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Category: Addiction News

  • Club Drug Ketamine Nears FDA Approval for Depression Treatment

    Club Drug Ketamine Nears FDA Approval for Depression Treatment

    Ketamine can relieve the symptoms of depression, but it’s especially effective at reducing suicidal thoughts quickly, sometimes within 40 minutes.

    Within an hour of Matthew Ayo’s first ketamine infusion treatment, his mother looked at him and said “I have my son back.”

    Ayo, who is now 23, had been treated for depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders throughout his teens and early twenties. A little more than a year ago his psychiatrist recommended that he try ketamine infusion therapy. For Ayo, the results were immediate and life-changing. He shows off a graph charting his depressive symptoms: “That first sky-rocket up was my first infusion,” he said. “I went from severe depression to no depression symptoms.”

    A year later, Ayo has remained depression-free and has gone from needing 24 pills each day to just 6. He’s moved out of his family’s home, secured a job, and is social. Although he still gets panic attacks, he says he’s better able to handle them.

    “It helped with every aspect: anxiety, depression, psychosis,” Ayo said. “I know that’s not what it’s for, but in my case it changed everything.”

    Stories like Ayo’s are awe-inspiring. Anyone who has experienced depression or watched helplessly as a loved one tries medication after medication hoping to find relief knows that too often the current treatments for depression and other mental illnesses just don’t work. Against this backdrop, ketamine infusion therapy can seem like a miracle treatment. When it works, it works quickly and effectively, often causing a dramatic reduction in symptoms of depression. However, medical providers caution that while ketamine shows a lot of promise, there’s still a long way to go toward understanding how the drug should be used to treat mental health conditions.

    A Conceptual Leap

    Ketamine — also known as the club drug “Special K” or “K”— is a well-established anesthetic, used since the 1970s to sedate people for medical procedures. Because it is safe and effective, ketamine is used widely by the military. During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, doctors began noticing that soldiers who were given ketamine for anesthesia often had fewer symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to Dr. Steven Mandel, president of The American Society of Ketamine Physicians.

    “It took a conceptual leap for people to really wrap their heads around that this anesthetic somehow was acting as a mood elevator,” Mandel said.

    Mandel has practiced as an anesthesiologist for decades, but also has a master’s degree in psychology. As he looked into the research on ketamine, he became convinced that it could benefit people with depression, anxiety, and trauma. In 2014, he opened the Ketamine Clinics of Los Angeles and began offering treatments directly to patients, including Ayo. Mandel says that in his patients, ketamine treatments relieve the symptoms of depression 83 percent of the time and stop suicidal ideation more than 90 percent of the time.

    “It almost sounds too good to be true,” he said.

    Like Mandel, the wider medical community has been impressed by ketamine’s potential for treating psychiatric disorders. Although the Food and Drug Administration had only approved ketamine for anesthesia, providers began to use it off-label in ketamine infusion therapy — an intravenous administration of the drug — to provide swift relief of depression symptoms. At the same time, pharmaceutical companies hurried to develop a ketamine formulation specifically for treating mental health conditions.

    The result is Esketamine, developed by Johnson & Johnson, a nasal spray based on ketamine that can be used to treat depression. On Tuesday, February 12th, an FDA expert panel recommended that Esketamine receive federal approval. If approved, the medication will be covered by many insurance plans. Currently, almost all patients must pay out-of-pocket for ketamine infusions, which cost thousands of dollars. Doctors are hopeful that this will change as insurance companies realize that even off-label ketamine treatments can reduce the medical costs for people with mental illness.

    Risk-Benefit Analysis

    Speaking to Mandel and his patients, it’s impossible not to feel excited about ketamine. However, other providers are more cautious in their optimism.

    “There are certain scenarios where ketamine makes a whole lot of sense, and there are certain scenarios where it’s very unclear what the role of ketamine should be,” said Dr. Nolan Williams, assistant professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University Medical Center. “I think that the idea that ketamine is going to be a treatment for everyone chronically for their depression forever is not realistic.”

