Drug abuse is a serious problem, which is capable of not only causing death to the one using it, but create a havoc in the lives of those who are associated with that person too. There have been plenty cases, whether it is Matthew Perry or the recent death of Liam Payne, which is in trial currently.

It is also a problem in the US and is emerging as one of the health concerns that could destroy families and society. One of the most alarming aspects of drug abuse is also its impact on public safety as well as increased crime rates. Drugs also take a heavy toll on healthcare systems as emergency departments frequently encounter cases of drug overdoses, which puts the burden on medical professional who have the strain the limited resources available.

There are also long-term health impact due to drug abuse, which includes organ damage, infectious disease, mental health disorders and rise in healthcare cost.

Are there any specific drugs which are most abused in US?

Yes. There are commonly used drugs, which also includes prescribed painkillers like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and fentanyl, as well as illicit substances like heroin. As per recent data, opioid abuse has also reached alarming levels which has affected millions of Americans.

Here are the most abused drugs in the US:

Stimulants

They are used to increase alertness, attention, and energy. They also have a high potential for abuse due to the euphoric and performance enhancing effects. Cocaine and methamphetamine are notable stimulants frequently abused in the US. As per 2019 data, 10.3 million people reported to misuse stimulants in the previous year.

Depressants

These substances are used to slow down brain activity and induce relaxation. Benzodiazepines is one of the commonly prescribed medicine. Around 4.8 million individuals in the US have misused this drug.

Other misused drugs and its affects on the health:

Opioids:

It could lead to slow breathing and heart rate. It can also increase the risk of overdose and respiratory failure, constipation and a weakened immune system.

Stimulants:

It can elevate heart rate and blood pressure. It could also increase body temperate and lead to an irregular heartbeat. Furthermore, one can experience loss of appetite and weight loss.

Cannabis:

This can alter perception and coordination. People who consume it often have red eyes and a dry mouth. This can increase appetite, sometimes the "munchies" can reach to a point of no return and it could impair memory and cognitive function.

Benzodiazepines:

It could lead to sedation and drowsiness and an impaired coordination and balance. There also could be memory problems and confusion, along with respiratory depression, when combined with other depressant substance.

Alcohol:

This could lead to slurred speech, impaired condition, poor judgment and decision-making, liver damage and cirrhosis and an increased risk of accidents and injuries, which is the 3rd most leading cause of death in the US.

Additional Negative Impact: Social and psychological

Substance abuse impairs job performance and reliability, leading to frequent absenteeism, reduced productivity, and even job loss. This further leads to financial instability, strained relationships, and a cycle of dependency.

One in four or 25 percent of adults with type-2 diabetes in India also suffer from liver fibrosis, according to an alarming study published in The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia journal today.

With data from more than 9,000 patients across the country, it is the largest ever real-world survey of liver fibrosis in type 2 diabetes from any low- or middle-income country.

While fatty liver disease has been touted as the most common liver condition among diabetes patients, the new study established liver fibrosis as the real danger among people with high blood sugar.

“Type 2 diabetes is closely linked to fatty liver disease (also known as MASLD). But how common is liver Fibrosis — the real danger — in Indian diabetics? Our answer: 1 in 4 has clinically significant liver fibrosis. One in 20 already has probable cirrhosis. Most had no symptoms. We propose liver fibrosis as the ‘4th major complication’ of diabetes,” said Ashish Kumar, from Ganga Ram Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (GRIPMER), from Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, in a post on social media platform X.

Also read: About 84% IT Employees Are Suffering With Fatty Liver Disease - Why Screenings Are Necessary For Corporate Workers

What Did The Study Find?

Fatty liver is typically the first and reversible stage of liver disease, where excess fat builds up in liver cells. Left untreated, it progresses to liver fibrosis, which is the excessive accumulation of scar tissue (collagen) in the liver resulting from chronic inflammation. The condition then progresses to the third and late stage, irreversible scarring (fibrosis) of the liver. The final stage is liver cancer.

