BACKGROUND There is evidence that opium addiction has immunosuppressant effects. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a condition resulted from atherosclerosis which is dependent on the immune response. PURPOSE To evaluate plasma levels of interleukin-6 and interleukin-1Ra in 30 patients with three-vessel coronary artery disease, ejection fraction of more than 35% and to evaluate their changes af...

In another sense, too, structural changes within society helped formulate this problem framework. Earlier chapters have already touched on how the emergence of separate `professions' of doctors and pharmacists in the middle of the century marked a significant stage in the establishment of altered perceptions of opium. Professional medical control was to be one of the most important motives behi...

background: controversy persists over the potential benefits/harms of opium consumption in coronary heart disease. this study investigated the association between 12 months' major adverse cardiac events (mace) and pre-procedural opium consumption among patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (pci). methods: retrospectively, 1545 consecutive men who underwent pci between 21 st   j...

Background: The use of narcotics such as opium exposes addicts as susceptible targets of different diseases so that they might easily be exposed to different diseases such as fungal infections. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of addiction to opium and fungal infection on plasma levels of certain cytokines including interleukin-4 (IL-4), IL-6, IL-17, Interferon gamma (IFN-γ) a...

This study examines India and Turkey as case studies relevant to the Senlis Council’s ‘poppies for medicine’ proposal. The proposal is that Afghan farmers are licensed to produce opium for medical and scientific purposes. Here it is posited that the Senlis proposal neglects at least three key lessons from the Turkish and Indian experiences. First, not enough weight has been given to diversion f...

On February 14, 2016, a patient with known addiction to oral opium and no occupational or other lead exposure was admitted to Loghman-Hakim Hospital and Poison Center (LHHPC) in Tehran, Iran, with abdominal pain, anemia, constipation, and a blood lead level (BLL) of 137 μg/dL (normal = <10 μg/dL). Over the next 8 months, approximately 3,000 oral opium users were evaluated at LHHPC, and found to...

Parallel to the "poppy-seed defense" strategy commonly reported in the United States, donors of urine samples tested positive for opiates in Taiwan often claimed the consumption of Brown Mixture (BM) as the source of the observed morphine and codeine. Because BM contains opium powder (10.0-10.5% morphine), opium tincture (0.9-1.1% morphine), or camphorated opium tincture (0.045-0.055% morphine)...

The Golden Crescent region of South Asia-comprising Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan-is a principal global site for opium production and distribution. Over the past few decades, war, terrorism, and a shifting political landscape have facilitated an active heroin trade throughout the region. Protracted conflict has exacerbated already dire socio-economic conditions and political strife within the...

BACKGROUND Gastrointestinal cancers, including esophageal, gastric, liver and pancreatic are relatively common in Iran. Furthermore, consumption of opium and its derivatives (O&D) are considerable. This study, aimed to examine the association between consumption of O&D and the incidence of upper gastrointestinal (UGI) cancers. METHODS In a matched case-control study in Kerman (located in sout...

sirs, Mitragyna speciosa Korth. (“kratom”, “biak”) is a Southeast Asian tree, the leaves of which provide several alkaloids of considerable interest and seemingly contradictory properties. In 1836, Low (Burkill, 19351 described the use of kratom by native Malayans as an opium substitute when opium itself was unavailable or unaffordable. Holmes (18951 identified kratom as M. speciosa and its use...