    Most providers still reserve ketamine treatments for people who have already tried more traditional treatments. While the side effects of older medications like SSRIs (such as Prozac and Zoloft) are well understood, there still isn’t a firm medical understanding of ketamine for psychiatric use, said Dr. Robert C. Meisner, the medical director of the Ketamine Service in the Psychiatric Neurotherapeutics Program at McLean Hospital, which is affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

    “One must balance clinical necessity with clinical uncertainty, as well as availability of other treatments,” he said. “We know more about [first-line treatments like SSRIs], so the risk-benefit is easier to access.”

    Meisner oversees ketamine treatments daily for his patients, but says he would like to see further research into the long-term effects of ketamine, what an optimal dose is, and what markers might indicate that a person will respond positively to ketamine.

    The early indications are reassuring, he said. Ketamine appears to be very safe and have a low risk for addiction or dependency. However, studies of recreational users have shown that people who use high levels of ketamine for long periods can have complications in the bladder, liver, biliary tract and suffer cognitive deficits. In order to be more comfortable with ketamine, scientists need to better understand at what point the drug goes from relatively harmless to potentially dangerous.

    “As the risks and benefits become better defined, especially over the long run, it is possible that there may come a point where ketamine isn’t a second- or third-line option, but is used earlier,” Meisner said. “As the research comes in, people will become more or less comfortable recommending ketamine sooner.”

    A Life-Saving Medication

    One area where people have been more apt to use ketamine is among patients who are highly suicidal. Ketamine is especially effective at reducing suicidal ideation, in as little as 40 minutes, making it a potentially powerful medication for people who are acutely suicidal in the emergency room.

    Even outside of emergency situations, ketamine can be lifesaving for people at risk for suicide. SSRIs and other antidepressant medications start working slowly, sometimes not reaching their peak effectiveness until six to eight weeks have passed. This period of time between starting the medication and the onset of full therapeutic effects is considered high-risk for suicide, because someone who is acutely depressed might still be suicidal, but now have enough energy to follow through on a plan that they previously couldn’t execute. Ketamine can be used as a bridging agent in these situations, giving quick, short-term relief of symptoms.

    “Relatively speaking, this is a fast way to rescue some percentage of people with depression from the horrific depths of it, and sustain them until the medication to which we’re bridging becomes therapeutic and can take over,” Meisner said.

    What the Future Holds

    Today, experts and the public hold diverging views about ketamine. Some, like Mandel and Ayo, see ketamine infusion therapy as a life-changing treatment. Much of the medical community, however, is waiting to see more research and to follow the results from these early uses of ketamine.

    “Some argue there is an ethical imperative to move quickly to ketamine,” Meisner said, but he also points out that it’s only been used to treat psychiatric illness in the last ten years, which is not long at all in terms of medicine.

    “Many doctors who work in neurotherapeutics see IV ketamine not as the end of the story, or the treatment that has at last arrived, but as a treatment modality that is evolving and will change as the mechanism is better understood and drugs that leverage that novel mechanism are developed,” he said. “I have high hopes for where the early work on ketamine leads us as we better understand its complex mechanisms.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Are "Night Owls" More Prone to Depression?

    Are "Night Owls" More Prone to Depression?

    Researchers examined if burning the midnight oil could put you at higher risk for mental health disorders.

    New research has found that a genetic link may exist between individuals who prefer sleeping later, or “night owls,” and mental disorders, including depression, anxiety and even schizophrenia.

    A study of genomic data—information culled from an organism’s genetic and DNA material—from thousands of participants in a UK health survey found that while differences in sleep timing did not impact sleep quality of “night owls” or “morning people,” it did reveal a causal link between night owls and the aforementioned conditions.

    While the reason for the connection remained unclear, researchers indicated that its presence underscored the need for greater research into genetics and mental health.

    The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, reviewed genomic data from nearly 700,000 participants culled from two sources: the private, U.S.-based genome analysis company 23andMe and the non-profit UK Biobank.

    Participants were given a health survey in which they would answer if they were “morning people” or “night owls” based on sleep timing and tendencies. The researchers compared information from the survey with data from wristband activity trackers worn by 85,000 participants in the UK Biobank.

    The data yielded two significant findings. First, the researchers determined a vastly larger number of regions in the human genome—351—associated with early rising than previously identified; prior to the study, only 24 of these regions were known to science. Study participants with more gene variants connected to early rising typically went to sleep up to a half hour earlier than individuals with fewer variants.