The DiaFib-Liver Study included a total of 9,202 adults with type-2 diabetes patients who underwent FibroScan (VCTE) to assess liver fibrosis in routine diabetes care.

Of these:

• 26 percent had clinically significant fibrosis,
• 14 percent had advanced fibrosis,
• 5 percent had probable cirrhosis
• 65 percent had fatty liver disease.

• obesity
• dyslipidaemia
• kidney problems
• diabetes duration ≥10 years.

Fibrosis: The Screening Target

The study suggested the urgent need to integrate fibrosis screening into national diabetes programs.

“One in four adults with type 2 diabetes in India has clinically significant liver fibrosis and one in twenty already has probable cirrhosis, establishing advanced liver disease as a 'fourth major complication' of diabetes,” said the researchers.

“The DiaFibLiver Study calls for: Fibrosis — not steatosis — as the screening target. FibroScan integration into routine diabetes care. Moving beyond ultrasound-based referral,” Jha said.

“We hope this data from India adds to the global conversation on diabetes and liver disease,” he added.

Also read: The Silent Rise of Fatty Liver Disease: How India-Specific Guidelines Can Help

The findings highlight the urgent need to:

• move beyond steatosis
• systematically integrate fibrosis assessment into routine diabetes care,
• deploy non-invasive tools such as vibration-controlled transient elastography (VCTE) in community practice
• define screening strategies,
• evaluate therapeutic interventions.

Everyday Habits That Harm the Liver

Certain lifestyle choices can accelerate liver damage, such as:

Overeating processed or fried foods

High sugar intake (soft drinks, sweets, desserts)

Physical inactivity or prolonged sitting

Ignoring health issues like diabetes or hypertension

Crash dieting or taking unprescribed supplements.

How To Improve Liver Health?

Early screening and detection are key to prevent irreversible stages. Yet liver disease can be prevented with lifestyle changes such as:

• Eating a balanced diet with vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean protein
• Engaging in at least 30 minutes of exercise daily
• Staying hydrated to help the liver flush out toxins
• Avoiding alcohol and smoking
• Avoiding self-medication and unnecessary pills
• Getting routine health screenings.

While fevers are often overlooked and brushed aside or even managed with antibiotics — a dangerous trend — an alarmingly nationwide study linked it to infectious diseases with far-reaching consequences.

The report, based on data of over one lakh individuals in India with fever, between 2023 and 2025, showed that these were not vague or self-limiting, but in more than 30 percent or one-third cases had clear links to serious infections, such as dengue, and typhoid.

According to the report by healthcare diagnostics company Thyrocare, the fevers were mostly linked with

• typhoid – in over 18 percent cases
• dengue -- over 14 percent cases.
• Other diseases include malaria, chikungunya, and leptospirosis.

Presence Of Multiple Infections

Importantly, the findings highlighted the presence of co-infections in 10 per cent cases. The most common was a combination of dengue and typhoid.

Dr Preet Kaur, Chief Scientific Officer, Thyrocare, said that a significant number of patients carry serious infections, sometimes more than one at a time, revealing patterns that simple assumptions cannot capture.

"Beyond the visible rise in temperature, laboratory markers highlight hidden stress on organs, from drops in platelet counts to elevated liver enzymes, underscoring that fever is a systemic signal, not an isolated event," she added.

Also read: ‘Breakbone Fever’: US CDC Warns Of Dengue Surge Across 17 Countries

Further, the report noted that dengue positivity declined significantly over the three-year report period, malaria increased despite its lower overall base.

Typhoid and chikungunya rose in 2024 before easing in 2025 but remained present across the testing population.

Also read: Drug Resistance Driving Severe Typhoid Disease, Death Among Children Under-5s in India: Lancet Study

Fever: Men Vs Women

The report noted that more women were affected with typhoid than men. On the contrary, men reported more malaria cases.

More than 32 percent of females had fevers compared to 29 percent of men. Fevers in women was largely driven by higher typhoid detection (21 percent vs 15 percent).

Malaria affected men more than twice as often as women (1.1 percent vs 0.5 percent).

