Long-Term Side Effects of Prescription Stimulants

Prescription stimulants are medicines that speed up activity in the brain and body. Doctors prescribe them for certain health conditions, and when they are used exactly as prescribed, a doctor watches for problems and can change the plan if harm appears. The trouble starts when use goes on for a long time without that careful watching, or when the medicines are taken without a prescription, in larger amounts, or more often than directed. Then the effects that seemed small at first can build up, month after month, until they change a person’s health, work and family life in ways that are hard to undo.

This article is about those long-term effects. It looks at what months and years of prescription stimulant use can do to the heart, to sleep and appetite, to thinking and mood, and to the ability to stop. It is general information only, not advice for any one person. If you are worried about your own health, or about someone close to you, a qualified health professional is the right person to talk to. The point here is to explain the risks clearly, in plain words, so that nobody has to learn about them only after the damage is done.

The most important thing to understand is that long-term harm rarely arrives all at once. It does not usually look like a single dramatic event. It looks like a slow drift: sleep that gets a little worse each month, meals that get skipped a little more often, a temper that gets a little shorter, a heart that beats a little faster at rest. Each change on its own can be explained away. A person can blame a bad week at work, a change in the weather, or simply getting older. But when the same small changes keep pointing in the same direction for months, they are usually telling a story, and that story is that the body is under strain it cannot fully recover from between doses.

What Prescription Stimulants Do in the Body Over Time

A stimulant, as the name suggests, stimulates. It raises alertness, speeds up the heart, raises blood pressure, and pushes the body into a state that is a little like being on alert all the time. In the short term, that can feel like energy and focus. A person feels more awake, less hungry, and able to keep going when they would normally feel tired. That is why these medicines can help some people with certain conditions, under a doctor’s care. But the body is not built to stay on alert for months and years without a proper rest. It needs quiet periods, deep sleep, regular food, and time when the heart rate and blood pressure fall back to normal. Long-term stimulant use takes away much of that rest, and the body pays for it slowly.

Over time, the brain also adapts to the constant stimulation. It gets used to the extra push, and it starts to expect it. That is why the same amount that once felt strong can start to feel ordinary, and why ordinary days without the medicine can start to feel flat, slow and heavy. The brain has adjusted its own chemistry around the drug, and it takes time to readjust when the drug is not there. This is not a sign that the person is weak or that they imagined the benefit. It is a normal response of the brain to a substance that changes how it works, and it is one of the main reasons long-term use becomes hard to stop, even when the person can see the harm it is doing.

The rest of the body adapts too, but not in a good way. The heart and blood vessels carry extra strain day after day. The digestive system gets less regular food and less rest. The sleep system is pushed off its normal rhythm so often that deep, restoring sleep becomes harder to reach. None of this happens in a single week. It happens because the same strain is repeated hundreds of times, and the gaps between doses are never quite long enough for a full recovery. Think of it like a road that is driven over by heavy trucks every day without ever being repaired. At first the surface looks fine. Then small cracks appear. Then the cracks join up, and one day the road is no longer safe to drive on, even though no single truck caused the damage.

The Heart and Blood Pressure: Strain That Builds Quietly

The heart is one of the organs most affected by long-term stimulant use, and the harm is easy to miss because it is often silent. Stimulants raise the heart rate and raise blood pressure. For a healthy person, a short rise during the day is usually not dangerous on its own. But when the rise happens every day, for months and years, the heart and the blood vessels are working harder than they were designed to work for that long. Blood pressure that stays high over time damages the walls of the arteries, making them stiffer and narrower. A heart that beats faster at rest, day after day, gets less chance to recover between beats, and the muscle itself can become strained.

People often do not feel high blood pressure. That is why doctors call it a silent problem. A person can walk around for years with blood pressure that is too high and feel perfectly normal, until the damage shows up as something serious. Health authorities warn that long-term stimulant use is linked with a higher risk of heart problems, including a racing or irregular heartbeat, chest pain, and in rare cases, serious heart events. The risk is higher for people who already have a heart condition, high blood pressure, or a family history of heart disease, and many people do not know they have such a condition until it is tested. That is why a doctor checks the heart and blood pressure before prescribing these medicines, and keeps checking them while they are used.