    These variants also appeared to be linked to both the retina and the body’s circadian clock, which is the body’s means of monitoring sleep, wakefulness, digestion and other bodily functions.

    As study lead author Samuel Jones noted, “Part of the reason why some people are up with the larks while others are night owls is because of differences in both the way our brains react to external light signals and the normal functioning of our internal clocks.”

    But what the scientists also found was that those individuals whose genomic data identified them as night owls also had a greater propensity for the risk of depression and schizophrenia, among other conditions.

    Sleep quality or lack of sleep did not appear to play a role in this causal link, and while the researchers were unable to determine a specific reason for the link, study co-author Jacqueline Lane suggested that a combination of physical stimuli, such as morning light, societal pressures—the need to feel awake in the morning and midday due to work schedules—and genetics may play a role.

    “Our current study really highlights the need for further study of how chronotype is causally linked to mental health and, until these studies are done, we can only speculate on the mechanism,” said Lane.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • How Digital Hoarding May Affect Mental Health

    How Digital Hoarding May Affect Mental Health

    Cluttered desktops and unread emails may be taking more of a toll on the psyche than previously thought.

    When people think of hoarding, they often imagine people from the TV show Hoarders, who amass heaping piles of junk that they were never able to part ways with. But there is also a phenomenon called “digital hoarding,” where people can’t get rid of digital items.

    Some experts believe that digital hoarding may be harmful to your mental health.

    In a recent survey from Summit Hosting, 6.6% of people in the United States are holding on to 1,000-3,000 unread emails, while 1.9% have over 20,000 unread emails. The average American has also saved nearly 600 cellphone pictures, as well as nearly 100 bookmarked webpages, and has over 20 icons on their desktops, and even more clutter filling up cyberspace.

    A case study published in the journal BMJ on digital hoarding examined a man in his late forties who would take thousands of pictures every week, and spend hours everyday organizing them on his computer. As it turns out, the man wasn’t just hoarding digital files, but he was also hoarding clutter in his apartment that he didn’t need like paper scraps and bicycle parts.

    In the case report, Dr. Martine van Bennekom, a psychiatrist, explained that the man “enjoyed taking the photos. However, the processing and saving of the digital pictures caused suffering and distress.”

    While treating the man, Bennekom felt that digital hoarding should indeed be “classified as a subtype of hoarding disorder,” according to Live Science.

    Bennekom feels that if “digital hoarding” is defined as a disorder, it would be much easier for doctors to diagnose and treat people. Yet other doctors aren’t so sure about this and feel it could still be too early to classify digital hoarding as a disorder. (Funnily enough, some doctors who treat hoarders often encourage them to save items digitally to help make more space in their homes.)

    Healthline reports that Jo Ann Oravec, PhD, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, saw the effects of digital hoarding in her students. With an overload of notes, PowerPoint information, PDFs, and personal items, her students felt overwhelmed by the volume of material they piled up over time.

    For these students, digital hoarding also became a self-perpetuating cycle where they kept adding to their piles.

    As Oravec explains, “Educational and social technologies were designed to make it easier for student to engage in critical thinking and analysis as well as in interpersonal interaction. Nevertheless, [they’ve] triggered a sense that ‘more is better.’”

    Oravec would find her students coming to her “with inches of printed materials they’ve accumulated and then asking, ‘How do I find more?’”

    Many hoarders hang on to things they think they’ll need in the future, or that they’re attached to emotionally. If you already exhibit signs of being a hoarder, you’re more likely to be hoarding things digitally as well.

    Nick Neave, the director of the Hoarding Research Group, says that “everyone appears to be at risk of digital hoarding, especially in relation to work. Organizations bombard their employees with all manner of information that they don’t know what to do with, and just to be ‘safe,’ they keep it.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Microdosing Study Yields Mixed Results

    Microdosing Study Yields Mixed Results

    Researchers explored the physical and mental effects of microdosing in a new study.

    The practice of microdosing—consuming very small amounts of psychedelic substances like psilocybin, allegedly to increase mental capacities—has gained popularity among individuals who have reported greater focus, happiness and creativity from the practice.

