Tag: alcohol consumption

Which US City's Residents Spend The Most On Alcohol?

A recent survey found that residents of one popular US city spend more than $1,000 on alcohol annually.

People in San Francisco spend more money on alcohol than residents of any other U.S. city—dropping an average of $1,131 per year (or 1.5% of their annual pay) on beer, wine and liquor, according to SF Gate.

The finding emerged from data on Americans’ spending on alcohol compiled by Delphi Behavioral Health Group from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Expenditure Survey.

The analysis found that nationally, Americans spend $484 per year on alcoholic beverages. Spending on alcohol had increased 56.6% since 1996.

However, that doesn’t necessarily mean people are consuming more, according to Matthew Insco, who works at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“(Something) to keep in mind—these figures show how much households spend, not necessarily how much they consume,” he said. “For example, one area could drink less but spend more by buying more expensive types of alcohol.”

The analysis by Delphi found that wine prices have increased more than 150% since 1996, and beer prices have increased by 61%.

“These price spikes suggest that rising costs account for much of the increase in Americans’ alcohol spending: People may not be drinking more frequently, but they’re definitely paying more for the privilege of the pint,” the report noted.

The report authors also noted that the average spending could be deceptively low. Given that more than a quarter of Americans don’t drink at all, those who do imbibe are spending more than it seems at first glance.

“Assuming that this sober cohort spends no money on alcohol, those who do drink likely spend considerably more than $484 annually on average,” the report said.

Adults between the ages of 25 and 64 all spend an average of about $540 annually on alcohol, with older and younger adults spending less. People with master’s degrees or higher spend the largest percentage of their income on alcohol.

After San Francisco, Minneapolis and San Diego residents spend the most on alcohol at $852 and $850 respectively. Residents in Tampa, Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta spend the least, at $411, $373 and $291.

Surprisingly, New York and Chicago residents also have relatively low spending, at $446 and $492.

Americans spend more on alcohol than they do on smoking or tobacco. They also spend four times as much on alcohol as they do on reading.

“While none of these cities lack for establishments serving or selling liquor, residents spent less than $500 a year on drinking on average,” the report said.

View the original article at thefix.com

20 August 2018
Drinking While Breastfeeding Study Gets Pushback From Critics

One critic says the study “is so deeply misleading and irresponsible that it falls only a wood shaving short of Pinocchio’s nose.”

A study released this week suggests that drinking alcohol while breastfeeding can contribute to temporary cognitive delays in children, but critics say that the study is flawed and overreaching.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, looked at data from about 5,000 Australian children. It found that children who were breastfed and whose mothers drank while they were breastfeeding, had lower cognitive abilities at ages 6 and 7, although the difference disappeared by ages 10 and 11.

“Exposing infants to alcohol through breastmilk may cause dose-dependent reductions in their cognitive abilities,” researchers concluded. “Although the relationship is small, it may be clinically significant when mothers consume alcohol regularly or binge drink.”

The study did not examine when these mothers were drinking—whether it was during a time when more alcohol was likely to be transferred to their child via breast milk, or not.

However, some healthcare providers said that the small but significant finding should cause people to take a second look at the risk of drinking while breastfeeding, which have so far been found to be minimal.

“Previous recommendations that reveal limited alcohol consumption to be compatible with breastfeeding during critical periods of development, such as the first months of life, may need to be reconsidered in light of this combined evidence,” Dr. Lauren M. Jansson, director of pediatrics at the Center for Addiction and Pregnancy and an associate professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, wrote in a commentary published with the study.

Dr. Melissa Bartick, an assistant professor of medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School, told CNN that the safest option is for nursing mothers to forego all alcohol. However, there is not much concrete information on the safety—or lack thereof—of drinking and nursing.

“I think the study is helpful, but it doesn’t definitely answer the question. The question is, how much, if any, alcohol is safe during lactation?” Bartick said. “I would advise mothers to avoid alcohol and not to use alcohol, not to use beer to try to increase their milk supply. I think that’s safe to advise.”

