Inhalants cause damage to your brain...but how exactly do they do that? The truth is that inhalant vapors can contain more than just one chemical, and some of the chemicals don't leave your body when you exhale. These chemicals are absorbed into the fatty tissues in the brain and nervous system, where they can stay for a long time.

One of the fatty tissues is myelin, a protective cover that surrounds the body's nerve cells. Nerve cells in your brain and spinal cord are sort of the "Command Central" of your body. They send and receive messages that control just about everything you think and do.

If you think of your nerve cells as your body's electrical wiring, then think of myelin as the electrical cord. One problem with inhalant use over a long time is that the chemicals from the inhalants can break down the myelin cover. And if the myelin breaks down, nerve cells may not be able to transmit messages as efficiently.

Inhalants not only affect your brain, they can have adverse affects on the rest of your body as well. Did you know that some inhalants directly increase the size of blood vessel, allowing more blood to flow through? And some inhalants can cause the heart to beat faster. This can be a very serious problem. Sometimes the inhalants and their chemicals can replace the very oxygen we need to respire, causing suffocation and sometimes even death.

All in all, inhalants aren't really a bright thing to do. So don't inhale.