    To determine whether these claims had any validity, researchers conducted a study that posed a daily series of questions to regular microdosing proponents about their mental and emotional responses to their chosen substances.

    Their responses—which highlighted mostly positive but also negative reactions—underscored both the researchers’ and High Times‘ assessments that the subject was worthy of further study.

    The study, conducted by researchers from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia and published in the journal PLOS One, recruited 98 participants to conduct its research. And to circumvent any legal issues involved the study of psychedelics, all of the subjects were already involved in microdosing.

    Over the course of a six-week period, the participants were tasked with answering sets of questions on a daily basis, as well as a separate and more intensive set at the beginning and end of the six-week timeframe.

    Upon reviewing the results, the researchers found that the majority of the participants reported that their experiences were largely positive. They claimed to experience an increase in a number of areas, including creativity, focus, happiness and productivity, on days when they microdosed. Such reactions were reported less on days when doses were not taken.

    Participants also claimed that they experienced lower levels of depression and stress, though study author Vince Polito also noted that none of the 98 participants reported problems with either condition prior to the launch of the study.

    While most of the responses skewed positive, some participants also reported a slight increase in neurotic feelings at the conclusion of the six-week test. Additionally, some reported such a negative response to their first experience with the psychedelic substances that they stopped their involvement after that initial experiment. 

    Noting that the participants’ previous and/or regular experiences might cause a degree of bias in their responses, the researchers also queried a group of 263 microdosers with varying degrees of experience about pre-existing beliefs and expectations about microdosing.

    The researchers found that while all participants believed that microdosing would produce considerable and extensive benefits, what they believed would happen was markedly different than what was reported by the actual group undergoing the microdosing. 

    As High Times noted, Polito and his co-author, Richard J. Stevenson, observed that their study was based on very broad and general information, and was drawn from personal questionnaires and not scientific experiments.

    Still, Polito noted that their findings showed “promising indications of possible benefits of microdosing, [as well as] indications of some potential negative impacts, which should be taken seriously.”

    The study authors concluded that research on microdosing is in its early stages, and requires more comprehensive studies to make more specific determinations.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Did A Cannabis Lollipop Trigger A Man's Heart Attack?

    Did A Cannabis Lollipop Trigger A Man's Heart Attack?

    Researchers investigated whether a marijuana edible was responsible for giving an elderly man a heart attack.

    Canadian researchers are calling for more research into the cardiovascular effects of cannabis after a 70-year-old man reportedly had a heart attack after consuming a lollipop containing a high level of THC. 

    According to a paper in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, the man had existing heart conditions. He took the cannabis edible hoping that it would help him sleep better and cope with the pain he experienced from arthritis. Instead, he started experiencing chest pains within half an hour and was found to be having a heart attack. 

    Researchers say that this shows the need for more research into the health effects of marijuana, which was recently legalized for recreational use in Canada. 

    “The outcome of this case is important with new marijuana legalization—hopefully with marijuana use no longer criminalized, more research into the cardiovascular side effects will emerge,” they wrote. 

    According to Live Science, the man said that he had occasionally smoked marijuana as a teen, but had not used edibles before. The lollipop he consumed contained 90 milligrams of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, which is about 12 times the amount found in a typical joint. 

    Although the man had had heart attacks in the past, he hadn’t experienced one in two years, and was on medication for his heart conditions. Researchers said that consuming the edible put a “sudden and unexpected strain” on the man’s heart, causing him to have a heart attack.

    In addition to chest pain, the man experienced “fearful hallucinations” and anxiety, which can increase heart rate and strain the cardiovascular system even more, researchers wrote.  

    Dr. Alexandra Saunders, the lead author of the study, said in a press release that people need to be aware that marijuana can have dangerous side effects, even when it is used in a medical setting. 

    “Marijuana can be a useful tool for many patients, especially for pain and nausea relief. At the same time, like all other medications, it does carry risk and side effects. In a recent case, inappropriate dosing and oral consumption of marijuana by an older patient with stable cardiovascular disease resulted in distress that caused a cardiac event and subsequent reduced cardiac function,” Saunders said. 

    Dr. Robert S. Stevenson said that the paper shows that doctors need to discuss the risk of cannabis use with their patients.

