@bytememehard: I just thought she was lame when she was finally given a chance to accept her award. And now, don't mean to be rude, I'm excusing myself from caring about this. #jenniferaniston
@FormerEnglishMajor: but they did find cocaine in his system, but the mays family-funded autopsy found that the cocaine had an "isolated" (or some such ridiculous, non-medical term) presence in his body in the days leading up to his death. but it didn't cause anything, as far as they want us/insurers to know. #jenniferaniston
I'll never understand the appeal of ginormous-headed, lazy-eyed scuzzy John Mayer. Is it his irritating warbling that makes them want to kiss him so he'll shut up? #jenniferaniston
NEVER READ so much anti coke ranting at the Gawk before. Most of y'all star-havin folks like to claim casual sex and yayo like this is Brazil, but you're puttin your head in the sand this time aren't you?
Hey, smart people who went to med school: Is it really possible to kick the bucket from OD-ing on cokesville alone? I thought it's the mixing of uppers and prescription downers padded with mammoth doses of Tylenol that kills (=by way of overstressing the liver and causing it to shut down.)
@snugbug: I never went to med school, but people have on occasion called me smart. Anyway, too much cocaine, as with many CNS stimulants, can cause cardiac arrest.
@snugbug: Coke stresses your heart. If you have a high likelihood of having heart disease due being obese, for instance, cocaine is going to speed things up. Beth Ditto taught me that.
@atlasfugged: Duly noted. But you'd have to be an absolute beast of a hog of a Hoover to inhale enough cocaine for a cardiac arrest, no? Also, strangely, coke is one of these drugs that have been forever qualified as "psychologically," not "physiologically," addictive. Unlike he-rrron.
@snugbug: No. I have never heard of cocaine being merely "psychologically" addictive. It IS physically addictive, and I really wonder where you get your information from. No, it's not like pot.
It's a drug that can be pretty harmful, and yes, addictive. Don't know why this should be news.
@snugbug: See Trulymadlyme above. If you have a heart disease, high blood pressure, or some other condition of the heart, the stress that cocaine puts on the heart may be too much to handle.
Full disclosure: When I was in college, I did a few lines of coke and ended up in the hospital with a resting heart rate of like 180bpm. I had done it before without any particularly adverse effects. I thought I was going to die. Had I not been in tip-top physical condition I might have. Needless to say, that was the last time I used coke. An obese, older man like Billy Mays was, with what I imagine to be an unhealthy heart, may not have been able to tolerate my experience.
@snugbug: I'm in med school now. Whenever a question comes up of an otherwise healthy 20something dying of/having sudden cardiac issues (like a heart attack), invariably we've been ingrained to suspect cocaine. Naturally this can happen to older people, but other issues (like atherosclerosis) go higher on the differential diagnosis list.
Basically cocaine prevents the naturally released norepinephrine from being reabsorbed. Norepinephrine causes your heart to beat faster and blood vessels to constrict (including the ones that feed your heart). Imagine pumping a gallon of water through a straw. -Not gonna happen, and your pump will break before your straw pops. You DIE. So don't be dumb and don't OD. Everything in moderation.
@mexiback: Poppers are vasodilators, so yes, doing them, if you have a risk for heart disease is kind of a death wish--and this includes anything from obesity to athletes who drop dead in the middle of summer--I'd avoid it.
Also, ladies? If you're on birth control that raises the risk of blood clots DO NOT DO COCAINE. That's all.
@snugbug: Yeah it's possible, especially if you have some underlying coronary artery disease. Cocaine makes the heart work harder and then it constricts the coronary arteries and makes the nasty plaques in them more likely to rupture. It pretty much creates a perfect storm for a heart attack. Next week's lesson, heroin.
@Baroness: Up until the late eighties the prevailing thought among the medical community was that it was solely psychologically addictive. They have since learned otherwise. I heard of a study were scientists could train individual human synapses to fire by introducing a small cocaine granule stimulus - BORING. I had to censor myself, but yeah, it is physically addictive.
@Baroness: I think I first latched onto the cockainz = non-physiologically addictive nugget reading William Burroughs' "Junk" memoir. I should have taken that with a boulder of salt, but he's always seemed to really know his drugs to me.