Writing for Forbes, healthcare reporter Tara Haelle says the study “is so deeply misleading and irresponsible that it falls only a wood shaving short of Pinocchio’s nose.”

She also pointed out that the study had many flaws.

“Here’s what the new Pediatrics study actually found: Children who have ever been breastfed and whose mothers have ‘risky drinking habits’ in general are more likely to have slightly lower cognitive scores on one reasoning test at 6-7 years old,” she wrote. “But their scores aren’t any different on a vocabulary or an early literacy/math skills test, and there’s no difference in their scores at all when they’re 10-11 years old.”

View the original article at thefix.com

3 August 2018
After Losing 2 Sons To Overdose, Mom Shares Their Story To Help Others

Becky Savage is on a mission to help parents understand the dangers of prescription pills.

Losing a child is a parent’s worst nightmare. For Becky Savage, that nightmare became a reality twice within the same day, when her teenage sons Nick and Jack were both pronounced dead in her home after overdosing on prescription opioids.

On the evening of June 13, 2015, the boys attended a graduation party, and came home to check in with their mom just after midnight. On June 14, Savage noticed that Jack wasn’t breathing. She called 911 and frantically yelled for Nick, who was sleeping in the basement.

The paramedics arrived and tried to resuscitate Jack, before heading downstairs.

“I had no idea at that point what they were doing in our basement,” Savage said to CNN. “And then I remember one of them coming up and asking for a coroner. That’s the last thing that I remember that day.”

The night before, Jack and Nick had combined hydrocodone and alcohol, “a bad choice that unfortunately cost them their lives,” Savage said.

At first, Savage, her husband and her two younger sons were just focused on surviving their grief. “Everything just kind of seemed like a blur that day,” Savage said. “Your mind is not really meant to process something that extreme.”

However, more than a year later Savage was asked to speak about underage drinking. She thought she would be talking to about 20 people, but 200 showed up.

“It was just overwhelming,” she said. That’s when Savage realized that sharing her story and speaking openly about Jack and Nick’s deaths could potentially save other families from tragedy.

The Savage family started the 525 Foundation, named after the boys’ hockey numbers (Jack’s 5 and Nick’s 25). Now, Savage focuses on sharing her story with as many people as possible, and helping parents understand the dangers of prescription pills.

“We’ve talked to our kids about drinking, but we had never talked to them about prescription drugs, because it wasn’t even on our radar,” she said. “In different communities, there are still people who are unaware of the dangers. After I get done talking to them, the first thing they say is they’re going to go home and clean out their medicine cabinets.”

Since 2016, Savage estimates that she has spoken to more than 23,000 students. She has also testified in front of a Congressional committee, and the 525 Foundation has started organizing events to collect unused prescription pills. At just three events they’ve collected 1,500 pounds of pills.

“If you think about how much one pill weighs, that’s a lot of pills collected,” Savage said. “And when you think that one of those pills could take a life, that could potentially be a lot of lives saved.”

For Savage, this is a small silver lining to the unimaginable heartbreak of losing her sons.

“By me telling their story, they’re still able to make a difference in the lives of others,” she said. “There can’t be a better goal than that.”

View the original article at thefix.com

31 July 2018
The Go-Go’s Talk Addiction, New Broadway Musical

“We only had one tool in our box, and that was drugs and alcohol because there was just so much going on,” said guitarist Jane Wiedlin.

The Go-Go’s are back in action with a new Broadway musical and a fresh take on the band’s hectic heyday.

In a recent interview with People, the LA-based band, known for pop hits like “Vacation” and “Our Lips Are Sealed,” reflected on coping with the onslaught of fame following the release of their debut album Beauty and the Beat, which went double platinum in 1981.

“We only had one tool in our box, and that was drugs and alcohol because there was just so much going on,” said guitarist Jane Wiedlin. “It was so stressful. You were exhausted, so you’d have to pep yourself up and then you’d have to bring yourself down.”