    “Most previous research on marijuana-induced myocardial ischemia focused mostly on younger patients and did not focus on its different formulations and potencies. As a result of widespread marijuana legalization, healthcare providers need to understand and manage cannabis use and its complications in older patients, particularly in those with cardiovascular disease,” he said. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Opioid Crisis Activists "Die In" At Guggenheim Over Sackler Family Ties

    Opioid Crisis Activists "Die In" At Guggenheim Over Sackler Family Ties

    After the Guggenheim, protesters walked two blocks to the Metropolitan Museum, which has a wing named after the Sackler family. 

    Protesters dropped fake prescriptions from balconies, handed out empty pill bottles and laid down as if they were dead at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City to call attention to the opioid epidemic and call for the museum and others like it to stop acknowledging the billionaire philanthropists of the Sackler family, members of which founded the company that would become Purdue Pharma, the manufacturers of OxyContin. 

    “I want the Guggenheim and others publicly to disavow themselves from the Sacklers and refuse future funding from them, and I want them to take down the Sackler name from the museums,” Nan Goldin, who organized the protest, told The Guardian.

    Goldin, a photographer who art displayed in the Guggenheim, has been an outspoken critic of the Sackler family after she nearly died of an opioid overdose, following an addiction that she says started when she was prescribed OxyContin, a pill produced by Purdue Pharma. 

    The Sackler family has its name on the Guggenheim and other museums and institutes for the arts. Since the opioid epidemic — and Purdue’s misleading advertising claims — have been in the spotlight more, some have called on these institutions to distance themselves from the family.

    “We’re here to call out the Sackler family. By failing to disavow them now, by refusing to take down their names, the museums are complicit in the opioids crisis.”

    Distributing fake prescriptions from the balconies was meant to call attention to comments made by one member of the Sackler family, claiming that the launch of OxyContin would “followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition,” said Goldin. 

    According to The New Yorker, the fake scripts were for 80 milligrams of OxyContin to be taken 24 times a day. They also contained a quote: “If OxyContin is uncontrolled, it is highly likely that it will eventually be abused. . . . How substantially would it improve our sales?” The words were pulled from court filling in Massachusetts, where Purdue is being sued for its prescribing practices. 

    After the Guggenheim, protesters walked two blocks to the Metropolitan Museum, which has a wing named after the Sackler family. 

    Visitors to the Guggenheim were initially confused, but a few who spoke to The Guardian said that the protest resonated with them. 

    “It reminded me of stories of protesters laying down in Wall Street during the Aids epidemic. These institutions all have dirty hands,” said Alex Viteri.

    Another man was visiting from New Hampshire, one of the states hardest hit by the opioid epidemic. The man said that his brother-in-law became hooked on opioids after being prescribed OxyContin. Like many people, the brother-in-law progressed to illicit opioids and died of a drug overdose. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Kamala Harris Reveals She Smoked Pot In College

    Kamala Harris Reveals She Smoked Pot In College

    Harris discussed her stance on marijuana legalization and revealed a bit about her past use in a recent radio interview.

    Citing her Jamaican roots and past inhalation of pot, Kamala Harris firmly stated her support for the legalization of marijuana on a New York-based radio show, “The Breakfast Club.”

    While the bill S.420 to legalize marijuana was submitted to Congress just last week, the issue of marijuana’s legality is bigger than ever.  Harris, a former California attorney general and 2020 presidential contender, was speaking with the radio show’s co-host Charlamagne Tha God about the social issue of legalizing pot.

    When Charlamagne asked Harris if she’d ever smoked pot, Harris laughed and said yes, she had inhaled from a joint, and now was probably breaking news with the admission.

    Harris’ views on the legalization of marijuana have slowly altered since her vocal opposition in 2010. Five years and many studies and nationwide discussions later, Harris changed her position to one of support for medical use.

    CNN reports that in her interview with “The Breakfast Club,” she intimated support for recreational use of pot, citing “”that it gives a lot of people joy and we need more joy.”

    In Kamala Harris’ book The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, she moves beyond just legalization of the drug and calls for prison reform. “We need to legalize marijuana and regulate it, and we need to expunge nonviolent marijuana-related offenses from the records of millions of people who have been arrested and incarcerated so they can get on with their lives.”

