Alcohol & Health
Treatment
Helping Alcoholics
Medically Reviewed by Dr P. E. Pancoast, MD
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Some people use alcohol and cocaine together to increase the effects of both substances. However, this combination can lead to life-threatening consequences such as overdose or alcohol poisoning.
Alcohol is a depressant, while cocaine is a stimulant. When someone uses these opposing drugs simultaneously, the side effects can increase to dangerous levels.
Cocaine sends high dopamine levels to the parts of the brain that control pleasure. This buildup leads to intense euphoria, high energy, and alertness.
Other effects of cocaine include:
Stronger, more frequent doses contribute to long-term changes in brain chemistry. The body and mind will begin to rely on the drug.
These changes make thinking, sleeping, and remembering things more difficult. The more people use cocaine, the more their brain adapts to it.
With long-term use, they will require a stronger dose to experience the same high they did before. This can lead to recurrent drug abuse or an overdose.
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Chronic alcohol use negatively affects how the body looks and functions. Some of these changes are reversible when a person quits drinking, some will just stop worsening, while others will continue to progress even after staying sober.
Here are six ways alcohol affects the body:1
Alcohol affects the brain’s communication pathways. It interferes with how the brain looks and works. These disruptions can alter mood and behavior, which makes it harder to think clearly or coordinate movement.
Drinking large amounts of alcohol over time or too much can affect the heart. Heart problems resulting from alcohol use include:
Heavy drinking affects the liver. It can lead to the following complications:
Alcohol causes the pancreas to create toxic substances that block the normal passages and lead to pancreatitis.
Pancreatitis is dangerous inflammation and swelling of the blood vessels that prevents healthy digestion. This causes the pancreatic enzymes to ‘digest’ the pancreas itself.
Drinking alcohol contributes to several types of cancer. The more alcohol someone regularly drinks over time, the more likely they are to develop alcohol-related cancer. This applies to people who only have light drinking habits and those who binge drink.
Drinking alcohol correlates with increased risks of certain types of cancer, including head and neck, breast, liver, and esophageal cancers.
Drinking too much alcohol weakens the immune system, which makes the body more prone to disease.
Chronic drinkers are more likely to develop diseases like pneumonia and tuberculosis than people who don’t drink. Drinking significant alcohol in one sitting slows the body’s ability to fight infections, even up to 24 hours after their last drink.
As many as 90% of cocaine users are also addicted to alcohol.2 There are various reasons why cocaine and alcohol use is common.
One reason is to experience a ‘better’ ‘high. Using both substances delivers more euphoria than using either drug alone.3
Another reason to use cocaine with alcohol is to feel less drunk. Using cocaine enables a person to drink more alcohol without feeling as intoxicated despite their heavy drinking.3
However, they are still intoxicated, just more awake. Similarly, alcohol may allow a person to take more cocaine without feeling as high.
Some people combine the two substances to self-treat their cocaine withdrawal. Using alcohol may reduce the discomfort of coming down from cocaine intoxication.
When a cocaine high is about to end, people may feel the following symptoms:
People may drink alcohol in an attempt to manage those symptoms. Using both at the same time may help some people feel balanced. With repeated cocaine and alcohol use, the brain becomes dependent on this “synthetic happiness,” leading users to crave this drug combination.
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Mixing alcohol with drug abuse can lead to various negative effects, such as:
Combining cocaine and alcohol creates new metabolites in the body. One of the most powerful of these is cocaethylene.7
Cocaethylene blocks the reuptake of dopamine. It produces feelings of more energy than usual and makes its users crave the two drugs in higher doses over time.
Cocaethylene is more potent than either cocaine or alcohol independently. Because cocaethylene has a longer half-life, its psychoactive effects last longer.
Extended cocaine highs typically cause a significant increase in life-threatening effects. Cocaethylene increases toxicity in the:
This substance remains in the body about 4 times longer than cocaine, and its cardiotoxic effects last longer, too.
Alcohol also slows the removal of another metabolite from the kidneys called ethylbenzoylecgonine. This increases the amount of cocaine and cocaethylene in the blood.
Sudden stroke may occur when mixing cocaine and alcohol. Cocaine increases the risk of stroke by:
Cocaethylene can increase the risk of stroke even further since it stays in the body for days or weeks.4
Alcohol can increase cravings for cocaine by triggering the brain’s reward system. This makes it challenging to stop using cocaine.2
Some people binge drink to continue feeling cocaine’s euphoric effects and avoid withdrawal.
Cocaine and cocaethylene increase dopamine and serotonin levels in the brain and block their reuptake.
This boosts the stimulant effects on the body, leading to:
The presence of cocaine and cocaethylene increases heart and liver toxicity. The most significant danger of using cocaine and alcohol is sudden heart-related problems, such as a heart attack or a change in heart rhythms.
The danger to the cardiovascular system may be higher if someone already has heart-related health issues.
Alcohol and cocaine use during pregnancy will harm both mother and fetus.
Combining alcohol and cocaine during pregnancy can cause:6
These risks depend on various factors, including:
Concurrent alcohol and cocaine use increases the tendency for violent thoughts, potentially leading to aggression. In addition, there is a higher chance of committing suicide from anxiety, paranoia, and depression. 4
Alcohol dependence also increases the risk of relapse in cocaine users.
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Some common signs of cocaine and alcohol addiction include:
These signs of substance abuse may indicate the need for alcohol addiction treatment.
Due to cocaine addiction, the following acute effects may occur immediately after cocaine use:
These long-term health effects may occur after repeated cocaine use:
Because concurrent use of alcohol and cocaine manipulate brain chemicals like norepinephrine and serotonin, withdrawing from the two drugs can cause the following side effects:
Polysubstance abuse is the act of abusing multiple substances. This makes withdrawal more complicated than just dealing with one drug.
Medical professionals generally recommend the following treatment options to manage side effects and withdrawal symptoms from polysubstance abuse:
Due to the unpredictability of withdrawal from multiple substances, consistent medical monitoring is necessary.
Mixing cocaine with alcohol often increases euphoria or higher tolerance to both drug’s side effects. However, this also produces harmful metabolites that can increase the risks of alcohol and cocaine use, such as a higher risk of overdose, alcohol poisoning, and sudden death.
It’s best to watch your drinking and consult your healthcare provider if you’re dealing with alcohol or cocaine addiction.
The support provided during inpatient medical detox reduces the likelihood of relapse. It also increases the chances of safe, successful withdrawal from all substances.
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