There is also the question of what happens during exercise, stress, or illness, when the heart is already under extra load. A heart that is already working harder because of a stimulant has less reserve left for those moments. A person may notice that they get out of breath more easily, that their chest feels tight after climbing stairs, or that their heart pounds uncomfortably after a small amount of effort. These are warning signs, not things to push through. They are the body saying that the strain has become too much. Anyone who notices chest pain, a very fast or irregular heartbeat, or severe breathlessness should seek urgent medical help, because those symptoms can be signs of a serious heart problem that needs attention right away.

Sleep, Appetite and Weight Over Months and Years

Sleep is often the first thing to suffer, and it is also one of the things that matters most over the long term. Stimulants keep the brain awake and alert, which is the opposite of what the body needs at night. A person who takes them late in the day may find it hard to fall asleep, or may sleep lightly and wake up many times. Even when sleep does come, it is often shallow, without enough of the deep sleep that repairs the body and sorts out the day’s memories. Over months, this adds up to a large sleep debt. The person wakes up tired, needs more stimulation to get through the day, and then cannot sleep properly again that night. It becomes a loop, and each turn of the loop makes the next day harder.

Poor sleep on its own harms health in many ways. It weakens the immune system, so colds and other infections come more often and last longer. It makes mood worse, patience shorter, and thinking slower. It raises blood pressure and makes the heart work harder. It also makes it harder for the body to control blood sugar and weight. When poor sleep continues for months, these effects do not stay separate. They join together, and the person feels worn down in a general way that is hard to describe: always tired, always a little unwell, always running on empty. That is the body saying it has not had the rest it needs, for a very long time.

Appetite is the other daily need that stimulants push aside. They reduce hunger, so meals get skipped, portions get smaller, and food becomes an afterthought. In the short term, a skipped lunch may not seem important. Over months, it matters a great deal. The body misses out on the nutrients it needs to repair itself, to fight infection, and to keep the brain working well. Weight can fall, sometimes slowly and sometimes fast, and muscle can be lost along with fat. A person may look thinner and feel weaker, and may catch infections more easily because the body does not have the reserves to fight them. Children and teenagers are especially at risk here, because their bodies are still growing, and missing meals month after month can affect growth and development. That is one reason doctors watch weight and appetite closely in younger people who are prescribed these medicines.

Thinking, Memory and Mood After Long Use

Many people start taking stimulants because they want to think more clearly and get more done. In the short term, that can happen. But over the long term, the picture often changes, and the change is confusing because it happens so slowly. Thinking that once felt sharper can start to feel scattered. It becomes harder to hold a thought, to follow a long conversation, or to finish a task without getting distracted. Memory can suffer too. A person may forget appointments, lose track of what they were doing in the middle of a job, or struggle to learn new things. These are not dramatic failures. They are small, everyday slips that add up, and they are easy to blame on stress or tiredness, when the real cause is a brain that has not had proper sleep, proper food, and proper rest for a long time.

Mood is affected in a similar way. Stimulants can lift mood while they are active, and then leave a low, flat feeling as they wear off. Over months, that daily rise and fall can turn into a more lasting problem. Some people become more anxious, worrying more and feeling on edge even on days when nothing has gone wrong. Others become more irritable, snapping at small things that would not have bothered them before. Some feel low and lose interest in things they used to enjoy. The link between long-term stimulant use and mood problems is well known to health professionals, and it works in both directions: people who already live with anxiety or low mood may be more likely to use stimulants, and long-term use can make those problems worse. Either way, the result is a person who feels less steady inside, and who finds it harder to cope with ordinary stress.

There is a further risk that is rarely talked about openly, and that is the risk of seeing or believing things that are not real, or of becoming suspicious and fearful without good reason. This is uncommon, and it is more likely when doses are high, when sleep has been badly disturbed for a long time, or when use has gone on without medical supervision. But it is a real risk, and it is a sign that the brain is under serious strain. Anyone who notices such changes, in themselves or in someone close to them, should seek medical help promptly, because the sooner the problem is recognised, the sooner it can be dealt with safely.

Tolerance and Dependence: Why Stopping Gets Harder

Tolerance is the word doctors use for what happens when the same amount of a drug starts to have less effect over time. With prescription stimulants, tolerance builds slowly. The lift that once lasted all morning may fade by midday. The focus that once felt strong may feel ordinary. A person may be tempted to take more, or to take it more often, to get back the feeling they had at the start. That temptation is understandable, but it is also dangerous, because taking more raises the strain on the heart, on sleep, and on mood, and it speeds up the very process that caused the tolerance in the first place.