    Answering the radio hosts about her position on the legalization of marijuana and if she opposes it, Harris was clear: “That’s not true. And look I joke about it, half joking—half my family’s from Jamaica, are you kidding me,” Harris laughed along with the radio hosts.

    “No, I do not—no, no,” Harris continued. “I have had concerns, the full record, I have had concerns, which I think—first of all, let me just make this statement very clear, I believe we need to legalize marijuana,” she said. “Now, that being said—and this is not a ‘but,’ it is an ‘and’—and we need to research, which is one of the reasons we need to legalize it. We need to move it on the schedule so that we can research the impact of weed on a developing brain. You know, that part of the brain that develops judgment, actually begins its growth at age 18 through age 24.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Exercise: Making Amends to Your Body

    Exercise: Making Amends to Your Body

    In a world where nothing is in my control and living with a head that constantly tells me I’m not doing enough, exercising every day makes me feel like I’ve checked a box.

    Last year, my mom fell and broke her hip. During the surgery, she had a mild heart attack and a pulmonary embolism. Since that fall, she’s become wheelchair bound and has started showing the signs of early dementia. She’s now in assisted living, being bathed by caretakers. On the other hand, my father has a girlfriend, writes screenplays, teaches kids to read, swims, and delivers food to the elderly (even though he is the elderly). My parents are the same age: 81. 

    What could cause such a difference in their physical states?

    Exercise. My dad always exercised while mom was very sedentary. 

    The Dreaded E-Word

    I know, the dreaded “E” word. I take after my mom in this area: I’ve never been an athlete, I pretended I was sick for most high school P.E. classes, and I’m extraordinarily uncoordinated. I hate group classes and I loathe tight name-brand exercise gear. Gyms scare the shit out of me and I have no idea what I’m doing.

    But two years after my break up, I was still considerably underweight and what little muscle I’d had was long gone. I could pass in clothes as modelesque but naked I could have been a dummy for an osteology class. (“And here, students, you can see the sternum and entire rib cage….”) I was eating, but stress (about work, life, my mom) kept me from putting on any real weight.

    And then boom. Out of the blue, I’m contacted by Doug Bopst to ask if I’d like to be interviewed for his new book, The Heart of Recovery, coming out March 12th. Sure, I lied. What does Doug happen to do? He’s a fucking trainer! Doug kicked opioids and lost 50 pounds in jail through—you know it—exercise.

    “When we stop using drugs, we have to replace them with healthy coping mechanisms,” Doug says. “Fitness is a great tool and should be a staple in everyone’s recovery.”

    He took pity on me and started training me via Skype (he’s in Maryland and I’m in LA). He also sent me a list of foods I should eat. Sometimes deliveries randomly showed up at my door. Over the next year my living room became littered with resistance bands, a stability ball, dumbbells, a yoga mat. I was living in a mini 24-Hour Fitness but with a cat.

    At the beginning, I complained. A lot. He ignored me. I constantly wanted to skip days (and we were only training three times a week) because I was “tired” or “depressed.” 

    “I train machines, not wussies,” he’d say, knowing it would motivate me.

    “Fuck you!” I’d text back. “See you at 5!”

    A Stronger Body…and Mind

    It’s almost a year later and now I insist we train everyday. There are exercises I could barely do that I bust out so easily now I have to check that I’m doing them right. I can carry a 24-pack of water, a 12-pack of yerba mate and two bags of groceries by myself in one trip from the car. It feels good to be stronger. And yes, I’ve gained some weight. In a world where nothing is in my control and living with a head that constantly tells me I’m not doing enough, working out every day makes me feel like I’ve checked a box. I’m making progress, I’ve done something.

    Addicted to drugs for 20 years, my body was a vessel to get high and something I abused. Nothing more than that. Sure, vanity (and uppers) kept me slim but I could give a shit about health. Now at 49 years old with six years clean, gravity is taking its toll, and friends and family are falling ill. Staying healthy and mobile has, for the first time, become a real priority.

    I wanted to know what my buddy, best-selling Kindle Singles author and long-distance runner Mishka Shubaly, had to say about exercise. Like Doug, Mishka credits exercise as his main tool in getting sober.

