Methamphetamine affects every part of the body.

It affects the brain, making people more impulsive, aggressive and paranoid.

It causes the heart to beat faster and blood pressure to rise.

Body temperatures can reach 108 to 110 degrees, a level where organs begin to cook.

It damages every organ, said Dr. Deanna St. Germain, who spoke about the medical aspects of meth Thursday at the fifth annual Methamphetamine and Substance Abuse Conference.

"It causes renal failure," said St. Germain, medical director of Union County Hospital in Anna, Ill. "The liver does not like to be at those high temps. If someone is smoking it, it affects the lungs, and obviously there is the lovely meth mouth."

Meth can cause cavities, cracks in teeth and other mouth diseases. St. Germain showed pictures of mouths that were subject to long-term meth use.

Meth, which can be injected into the blood stream, also fuels the spread of infectious diseases, said Dr. Ghazi Ghanen of Rocky Mountain Infectious Diseases in Casper. Ghanen spoke about some of the medical consequences of intravenous drug use.

There are 1 million active intravenous drug users in the United States, he said, and they are at a "10-fold higher risk" of acquiring pneumonia than those who are not.

Because of needle sharing and the risky behavior of intravenous drug users, this population is at a much higher risk for HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis A, B and C, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, and many other skin infections, he said.

Ghanen said 36 percent of HIV cases in the U.S. are related to intravenous drug use.

In Natrona County, health professionals linked a 2003 Hepatitis B outbreak to meth injectors. In 2001, there were no cases of Hepatitis B reported in the county.

In 2003, there were 45.

"Drug use is something done to the body that is going to have effects," Ghanen said. "It affects everything. I think the medical aspects are the most important."

St. Germain, who is also the medical director for the Children's Medical Resource Network, said meth does not just affect the health of users. It has devastating effects on their children.

If a pregnant mother uses, her baby can be born with a low birth weight or birth defects.

If children accidentally ingest or inhale meth, they feel the same effects as an adult.

If children live in a house where meth is manufactured, they can come in contact with harmful products and injure themselves severely or die.

One of those products is red phosphorous.

"The red liquid looks like Kool-Aid to a hungry, thirsty 2-year-old," St. Germain said. "It will burn their entire insides."

The children also have the psychological problems of living with parents that are either "fighting, having sex or sleeping."

Health professionals need to know the medical effects of meth so they can know what to look for when a user or a child of a user needs treatment.

As a former emergency room nurse, Cheryl Flores said she wouldn't always know if patients were drug users are not.

Conferences like this help her and other medical professionals identify more people with substance abuse problems and thus get more people into treatment, Flores said.

"If we are educated on the symptoms - such as they pick at their skin or they are easily irritated - we can pick up on them," Flores said. "It's an extra assessment tool. It helps me be a better nurse."

Contact health reporter Allison Rupp at (307) 266-0534 or allison.rupp@trib.com.