Dependence is different from tolerance, and it is important to understand the difference. Dependence means the brain and body have adapted to the drug so much that stopping brings unpleasant effects. A person who stops after long use may feel very tired, flat, and unable to concentrate. They may sleep for long hours and still wake up exhausted. They may feel low, irritable, and hungry in a way that feels out of control. These effects are usually worst in the first days and weeks after stopping, and they gradually ease as the brain readjusts. But they are strong enough to make many people go back to using, not because they want the lift, but because they want the bad feeling to stop. That is the trap of dependence: the drug stops giving much benefit, but stopping feels so bad that the person keeps taking it anyway.

It is worth saying clearly that dependence is not the same as a lack of willpower. The brain changes that cause it are physical, and they happen to anyone whose brain is exposed to these medicines for long enough, especially at high doses or without breaks. Blaming a person for being dependent does not help them stop, and it often makes them less likely to ask for help. What helps is understanding that stopping needs a plan, support, and time, and that a doctor can help with that plan. Stopping suddenly after long, heavy use can be difficult and sometimes unsafe, so it should not be done alone without medical advice, especially if there are heart problems, mood problems, or other health conditions involved.

Work, Money and Relationships Over the Long Term

The health effects of long-term stimulant use do not stay inside the body. They spread into every part of a person’s life, and over months and years, that spread can be as damaging as the physical harm. Work is often one of the first places it shows. A person who once worked steadily may start missing deadlines, making mistakes, or finding it hard to get through a full day. Poor sleep and poor concentration make ordinary tasks take longer. Irritability makes it harder to work with colleagues. Days off for illness become more frequent. Over time, a good worker can start to look unreliable, and that can cost them promotions, or even their job. The cruel part is that the person may be working harder than ever, just to stay in the same place, because their body and brain are no longer giving them the same return for their effort.

Money follows the same pattern. If the medicines are bought without a prescription, they can be expensive, and the cost rises as tolerance grows and more is needed. Even when they are prescribed, the wider costs add up: days off work, lost income, extra spending on food, transport, or other things that get neglected when a person is tired and disorganised. Bills can be forgotten, debts can build up, and savings can disappear. A household that once managed its money carefully can find itself living from week to week, and the stress of that makes everything else harder. Financial strain is not a side note to the health story. It is part of it, because stress itself harms sleep, mood, and the heart.

Relationships suffer too, and this is often the part that hurts most. A person who is tired, irritable, and focused on the next dose has less patience and less energy for the people around them. They may cancel plans, forget important dates, or snap at a partner or a child over nothing. They may become secretive about their use, which breaks trust. Family members often notice the change before the person does, and they often feel helpless, watching someone they love change slowly and not knowing how to help. Children in such a home feel the strain most of all. They may not understand what is happening, but they feel the tension, the broken promises, and the parent who is present in body but absent in mind. Over years, that can leave a lasting mark on a family, long after the health problems themselves have been dealt with.

What Happens When Use Stops After a Long Time

Stopping after long-term use is not a single moment. It is a process, and it takes time. In the first days, the most common effects are tiredness, low mood, and a strong wish to sleep. The body is catching up on months of missed rest, and the brain is readjusting to working without the extra stimulation. Concentration is often poor at first, which can be frightening for someone who relied on the drug to think clearly. It is important to know that this is normal, and that it usually improves over weeks, not days. The brain needs time to restore its own balance, and that time cannot be rushed.

Sleep often improves first, once the initial exhaustion passes. A person may start to sleep more deeply and wake up feeling more rested, even if they sleep fewer hours than they did during the first week of stopping. Appetite usually returns too, and with regular meals, energy levels become steadier across the day, instead of rising and crashing. Mood takes longer. Anxiety and irritability often ease gradually, but low mood can linger for weeks or months, especially if the person has been using for a very long time. That is why support matters so much during this period. Talking to a doctor, and to family or friends who understand, can make the difference between getting through the hard weeks and going back to use.