    “The mental benefits of exercise are scientifically proven and well-documented… and I’ll leave it to a medical doctor or scientist to quote statistics,” he said. “What I appreciate about exercise is this: exercise is hard. When you exercise, you get the persistent feeling that you are fighting back—fighting back against your alcoholism, your addiction, your depression, your anxiety, your obesity, your anorexia, your sloth, your abuser(s), your poverty, your unemployment, your shithead boss, your shadow self, everything and anything that you feel is holding you back, holding you down. That shift in perspective—from fleeing to fighting back—man, that is incredibly powerful, that turns your entire world around.” 

    Couldn’t agree more. You want me to pump out 10 more diamond push-ups? Just mention my ex and I tap into a whole new level of strength and power.

    And Doug and I have fun. We laugh as I lose my balance and literally fall off screen. He has to mute me if he’s in public during our training sessions since I swear so much. (Hey it hurts!!)

    Also, I needed to be accountable to somebody. I needed somebody to hold my hand and help me get well and fit. And as an addict/alcoholic, self-discipline is not my forte. Now the results motivate me. I can see the physical changes: a rounder booty, some definition in my arms. And of course, I get a brief reprieve from my frequent unwanted visitor, depression. 

    Mood Follows Action

    Don’t get me wrong, I have no plans to do an Ironman triathlon. But as a sedentary writer, moving every day feels like a necessary part of my recovery.

    “One of the first things my first sponsor told me was ‘mood follows action.’ This quote has been a game changer for me, applicable not just in sobriety, but in life,“ ultra-endurance athlete, best-selling author and podcast host Rich Roll told me. “I use it daily with respect to fitness, which has transformed my life wholesale. When we come into the rooms we are broken. Our self-esteem is shattered, our sense of what is possible decimated. Much like the steps, with fitness you see results when you put in the work.”

    “But the trick for me — an alcoholic through and through — is to remember that it isn’t a replacement for the steps,” Roll adds. “Fitness isn’t my higher power. But it is an incredibly powerful and essential ingredient in my sober equation.”

    If you’re still not convinced that exercise is for you, here’s some science to back it up and push you to dust off those running shoes.

    Post-doctoral Fellow at the Center for Neural Science at NYU and neuroscientist, dancer, and science writer Julia Basso reports in a research paper that “We show that the three most consistent cognitive/behavioral effects of a single bout of exercise in humans are improved executive functions, enhanced mood states, and decreased stress levels.”

    Cool. So we all know that exercise can de-stress you and get all those endorphins going but which cognitive functions are we talking about? Well, according to Basso, “….Executive functions including attention, working memory, problem solving, cognitive flexibility, verbal fluency, decision making, and inhibitory control receive the most benefit from acute exercise.” 

    In closing, I’ll leave you with words from my two masters. Doug says, “If Amy Dresner can get into a workout regime, anyone can. Her transformation this last year has been life-changing, not only for her, but for me, too. Watching people in recovery see the power of fitness is something I live for.”

    And Rich says, “If it was up to me, I’d add daily physical movement as the 13th step.”


    Has exercise played a role in your recovery? Share your story in the comments.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Does Marijuana Affect Sperm Count?

    Does Marijuana Affect Sperm Count?

    A new study suggests it does—but not in the way you might think. 

    Harvard researchers were surprised to find that men who have smoked marijuana had better sperm counts than their counterparts who had never used cannabis—but scientists are cautioning that the link does not mean there is a causal connection between smoking marijuana and increased fertility. 

    A study published this week in the journal Human Reproduction found that men who had smoked marijuana at some point in their lives had higher sperm counts, which is associated with increased fertility.

    Researchers examined 1,143 semen samples from 662 men, all of whom were undergoing fertility treatments with their partners at the Massachusetts General Hospital Fertility Center.

    “Men who had ever smoked marijuana had significantly higher sperm concentration than men who had never smoked marijuana,” study authors wrote. There was no difference in sperm count between current and previous marijuana smokers. 

    These findings came as a surprise, since previous research has indicted that smoking marijuana had a negative effect on fertility. A 2015 study found that men who smoked weekly had a lower sperm count than those that did not, and a study published in 2018 found that THC can change the structure of sperm.  

