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Did you know that nearly 7 in 10 Americans take prescription drugs?

That's what researchers from Mayo Clinic and the Olmsted Medical Center found after

conducting a recent study.

While prescription medication can certainly help people manage their health, sometimes

people misuse prescription drugs to enhance some part of them, either mentally or physically.

For example, sometimes people take adderall in the hopes that it will boost their mental

performance.

But just what exactly is adderall?

Adderall is a prescription drug that's primarily a combo of two drugs: dextroamphetamine and

amphetamine, which belong to a class of drug known as /central nervous system stimulants/.

Adderall can help you out with things like paying attention and staying focused on an

activity, and as such, is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.

Adderall is also used to help treat narcolepsy — a sleep disorder that can cause you to

be super sleepy during the day and have sudden instances of sleep.

But taking Adderall for non-medical purposes can be dangerous.

According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, taking prescription stimulants for

reasons outside of treating ADHD or narcolepsy could lead to negative effects on your health,

like heart problems or psychosis.

It's also possible to become addicted to Adderall and even overdose on it, so it's

definitely not something to mess around with.

Some students may misuse things like Adderall since they think it can help them get better

grades, but there's not really a lot of evidence to back those claims up.

In fact, research from recent study found that while non-medical use of Adderall may

improve attention ability, it had minimal, or even a negative impact on other cognitive

processes and did not enhance academic performance.

But still, people are misusing Adderall to try and have a mental edge, similarly to athletes

misusing certain medications to enhance their athletic performance.

Like insulin, for example.

Insulin is a hormone that your pancreas makes which allow your cells to use the glucose

in your blood.

But when your body isn't making enough insulin, or using it effectively, man-made insulin

can help control your blood sugar.

Taking insulin can help people with Type 2 Diabetes manage their condition and may or

may not be needed for different people.

However, it's an absolutely necessary part of managing Type 1 Diabetes, with people needing

to take insulin multiple times a day — sometimes even in the middle of the night!

While insulin can literally be a lifesaver for these conditions, sometimes athletes and

bodybuilders misuse it for non-medical purposes to try and increase muscle gains and aid athletic

performance, similarly to why people take steroids.

Using insulin for these purposes is super dangerous, because getting too much insulin

can result in a coma, brain damage, or even /death/ — risks that Diabetics face on a

daily basis as they try and walk the tightrope between high and low blood sugars.

At the end of the day, prescription drugs can help people manage their health when they're

prescribed by a doctor and taken under medical supervision, but you shouldn't be taking

them outside of those guidelines.

It's really not safe!

Are there any other specific drugs you'd like us to talk about next?

Let me know in the comment section below.

We're taking suggestions for future videos.

Curious to know how dangerous and addictive sugar really is?

Check out this video!

Drugs can alter your brain, both in how it works, and it's actual structure, and those

changes be long lasting leading to harmful behaviors, sometimes even self destructive

ones.

As always, my name is Blocko, this has been Life Noggin, don't forget to keep on thinking!