Whitney Houston’s Autopsy Reveals Relapse

Whitney Houston’s Autopsy Reveals Relapse

We all watched as Oprah Winfrey interviewed Whitney Houston’s family about her struggle with cocaine addiction and the events that led up to her death in February of this year. Statements were made regarding Houston’s ongoing addiction issues with or without Bobby Brown being in the picture. Since Houston’s family understood that her disease was hers and hers alone, they did not blame anyone else for her untimely death.

Yesterday Houston’s autopsy report was released confirming that she did relapse, as  cocaine and marijuana were found in her system at the time of her death.  In addition, alcohol, Benadryl, and the prescription drugs Flexeril and Xanax were also in her system. However these drugs were not the culprits of Houston’s death as initially thought. Examiners determined that Houston’s cause of death was accidental drowning. However, chronic cocaine use and atherosclerotic heart disease were likely contributing factors to the drowning itself.

Atherosclerotic heart disease is a hardening of the arteries due to plaque build up. Chronic cocaine smoking increases the risk of developing this disease. Houston’s battle with crack cocaine addiction has been known since 2009 when she disclosed to Oprah that she was clean for the first time. It is speculated that Houston may have had an ongoing relationship with cocaine since her early 20’s.

The overwhelming sadness and tragic loss of a seemingly irreplaceable talent has joined the long list of stars that have died too soon from addiction and disease related to addiction.