The lab reports also revealed key physiological markers such as platelet counts and liver function among people with fever, dengue, and malaria.

Low platelet levels were seen in

• 27 percent of patients with fever
• 80 percent malaria positive patients
• 37 percent dengue-positive patients

• All fever patients (56 percent) showed elevated SGOT levels and 37 percent SGPT
• Liver stress was seen across patients with dengue, malaria and leptospirosis.

Dengue cases rose throughout the year and typically peaked around October.

Typhoid positivity steadily fell from 2023 to its lowest in 2025. Despite a mild monsoon spike each year, 2025 remained consistently lower overall.

Chikungunya cases rose gradually from lower, volatile levels in 2023, peaked sharply in 2024, and moderated to a softer trend in 2025.

Malaria positivity remained relatively low overall but increased during the monsoon months, with transmission peaking between May and September.

Over the three-year period, malaria positivity rose from 0.5 percent to 1.1 percent, indicating a gradual increase despite its lower overall base.

New Delhi: There is a particular kind of frustration that comes with lying in bed, physically spent after a long day, and finding that sleep simply will not arrive. The body is done. The mind is not. This experience has a name in sleep medicine, and it is becoming less of an anomaly and more of a pattern for a growing number of people.

In an interview with Health and Me, Dr Shivani Swami, Additional Director – Pulmonology, CK Birla Hospitals, Jaipur, decoded the role of cortisol in affecting sleep and rest patterns.

The explanation starts with cortisol

Stress, whether from work pressure, unresolved worry, or the accumulated friction of a demanding day, keeps cortisol levels elevated into the evening. Cortisol is the hormone that keeps the brain alert and ready to respond. It has an important job during the day. The problem arises when it does not fall away as the evening progresses, which is what stress prevents. The brain receives no signal that the threat has passed, so it stays primed. Sleep requires the opposite of primed.

Screen use in the hours before bed adds another layer. The blue light that phones, laptops, and televisions emit suppresses melatonin, which is the hormone the body uses to initiate sleep. This is not a subtle effect. It shifts the body’s internal clock, making the brain read the late evening as daytime. People who spend an hour on their phone before bed are, in physiological terms, making sleep harder to reach.

Read more: Just 3 Nights Of Poor Sleep Is Enough To Harm Your Heart Health

Irregular schedules create their own complications

The body’s circadian rhythm is calibrated by consistency. When sleep and wake times shift from one day to the next, the rhythm loses its anchor. The body cannot predict when rest is coming, so it stops preparing for it at a reliable time. This is why erratic schedules, even among people who eventually get enough total sleep hours, tend to produce poor-quality rest.

The mental dimension sits separately from all of this. A mind that is processing, planning, replaying, or anticipating does not transition easily into sleep, regardless of how exhausted the body is. The cognitive activity itself is stimulating enough to override physical fatigue. This is what produces the wired quality that makes the tiredness feel irrelevant.

Left unaddressed, the pattern compounds

Shortened or fragmented sleep affects concentration, mood, immune function, and judgement. People become harder to disturb at first and then more fragile over time as the deficit accumulates.

What interrupts the cycle is not dramatic. A consistent bedtime and wake time, maintained even when it feels inconvenient, gives the circadian rhythm something to organise around. Screens set aside an hour before bed allow melatonin to do its work. A brief wind-down practice, whether reading, stretching, or simply sitting quietly, gives the brain a transition rather than asking it to move directly from full engagement to sleep. Stress that is processed during the day through breathing, reflection, or physical activity is less likely to resurface at night looking for somewhere to go.

Read more: Struggling With Sleep? Neurologist Shares 3 Simple Tips For Better Sleep Health

The ideal sleep set-up

A cool, dark, and quiet sleep environment reduces the stimulation the brain has to work against. None of these are large interventions. The difficulty is the consistency they require, which is harder to maintain than any single habit change.

When the pattern persists despite reasonable adjustments, it warrants clinical attention. Chronic sleep disruption rarely resolves without some form of structured support, and the longer it continues, the wider its effects spread.