaths only found one death related to ephedrine use alone.

Stimulants also place greater strain on the heart and circulatory system. Most increase heart rate and blood pressure to some degree - for example, the combination of ephedrine and caffeine (two components of the ECA stack, a popular polypharmaceutical "cocktail" for weight loss) was found to increase these two variables. The increased exertion by the heart and increased pressure on the blood vessels means that risks of circulatory system damage due to overexertion are increased while using stimulants. In particular, trying to lift or move large amounts of weight (for example, in high-weight and low-repetition strength training) is a highly risky activity, because this particular type of exercise causes momentary but extreme spikes in blood pressure, and can cause potentially life-threatening complications (for example, aneurysm of the walls connected to the aorta). Weightlifters who lift exceptionally heavy weights are at increased risk for aneurysm even without stimulants, and the use of stimulants has been linked to many weightlifting deaths due to complications of this kind. However, a moderate dose of stimulants only affects the heart rate and blood pressure by a few percent at best, and these effects are quickly attenuated through beta receptor downregulation, showing no difference from controls in various studies. The short plasma half-life of most stimulants can be utilized to avoid their effects while weightlifting until a tolerance develops to their effects, or the dose can be gradually increased to avoid sudden changes in sympathetic nervous system output.