The longer-term outlook depends on many things: how long the person used, how much they took, their general health, and whether they get support. Some effects, like broken sleep and a dulled appetite, often improve a great deal once use stops and the body gets time, food, and rest. Other effects, especially those involving the heart and blood vessels, may take much longer to improve, and some damage may not fully reverse. That is not a reason to give up hope. It is a reason to stop as soon as possible, because every month without the extra strain is a month in which the body can start to repair itself. The best time to stop was earlier. The second-best time is now, and the sooner a person gets medical help to do it safely, the better their chances of a real recovery.

The Longer View: Why Early Harm Matters Most

One of the hardest things about long-term harm is that the early signs are the ones that matter most, and they are also the ones that are easiest to ignore. A person who has used stimulants for three months may feel that nothing serious has happened yet, and in one sense they are right. Their heart has not failed, their memory has not gone, and their life has not fallen apart. But the small changes that have already appeared, the lighter sleep, the smaller appetite, the shorter temper, the faster resting heartbeat, are the early warnings of the larger harm that can follow if the pattern continues for years. Those warnings are not a reason to panic. They are a reason to act, while the damage is still small and the body still has a great deal of power to recover.

Time works in both directions here. The longer a harmful pattern goes on, the harder it is to reverse, and the more it costs in health, money and relationships. But the sooner a person stops, the more of their health they keep, and the sooner the body can start to repair itself. That is true at three months, at three years, and even after much longer. It is never too late to stop, and it is never pointless, because every month without the extra strain is a month in which the heart works a little less hard, sleep gets a little deeper, and the brain gets a little more of the rest it needs. The people who recover best are often not the people who never had a problem. They are the people who recognised the problem early enough, or who decided, at whatever point they reached, that they would not let it go on any longer.

There is also a wider lesson in this, and it is about how we judge risk. We are good at fearing sudden dangers, and bad at fearing slow ones. A sudden pain makes us seek help at once. A slow drift makes us adjust, and adjust, and adjust, until we have forgotten what normal felt like. Long-term stimulant use is a slow danger, and that is exactly why it needs to be talked about in plain words, again and again, until the message is heard. If this article helps one person to notice the drift in their own life a little earlier, and to talk to a doctor a little sooner, then it has done its job. The harm is real, but so is the chance to stop it, and that chance is greatest when it is taken early.

My Take:

I want to start with something I believe strongly, and that is that nobody plans to end up here. Nobody wakes up one morning and decides that they want to spend years taking a medicine that harms their heart, ruins their sleep, and strains their family. People start for reasons that make sense to them at the time. They want to focus better, to work longer, to keep up with demands that feel impossible, or to feel normal in a life that is asking too much of them. Those are human reasons, not foolish ones, and I think we should say that plainly before we say anything else. Understanding why a person started is the only honest way to talk about why they find it hard to stop.

What troubles me most about long-term stimulant use is how quiet it is. If the harm arrived all at once, with pain and a clear warning, people would stop quickly. But it does not. It arrives as a slightly worse night’s sleep, a slightly shorter temper, a slightly faster heartbeat that nobody measures. Each change is small enough to ignore, and by the time the changes are big enough to notice, they have been building for months. I think that is the real danger here, not a single dramatic event, but the slow drift that makes a person accept a worse life as normal. They forget what it felt like to wake up rested, to eat a proper meal with appetite, to feel calm at the end of a day, and they start to think that tired and on edge is just how life is.

The heart worries me more than any other part of this story. A person can feel their sleep getting worse and their mood getting darker, and they can at least notice those things, even if they do not connect them with the medicine. But high blood pressure and a strained heart do not send a clear message. They work silently, year after year, until the damage is serious. I keep thinking about how many people are walking around with a heart that is working too hard, every single day, without knowing it, because nobody has checked their blood pressure in months. That is why I would urge anyone who uses these medicines, for any reason, to have their heart and blood pressure checked regularly by a doctor, and to take the results seriously. A five-minute check can tell you something that years of feeling fine cannot.

Sleep is the part I would ask you to pay attention to first, because it is the clearest early warning and the one that affects everything else. If your sleep has become light, broken, or short for weeks, and you cannot remember the last time you woke up feeling rested, that is not a small problem. Sleep is when the body repairs itself, when the brain sorts out memories, when the heart rests and blood pressure falls. Take that away for months, and everything else starts to fail: thinking, mood, appetite, immunity, patience. I do not think we talk about sleep enough when we talk about drugs and health. We talk about the drug itself, but the sleep it steals is often where the real damage is done, quietly, night after night.

