New Delhi: Recreational drug amphetamine popularly known as speed, ice, and ecstasy can possibly accelerate the ageing of heart.
As per the research, amphetamine is a stimulant and is associated with cardiovascular system effects, including speeding up the heart rate, sharply increasing blood pressure and boosting the risk of stroke, heart attack and aneurysm rupture.
Long term use of amphetamine sends the sympathetic nervous system and production of the `fight or flight` hormone adrenaline into overdrive, the study said.
The researchers found that the effects amphetamine were seen in both men and women and irrespective of other potential risk factors for heart disease and stroke.
"The study implies that recurrent habitual amphetamine abuse ages the cardiovasculature and likely the whole organism generally.
It is therefore conceivable that stimulant abusers do physiological and cardiovascular harm," said Albert Stuart Reece, associate professor at University of Western Australia.However, "it`s not clear if this damage is reversible either, they add, suggesting that their findings add even greater impetus to the need to tackle the "global stimulant epidemic," Reece added.
(With IANS inputs)
