MDMA quesion...?

Question

You probably know that this drug is the main active ingredient used in Ecstasy... but I read some stuff about experiments conducted on mice that showed the drug causing 'Hardening of the heart wall'!!
Naturally, i'm a bit concerned about this..

The question is, does anyone know or can speculate how long you'd have to be using this drug for this to be a real concern.
I'm not overly fussed about the other problem with messing with the seretonin receptors, just about the whole heart issue!

I know this is a tricky/silly question to be askin the general public, but I certainly won't be able to ask anyone else :(

Answer 1

MDMA is a specific form of a methamphetamine. In other words, speed.

Speed can and will eventually harden your heart and arterial walls, which is bad for your general health, and can raise your blood pressure. Speed will also eventually enlarge your heart, causing it to weaken and wear out the lining surrounding it. Speed will ALSO wear out the valves in your heart. This in particular can happen quickly, before you realize it, and you'll have a dangerous heart murmur and need hospitalization. This is a worst case scenario.

It's not like you have a set number of heartbeats available to you before you die. But the number of heartbeats you have is not unlimited. I wouldn't suggest you try to beat the world record.

Talk to your general doctor, and tell them what's going on, they can keep this private. I'm sure they'll recommend that you detoxify. The money that you're spending on drugs should easily be spent on medical attention.

In case you're worried, they'll probably give you an EKG which consists of 10-15 minutes of lying down with stickers on your chest.

In other words, see your doctor! You're not the first person to go through this.

Answer 2

Nobody knows in humans.

The wiki page deals mainly with neurotoxicity.

In humans it is known to cause hypertension. Presumably this is a mechanism whereby it can cause problems with the heart wall either directly through cardiac muscle hypertrophy or indirectly through causing myocardial infarction, scarring, and thus stiff ventricular wall.

Bear in mind, rodents metabolise MDMA twice as fast as we do.

Then of course there is the question of what other junk you are ingesting. PMA/amphetamines... etc

Answer 3

I've taken amphetamine (kin to the methamphetamine groups) for a number of years and these drugs are bad for the heart! of course i stopped but they will enlage the valves, not to mention exhaust your adrenal glands and you will have difficulty later in life if you've been taking them for awhile. My advice would be too talk to a doctor, use some med resources and find out.