Appetite is another thing I think people underestimate. Food is not just fuel. It is the material the body uses to repair itself, to fight infection, to keep the brain working. When a person skips meals for months, they are not just losing weight. They are losing the building blocks their body needs to heal. I have seen how quickly a person can look older and more worn out when they are not eating properly, and how much better they can look and feel when regular meals return. It is a simple thing, and that is why it is easy to miss. But simple things matter most when they are missing for a long time.

I am also honest about tolerance, because I think it is the part that traps people most cruelly. A person starts with a small amount that helps them. Over time, it helps less. They take a little more, and it helps for a while, and then it helps less again. Each step feels reasonable on its own, and each step takes them further from the place they started. By the end, they are taking far more than they ever intended, and getting far less benefit than they got at the start, and they cannot stop because stopping feels terrible. That is not a failure of character. That is how tolerance and dependence work, and anyone who understands that will see that the answer is not to blame the person, but to help them find a way out with proper medical support.

Families are the part of this story I keep coming back to, because they pay a price they never chose. A partner who watches the person they love become tired, irritable, and distant. A child who learns not to ask for help because the parent is too tired or too focused on something else. A parent who worries late at night and does not know what to say. These are real harms, and they last. I think anyone who is using stimulants long term should ask themselves, honestly, what the people around them are seeing, because the people around us often see the truth before we do. And if you are a family member watching this happen, I would say this: your worry is not an overreaction, and your loved one needs understanding more than they need a lecture. Shame has never helped anyone stop. Support has.

I do not want to pretend that stopping is easy, because it is not, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. The first weeks after stopping can be hard. You will be tired, you will struggle to concentrate, you may feel low and irritable, and you will be tempted to go back. That is normal, and it passes, but you need to be ready for it. Pick a time when you can rest, tell the people around you what you are doing, and talk to a doctor before you stop, especially if you have been using for a long time or in large amounts. A doctor can help you make a plan, watch for problems, and give you support when the hard days come. You do not need to do this alone, and doing it alone is the hardest way.

Money is a reason I think about a lot, because it is concrete and it adds up. A person who is spending money on medicines they do not need, or losing income because they cannot work properly, is losing something real every single week. Over a year, that can be a large amount. Over several years, it can be enough to change a family’s life. When you stop, that money does not come back all at once, but it stops going out, and that matters. I think it helps to count it honestly, not to feel guilty, but to see clearly what the habit has cost, and what stopping can save.

If you are a young person reading this, I would ask you to think about your future self. The body you have now is the body you will live in for the rest of your life. The heart, the brain, the sleep you protect now are the same ones you will need in ten years, in twenty years, in fifty years. A short period of feeling more alert is not worth years of strain on those organs. I know that is easy to say and hard to hear when you are under pressure to perform, but it is true, and I think you deserve to hear it plainly. There are better ways to handle pressure, and they start with sleep, food, and asking for help, not with a medicine that borrows energy from tomorrow.

Finally, I want to say something hopeful, because this story does have hope in it. The body can recover, often more than people expect, when the strain is removed and it is given time, food, rest, and support. Sleep can deepen again. Appetite can return. Thinking can clear. Mood can steady. It does not happen in a week, and it does not happen on its own, but it does happen, and I have no doubt that many people who stop, with proper help, go on to live healthier and calmer lives than they did while they were using. The damage is real, and I will not pretend otherwise. But it is not the whole story. The rest of the story is yours to write, and it starts with an honest conversation with a doctor, and with the people who care about you.

I think the role of doctors in this story deserves more attention than it usually gets, because a doctor is not just a person who writes a prescription. A good doctor is a person who checks, who asks questions, who measures blood pressure and weight, who listens to how a person is sleeping and feeling, and who is willing to change the plan when the harm starts to outweigh the benefit. That checking is what makes prescribed use different from unsupervised use, and it is also what is missing when a person takes these medicines on their own. If you are taking prescription stimulants, whether they were prescribed for you or not, having your heart, blood pressure, sleep and weight checked regularly is not a formality. It is the safety net, and without it, you are walking a long road with no one watching for the cracks.

