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Can Prolonged Use Of Heroin Cause Bleeding Disorders, Prostate And Bladder Cancer?

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Posted on Sat, 13 Aug 2016
Question: Can prolonged use of heroin cause bleeding disorders, prostate or bladder cancer?
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Answered by Dr. Dr. Matt Wachsman (47 minutes later)
Brief Answer:
basically, yes

Detailed Answer:
the bleeding disorder is definitely yes. the only question is in which way:
hepatitis and then liver damage and then bleeding problems is technically the most common. But there can be hepatitis, immune reaction to hepatitis and then sludging of the hepatitis virus into vessels causing the vessels to burst. This isn't bleeding but it sure does look like it (blotches, painful ones). Then the heroin injection itself can damage vessels and often causes kidney problems but can cause liver damage far less commonly. The contaminants in the heroin also can do this.
Since practically anything might be in heroin, the chemicals certainly could be carcinogenic to the bladder.
but....oops....
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/0000
marijuana is associated (sorta, a little) with bladder cancer but heroin is not
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/0000

Prostate cancer is almost certainly LOWER in heroin addicts overall because prostate cancer is 100% in old old men and there are fewer old men if they are addicted to heroin (they dont live long enough to get prostate cancer; probably this is somewhat true of all cancer).
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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Answered by
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Dr. Dr. Matt Wachsman

Addiction Medicine Specialist

Practicing since :1985

Answered : 4214 Questions

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Can Prolonged Use Of Heroin Cause Bleeding Disorders, Prostate And Bladder Cancer?

Brief Answer: basically, yes Detailed Answer: the bleeding disorder is definitely yes. the only question is in which way: hepatitis and then liver damage and then bleeding problems is technically the most common. But there can be hepatitis, immune reaction to hepatitis and then sludging of the hepatitis virus into vessels causing the vessels to burst. This isn't bleeding but it sure does look like it (blotches, painful ones). Then the heroin injection itself can damage vessels and often causes kidney problems but can cause liver damage far less commonly. The contaminants in the heroin also can do this. Since practically anything might be in heroin, the chemicals certainly could be carcinogenic to the bladder. but....oops.... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/0000 marijuana is associated (sorta, a little) with bladder cancer but heroin is not http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/0000 Prostate cancer is almost certainly LOWER in heroin addicts overall because prostate cancer is 100% in old old men and there are fewer old men if they are addicted to heroin (they dont live long enough to get prostate cancer; probably this is somewhat true of all cancer).