Aside from personal differences among the band members, problematic drug use also influenced the break-up of the band in 1985. Looking back, it was a much-needed break from the fast-paced lifestyle.

“I felt really lost during that time. Now when I look back, I think, ‘Thank God all that happened, because I don’t think I would’ve ever grown up,’” said Wiedlin.

“I felt I had just become consumed with being a Go-Go, and it took me years to find my identity,” said bassist Kathy Valentine. “It was a real gift because when we did start coming back and playing together, I was able to do it with so much more balance.”

The Go-Go’s have reunited several times since their break-up to record new music and tour together. But this time, members like Belinda Carlisle and Charlotte Caffey are doing it sober.

“I got sober. I put myself before all of it,” Caffey told People. “I needed my sanity more than I needed anything else. I was fighting for myself every day, and I’m very happy I did.”

Last year, singer Belinda Carlisle addressed the extent of her cocaine use over the years. “After three decades of cocaine use, I can’t believe I’m not dead. I should actually look like the Phantom of the Opera with just two holes in the front of my face,” she said last August.

Now, the band is gearing up for a revival, with a new Broadway musical Head Over Heels that debuted on Thursday (July 26) in New York City. The musical features hits by the Go-Go’s including “We Got the Beat” and “Cool Jerk.”

View the original article at thefix.com

27 July 2018
Does Teen Drinking Affect Metabolism?

A recent study examined how underage drinking affected the metabolism of teens ages 13 to 17.

In addition to it being illegal, underage drinkers now have another reason to refrain from drinking alcohol, as a recent study has determined that teenage alcohol use can negatively impact metabolism.

The study was based on a previous study done by the same team of researchers at the University of Eastern Finland, which found that drinking may decrease gray matter volume in teenagers’ brains. Researchers believe the decrease in gray matter and negative impact on metabolism may be connected.

“Despite [the participants’] alcohol use being ‘normal,’ their metabonomic profile and brain gray matter volumes differed from those in the light-drinking participant group,” Noora Heikkinen, a researcher from the University of Eastern Finland’s Institute of Clinical Medicine, told Newsweek.

The recent study was published in the journal Alcohol and was a followup to a study in which data was collected on teens between the ages of 13 and 17 in eastern Finland.

The original data was collected between 2004 and 2005. At that time, the teens completed questionnaires about their hobbies, family life, lifestyle and substance use.

Additionally, they took a test created by the World Health Organization which is designed to identify alcohol use disorders. Some of the questions had to do with how much alcohol they drank on a typical day of drinking and how often they consumed more than six drinks at a time.

For the recent study, which was done between 2013 and 2015, researchers recruited 40 moderate-to-heavy drinkers and 40 light drinkers. The light drinkers had scored a maximum of two on the World Health Organization test, which meant they drank two to four times monthly.

Moderate-to-heavy drinkers were those who had a score of four or more for males, or three or more for females. This meant drinking two to three or four or more times weekly.

With those participants, researchers measured metabolism and the volume of gray matter in the brain.

In doing so, researchers found that the moderate-to-heavy drinkers had undergone changes in their amino acids and how their energy was processed, when compared to the lighter drinkers. In heavy drinkers, there was also an increase in 1-methylhistamine levels, a substance connected to the amount of gray matter in the brain.

Heikkinen tells Newsweek that based on the findings, researchers believe histamine production rises in the brains of adolescents who drink heavily.

“This observation can help in the development of methods that make it possible to detect adverse effects caused by alcohol at a very early stage,” she said. “Possibly, it could also contribute to the development of new treatments to mitigate these adverse effects.”

Heikkinen also added that some of the damage may be reversible if drinking is cut back.

“There is evidence that at least some of the changes are reversible if the heavy drinking is discontinued,” she told Newsweek. “Therefore all hope is not lost for those who have had their share of parties and binge drinking in the twenties. However, if the heavy drinking is continued for decades, there is a real chance that irreversible brain atrophy will result.”

