Featured Article: Effects of Drug and Alcohol Use on Your Weight

I agree with you. With alcohol drinking comes the intake of mostly unhealthy foods with it. I am an occassional drinker and I only drink when I have to especially during parties or get togethers. One thing I've noticed is that almost all the food prepared for the drinking sessions are generally cooked with oil. So the ending is a big addition to my calories after a night of merry-making.

Drug is very danger zone.Anybody take drug than her/his life is damage.

This makes sense. That alcohol and drugs affect various physical aspects is a well known fact. I personally believe it brings about changes in your mental set up, making you lazy or falsely dependent on a substance. This mental instability and confusion directly leads to various ailments later, and many a times they cannot be rightly traced to their actual roots.

Smoking cigarette kills hunger, this I know from personal experience. If I'm terribly hungry with no possibility of an immediate gratification, I simply take a smoke (it's bad, I know). For those who are chain smokers must not be feeling the need to eat very often, something that will impact their weight and health at large drastically. I don't smoke regularly, but simply because I do at all, I make it a point to eat well and keep myself hydrated at all times. It's a conscious determined effort, to keep my health from failing because of all the abuses being done to it. For those who are using substances as a means to escape or cope with other problems, this conscious decision will not come very easily. Hence the increased number of failing health incidents associated with substance abuse.

Good article. I learned a lot about drugs and nutritional effects from it. Especially with more potent drugs, one can lose a lot of weight from consuming a large amount. It's pretty evident - you can just look online for pictures if you so desire. I think the weight loss is mostly attributed to loss of appetite and sleepiness though.

I think you can either lose or gain weight, depending on your body's propensity to illness and disease. When I first had anxiety, I had my hunger mechanism thrown out of gear and I simply couldn't eat anything. I was put on benzodiazepine and I started gaining weight. Alcohol will have a similar effect on you and make you eat more. Some people binge eat after a booze session.

It is very true that substance abuse effects a persons weight and health. Many models have been known to do cocaine just to help keep the weight off. Marijuana on the other hand can make someone sloppy and over weight because it creates binge eating cravings.

I think as others have mentioned, when drugs take over your life they're the sole focus of your life. It's like having tunnel vision for the drugs only -- so things like fueling your body with healthy nutritious foods just doesn't even enter the addicts world. I do think with alcohol dependence though, that can cause weight gain rather than weight loss. I guess that's because alcohol is seen as socially acceptable, so you can drink in public without anyone necessarily raising an eyebrow -- particularly if you're a high functioning alcoholic.

I remember gaining weight in a few days from driking alcohol and had a bit more, and was surprised that I had gained weight as well and also it was due to excess in the liver and causing swelling so the outiside of the body increases weight. I think the article is well written and talks about what happens in our body when we consume drugs or alcohol and how it can affect the weight so it could go up or down depending on person and genetics as well. I only drink couple times a month, as I am buy with work and studying so don't drink that much and it is good that way as well.

I've always heard that drinking can destroy brain cells to the point of they are never born, so they can mess up other things as well of course. Our body gets dysfunctional to the point of gaining or losing weight, it can go both ways.

My brother in law was a drug addict and an alcoholic and he was always on the thinner side. Last year he went to get help in rehab and now that he is clean he has put a lot of weight on! He never got to the point where he looked too thin, sick or where it damaged his teeth but another year and he would have. I'm not sure what causes the weight gain once giving up drugs but he's not the only person I have seen it happen to. Sometimes I wonder if they turn to something else to compensate for the lack of drugs such as food instead.

Yes, that is undeniable katherine, while people are addicts they will not gain any weight because many times we even forget to eat. Eating and nutrition aren't even remotely on our priority list. On the other hand, if we get clean, we just might start gaining some weight.

I was actually watching a YouTube video last night about a woman who divorced her husband for drug abuse after 3 years of struggle. She said for her the biggest tell tale sign was her husbands weight loss

A lot of those statements were true for me. I lost a lot of my social skills cause my anxiety would come up more often when I wouldn't smoke. Also, with smoking weed it can help you gain weight drastically, or help you lose it drastically. When I first started smoking it, I was treating the cravings all wrong with fast foods and whatever I got my hands on that I wanted. I gained like 50 pounds! But then I still smoked the same, just changed my diet. Less fast foods and more working out, I lost about 40 of it back off!

Yes, I am really aware of it that's why I stopped it. I am already at the verge of getting so addicted to it, and suddenly I woke up from the fact that I have gained so much weight, and as an athlete, I have noticed that it's getting just harder for me to be at my best performance. In effect, I discontinued drinking right away. It was easy at first because I was really determined. The real challenge came when I got bored fighting the temptation from drinking alcohol. But I did it, which I'm really thankful of.

Drug use plummeted my parents weight down to near anorexic. They barely ate or did anything but take drugs sadly. My mum then still thinks she is fat.

I myself smoke tobacco and I can't be the only one that actually thinks that smoking keeps me thin?

My brother in law recently gave up drugs and alcohol and he put on a significant amount of weight.

I have to agree with this. One can see the eating patterns of someone who takes drugs are not what one would usually call normal. They can be sporadic, often overeating or undereating. This can result in either becoming drastically underweight, due to a diet imbalance and lack of nutrition or overweight. As we already know an unhealthy diet can lead to many physical problems which include diseases and impairment of all types. Addictions have many side effects.

When my friend struggled with alcohol he lost around 30 pounds. That may not seem like much, but he went from 170 to 140 and it caused quite a bit of other health problems. He did gain some of that weight back, but he recently relapsed and it is not looking good. I try to tell him that is detrimental to his health, but obviously he won't listen.

I agree with the findings of the study. Both of my parents were substance abusers and it affected them both drastically different. My mother tended to put on weight while my father never seemed to be able to gain any. As far as social interaction goes, I definitely can say that I saw more of a severe impact of the drugs and alcohol on my dad. Over time he gradually lost his ability to be emotionally available to everyone. It is heart wrenching what substance abuse does to a individual.