@snugbug: See: Bias, Len. (Died in 1996 at age 22, within two days of being drafted by the Boston Celtics, of a cocaine overdose that induced a fatal cardiac arrhythmia)
@snugbug: I've heard tell that it is a risk factor, although the risk can be mitigated somewhat by the use of outsized adult toys on the at-risk person's rectal cavity. Preferably made of hypoallergenic materials and done by trained, professional Little People.
Of course, some people take this sage medical advice too far and insist the caregiver wear Wizard of Oz costumes or dress like Yoda. I think we call agree that this costumed perversion can not stand!
@Baroness: Toxicologist here. Abrupt withdrawal of cocaine does not cause severe physical consequences, as abrupt withdrawal of alcohol, heroin, and sedatives do. Therefore, it it sometimes referred to as "not physically addictive." Does this help?
@power_stroke: To further clarify, I'm not saying that cocaine is harmless. However, if you use cocaine daily for 3 years, stopping it suddenly won't kill you. In contrast, a daily user of a prescription like Valium may have a fatal seizure if s/he is suddenly denied access to the drug.
Heath, MJ, now Billy Mays. Could people please STOP dropping dead from drug cocktails? Was I the only one whose mother obsessively recited the cautionary tale of Karen Ann Quinlan? It was her sly way of telling me never to mix substances with alcohol or other substances, and it worked.
@nystar2000: My mother freaks out over the possibility of me consuming a beer after a spaghetti dinner (it will make the pasta expand!!), so the thought of taking vicodin with pretty much anything else, much less another prescription pain killer, is utterly terrifying to me.
What is truly bizarre is that the coroner found hydrocodone, oxycodone and tramadol, as well as anti-anxiety drugs alprazolam and diazepam in his system just ONE day before he was getting hip replacement surgery. He could have died getting anesthesized for surgery with all of those other drugs in his system.
@Her Madgesty: Well, it sounds like this was a third go-around on the hip surgery. Still though, you're right about the risk of anesthesia; my uncle went in a couple of years ago for back surgery and between the sudden curtailment of his vodka intake and the meds, he damn near died on us.
@Cynical Media Bitch:
Cocaine use can also cause the blood vessels in your brain to widen leading to sudden strokes and death later in life. What got Billy was the hardening of the artery walls from the cocaine. Its like applying battery acid to your brain.
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Also, hyperbole -- it's the greatest thing since autotune! #jenniferaniston
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I should just learn to pick the git-tar, I guess. #jenniferaniston
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And might I point out that the cherry flavoring on that thing petered out a looooong time ago.
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@JimJoeJack: That's not sand.
08/07/09
The son looks like he's still in denial. The truth looks quite painful.
Apparently, Billy Mays, the blue collar hero, like many who become successful nouveau rich, ended up doing white snow. Damn.
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It's a drug that can be pretty harmful, and yes, addictive. Don't know why this should be news.
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Full disclosure: When I was in college, I did a few lines of coke and ended up in the hospital with a resting heart rate of like 180bpm. I had done it before without any particularly adverse effects. I thought I was going to die. Had I not been in tip-top physical condition I might have. Needless to say, that was the last time I used coke. An obese, older man like Billy Mays was, with what I imagine to be an unhealthy heart, may not have been able to tolerate my experience.
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[en.wikipedia.org]
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Basically cocaine prevents the naturally released norepinephrine from being reabsorbed. Norepinephrine causes your heart to beat faster and blood vessels to constrict (including the ones that feed your heart). Imagine pumping a gallon of water through a straw. -Not gonna happen, and your pump will break before your straw pops. You DIE. So don't be dumb and don't OD. Everything in moderation.
08/07/09
Also, ladies? If you're on birth control that raises the risk of blood clots DO NOT DO COCAINE. That's all.
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Of course, some people take this sage medical advice too far and insist the caregiver wear Wizard of Oz costumes or dress like Yoda. I think we call agree that this costumed perversion can not stand!
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Either him or James Frey...
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Cocaine use can also cause the blood vessels in your brain to widen leading to sudden strokes and death later in life. What got Billy was the hardening of the artery walls from the cocaine. Its like applying battery acid to your brain.
08/07/09