    Researchers said that it’s possible that low-level exposure to cannabis could aid fertility by stimulating the endocannabinoid system in the brain. However, they said that it’s just as likely that testosterone levels affect both the likelihood that a man uses cannabis (a risk-taking behavior) and his sperm production. 

    “Our findings could reflect the fact that men with higher testosterone levels are more likely to engage in risk-seeking behaviors, including smoking marijuana,” Dr Feiby Nassan, who was involved with the research, told Bloomberg. 

    Allan Pacey, professor of Andrology at the University of Sheffield in Britain, said that men who are trying to have a child should continue to avoid cannabis. 

    “As the authors point out, men with higher sperm concentrations are likely to have more testosterone in their bodies and thus may be more likely to smoke marijuana because simply they are willing to take more risks,” he said. “In conclusion, I am not convinced that this paper moves us any further forward in this debate. Moreover, nor does it give support to any apparent fertility benefits of smoking marijuana. In my opinion, this should be avoided at all costs in any couples trying to start a family.” 

    Lead author Dr. Jorge Chavarro said that the findings highlight the need for more research into the effects of cannabis on male fertility. 

    “These unexpected findings highlight how little we know about the reproductive health effects of marijuana, and in fact of the health effects of marijuana in general,” he said. “Our results need to be interpreted with caution and they highlight the need to further study the health effects of marijuana use.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Lip Balm Addiction: Reality or Urban Myth?

    Lip Balm Addiction: Reality or Urban Myth?

    A group of experts gave their take on whether or not you can actually be addicted to lip balm.

    As Health.com recently noted, the belief that one can become dependent on lip care products like lip balm has become a topic of intense online discussion.

    Everyone from dermatologists to lip care product manufacturers have been forced to weigh in on the possibility.  

    And while both parties dismiss the possibility of a real “addiction” to lip balm, they also note that frequent use of such products can have both physical and psychological side effects that users should be aware of the next time they feel the need to keep their lips moisturized.

    Blistex, which manufactures an array of personal care products, including dozens of lip balms, outlined the argument against dependency on lip care products in a post on the Frequently Asked Questions page of its website.

    The post quoted Dr. Charles Zugerman, associate professor of clinical dermatology at Northwestern University Medical School, who stated that individuals do not become physically “addicted” to the products or their ingredients.

    Anyone who stops using lip balm or related products can stop using them and experience none of the symptoms associated with withdrawal from addictive substances or conditions.

    However, Zugerman did note that individuals who frequently apply lip balm may become accustomed to the “moist, comfortable” feeling associated with its use, and may experience discomfort when their lips dry out due to environmental exposure.

    That notion is corroborated by Joshua Zeichner, MD, who directs cosmetic and clinical research in dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, who told Real Simple  that applying ointments that form a barrier on the skin can “create an artificial barrier to lock in moisture, but when overused, can cause lips to become lazy, because the skin doesn’t have to work to maintain its own hydration level.”

    Additionally, some lip balms have ingredients that can potentially irritate your lips. These include camphor, menthol or salicylic acid. According to Zeichner, these ingredients can inflame lips and cause them to lose hydration. “This, in turn, causes your lips to need more moisture, so you keep applying the product, and it turns into a vicious cycle,” he explained. 

    A third concern comes from licking your lips. Dermatologist Rachel Nazarian, MD, told Health.com that saliva contains enzymes that help to digest food, and when you lick your lips, the enzymes can dry out your lips and make them feel chapped, which again, requires more lip balm. In this case, as Nazarian noted, the core issue is licking your lips, but the impact on your lip moisture may cause increased lip balm use.

    There are a handful of solutions to the issue of dryness: Zeichner suggested to Real Simple that using a product with lanolin will create a barrier on the skin but still allow for lips to naturally hydrate themselves.

    Dermatologist Debra Jaliman also told Health.com that drinking plenty of water during the day will help to keep lips hydrated, but the best approach, according to Zeichner, is to simply use lip balm “when you need it, rather than compulsively throughout the day. Constant reapplication can cause more harm than good.”

    View the original article at thefix.com