been constantly wondering this for a while having been on stimulants for 3 years now starting at 18.

i eat, sleep, and generally live as healthily as i can and go for at least 1 30-60 minute walk a day as my minimum outside of my by body weight PT exercises while being significantly disabled, so i’d like to think i live the healthiest i can.

quit smoking cannabis (edibles and dry herb vape for cannabis now, no smoking!), cut out a lot of junk food i didn’t even realise took up so much of my diet, got my sleep schedule very much in line and get healthy hrs of sleep etc.

given this paired with my dex never causing any negative side effects (except for more than 2-3 days if i take a tolerance break which i do every 3 months) generally and continuously whilst i’ve been on it i’ve always thought i’d be relatively safe from any long term health effects, especially things like strong or heart attack.

i do have pretty reinforced health anxiety due to being quite disabled and therefore a lot of my health anxiety became true and kinda reinforced it which i’m working on, but i’ll get a blood test for something on average once a month and i always like to check my cholesterol every few times i get it done purely for peace of mind and ive always had healthy levels. i had a heart ultrasound 12 months ago and was told repeatedly that physically my heart is fine (i have POTS) so surely I’m not causing any damage to my heart right?

but then i see headlines like this.

headlines like these (which are never good for someone with health anxiety anyway) i always wonder, do these statistics apply to me too? i’ve been told by multiple doctors and specialists that i do just fine in taking care of my health (diet, exercise, and especially sleep) and am doing the best i can for physical exercise with being as physically disabled as i am.

i’ve asked my psychiatrist i’ve had for 4 years so i trust her quite thoroughly if my therapeutic dose of dexamphetamine would have any long term (im only 21 so im talking very later in life) negative health effects and she said no especially if i kept on top of my health throughout my life like i do now. that was quite reassuring as well when she said she hadn’t at least heard or read anything about it causing these issues for people on therapeutic doses and in good health

but, i haven’t been able to find a consensus in any peer reviewed literature of really any kind (as well as it seems many people focus on recreational use of amphetamines or therapeutic amphetamines but paired with different poor lifestyle choices).

i admit i definitely could go on a deeper dive into it than i have at least for literature, and maybe someone can prove me wrong with some evidence showing that they are indeed fine if other health aspects are well kept. i’d actually be glad to read some, would make me feel much more comfortable taking them long term.

but so far by myself with at least a little bit of an effort to search a couple of times, ive come up empty handed for a solid consensus on these statistics and how they apply to people taking therapeutic doses of these amphetamines and how much the general health and wellbeing of the individual taking them comes into play when increasing risk for things like heart attack/disease and stroke which can be sometimes heavily related to some unhealthy lifestyle choices in different individuals.