I also think about the pressure that pushes people towards these medicines in the first place, because that pressure is real and it is not going away on its own. Students face exams that feel like they decide their whole future. Workers face shifts and targets that leave no room for rest. Parents face days that start before dawn and end after midnight. In that kind of life, a medicine that promises more energy and better focus can feel like the only answer. I understand that, and I do not think the answer is to pretend the pressure does not exist. The answer is to be honest about what the medicine costs over the long term, and to look for other ways to handle the pressure: better sleep, regular meals, honest conversations with a teacher or an employer, and help from a doctor when the load feels too heavy. Those answers are slower, but they do not take payment from your heart and your sleep.

One more thing I want to be honest about is the timeline of recovery, because false hope is as unhelpful as no hope. When a person stops after long-term use, they do not wake up the next morning feeling like their old self. The first weeks can be hard, with tiredness, low mood, and poor concentration, and it is easy to mistake those weeks for proof that stopping was a mistake. It was not a mistake. It was the brain readjusting, and readjustment takes time. Sleep usually improves first, then appetite, then energy, then mood, and the order is different for everyone. What matters is not how fast it happens, but that it happens, and that the person has support while it does. If you are in those early weeks, I would ask you to be patient with yourself, and to judge the decision not by how you feel on the hardest day, but by how you feel after a month of proper sleep and regular meals.

If you are a family member reading this, I want to speak to you directly, because your position is a hard one. You can see the change, you can feel the worry, and you may not know what to say without starting a row. I think the best thing you can do is to speak plainly and kindly, about what you have noticed, not about what you think the person is. Say that their sleep has changed, that they seem tired, that you are worried about their heart, and that you would like them to see a doctor. Do not make it a lecture, and do not make it a threat. Make it an offer of help, and make it more than once, because a person may need to hear it several times before they are ready to act. And look after yourself too, because watching someone you love change slowly is its own kind of strain, and you deserve support as well.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Prescription Stimulants affect long-term health?

Long-term use puts steady strain on the heart and blood pressure, disturbs sleep and appetite, and can leave thinking, memory and mood worse over time. The harm usually builds slowly rather than arriving all at once, so small changes in sleep, weight, patience and energy are often the first signs. The longer the use goes on, and the higher the amount, the greater the strain on the body, and the harder it becomes to stop because the brain has adapted to the drug.

How soon can Prescription Stimulants start harming long-term health?

Some effects, such as broken sleep, a smaller appetite and a faster heartbeat, can appear within days or weeks. Deeper harm, such as lasting damage to the heart and blood vessels, poorer memory, and lasting mood problems, usually needs months or years to build. Sleep, mood and appetite are often the earliest things to change, and those early changes are worth taking seriously, because they are often the first sign that the body is under strain it cannot fully recover from.

Can the harm Prescription Stimulants does to long-term health be reversed?

Some effects, such as broken sleep and a dulled appetite, often improve a great deal once use stops and the body gets regular rest and food. Other harm, especially to the heart and blood vessels after many years of strain, may take much longer to improve, and some changes may not fully reverse. No article can answer this for any one person, because it depends on how long the use lasted, how much was taken, and the person’s general health. A qualified health professional can assess an individual situation, which is the only safe way to get a personal answer.

Who notices the harm of Prescription Stimulants on long-term health first?

Family members and close friends often notice the harm first, because they see the small daily changes in mood, sleep, appetite and reliability from the outside. Colleagues and teachers may also notice, in missed days, shorter patience and work that is no longer steady. The person using the stimulants may be the last to see it, because the brain adapts to the pattern and the change feels normal from inside, and because poor sleep and a low mood make it harder to judge your own condition clearly.

What makes the harm of Prescription Stimulants to long-term health worse?

Using the stimulants more often, in larger amounts, or over a longer time generally increases the harm, because the body gets less chance to recover between uses. Poor sleep, skipped meals and existing health problems, especially heart problems and high blood pressure, can also make the harm worse, because the body is already under strain. Mixing prescription stimulants with other substances can multiply the danger, especially for the heart, breathing and consciousness, and should never be done.

Where can I read reliable information about Prescription Stimulants and long-term health?

Reliable general information can be found from public health authorities such as NIDA, the NHS, the WHO, the CDC and the DEA, listed in the sources below. Those sources explain harms, risks and patterns of use in plain language, without selling anything or offering personal advice. For questions about a specific person, the right step is a conversation with a qualified health professional, not an article, because only a professional who knows the person’s health can give a personal answer.

Sources

This article is general information only. It is not personal medical advice. For questions about a specific person, speak with a qualified health professional.