Illegal Drugs and CHD

Illegal Drugs and CHD

The major reason that nobody should do street drugs is simple: They’re dangerous and they’re illegal. This includes drugs like methamphetamines, heroin, ecstasy, and cocaine. It also can include pain medications (when they are not prescribed by a doctor for pain).

But there are even more reasons why people with CHD should avoid illegal drugs:

Some drugs stimulate the heart and make it beat faster and work harder.
Some drugs cause life-threatening heart rhythms and even collapse.

Other drugs can lead to a very slow heart rate. This can make a person very dizzy because their heart can’t pump blood properly.

When people overwork the heart with exercise, the person can slow down and stop. But after taking some drugs, it’s not possible to slow down or stop. This can be dangerous.

We’re not trying to scare you. We want to give you the info for you to make a smart decision. Your doctors and nurses are trying to take great care of you – and we want you to take great care of yourself.

Need help quitting?

If you are currently doing drugs, you should stop. If you need help because of alcohol or drug use, you should talk to your doctor or nurse. If you need information about the treatments available or you need to talk to someone right now, you can contact the national help centers listed below.

In Canada: Health Canada has links to resources for problematic drug use in each province
In the United States: SAMSHA’s 24-hour National Helpline can give you more information and help you find free and confidential treatment referral in your area.

This website is designed specifically for young people with congenital heart disease. The goal is to provide information to help people who are getting ready to move (or have recently moved) to adult heart care. We use the term ‘transition’ to describe this process. Family, friends and health care providers may also find this website helpful.

Please be advised this site does not provide medical advice. All of the content on this website is provided for informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have or suspect you have a health problem, please consult your family physician. If you have or suspect you are experiencing a health emergency, please promptly visit a Hospital Emergency Department in your area. Reliance on any information provided on or provided in relation to the site is solely at your own risk. Contributors to this website are not responsible, nor liable, for any claim, loss or damage arising from the use of the information contained within this site.

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Anyone can visit this website and most users will create their own User IDs and passwords. However, there are also Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) and pediatric cardiology programs that have officially joined the iHeartChange team and work together to keep this website going. (You can find a list of the ACHD programs in the ‘Welcome to Adult Care’ section of the website). Some of these programs might choose to assign User IDs so that they can track of and how patients from their own programs visit the website. They might even want to track this for research. If you have been assigned a User ID from a program, that program might ask us to give them information about your answers to the ‘Getting to Know You’ survey, how many times you log into the website and which web pages you visit.

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