View the original article at thefix.com

12 July 2018
Country Music's Complicated Relationship With Alcohol

From songs about drowning heartache with whiskey to ones about partying with rum, country music’s link to alcohol is almost as old as the genre itself.

Country music has been associated with drinking practically since its incarnation, but in the age of recovery some think the relationship between the popular music genre and alcohol has become more complicated.

The Washington Post recently chronicled the long-running relationship between alcohol and country music.

Country musicians have a long tradition of writing songs about drinking and drowning your sorrows in alcohol, to the point where Nashville has even been jokingly called “a drinking town with a music problem.”

It’s also been a big part of the music’s culture since the days of Hank Williams, a hard-partying country star who was a bad influence on a lot of his peers. After a long battle with alcoholism and pill addiction, Williams died from a heart attack at the age of 29.

Songwriter Bobby Bare, who recently wrote a song called “I Drink,” told the Post, “Everybody I know wanted to be like Hank Williams. And everyone I know bought into the drinking. You figure if Hank did it, it must be OK.”

Late country icon Waylon Jennings called it “Hank Williams syndrome,” according to the Post.

In a 1988 interview, rising country star Keith Whitley said, “I thought everybody had to drink to be in this business. Lefty Frizzell drank, Hank drank, George Jones was still drinking, and I had to. That’s just the way it was. You couldn’t put that soul in your singing if you weren’t about three sheets in the wind.”

Whitley died at 33 years old from alcohol poisoning in 1989.

But the modern country music scene has refocused its relationship with alcohol. Now, there are more songs about drinking and having a good time, á la Jimmy Buffett, and a lot of modern country musicians often have to keep up their party image, even when they’re sober.

It’s an image that’s being projected to a much younger audience. The Country Music Association reports that the 18-to-24 age group of country fans has increased by 54% in the last decade.

As the president of Sony/ATV Music Publishing in Nashville told the Post, “For the younger country consumer, alcohol in a celebratory manner is very relatable.”

Brad Paisley, who is sober, had a big hit with the song “Alcohol,” and he brings out a bar onstage when he performs the tune, even though the drinks on tap are usually non–alcoholic.

Dierks Bentley told the Post that at his gigs, “People are coming out to blow off steam and have a great time. I’m kind of like the lead bartender: Jumping up on the bar table, drinking shots with you and singing ballads with you like at an old Irish pub somewhere.”

In today’s country music climate, some artists have been afraid to be openly sober. Ray Scott is one country artist in recovery who was concerned that fans would turn against him because he stopped partying.

He told Variety, “Some fans can kind of build you up to be this thing that they think you are, and a couple of these songs sort of painted a picture of who I was. I’ve been pleased that people take it for what it is. It’s just fun music; I don’t have to live the part.”

Today’s country scene is also strongly connected with alcohol companies who make a lot of money when artists namecheck their brands. Kenny Chesney launched a successful rum company that sponsors his tours, and the company’s sales have nearly tripled in the last three years.

The country group Smithfield has even pointed out the paradox of singing a sad drinking ballad, “Hey Whiskey,” while they have an endorsement with Rebecca Creek Distillery.

As Smithfield singer Jennifer Fiedler confessed, “It’s kind of weird, because if you listen to the song, we always wonder, ‘Why do we have a whiskey endorsement?’ Because it’s like, the whole song is about how whiskey ruins [a] girl’s relationship—but hey, we’re handing out whiskey.”

View the original article at thefix.com

5 July 2018
Can Drinking Increase The Likelihood Of Cancer Or Death?

A new study examined how alcohol consumption affects one’s health.

Scientists have long-proven that drinking heavily is bad for your health and increases the risk of death, but does lighter drinking carry the same risk? A new study illuminates this mystery.

The study, published in PLOS Medicine, found that those who drink the most have the highest risks of death and cancer.

On the opposite spectrum, the study found that a person’s combined risk of dying younger or developing cancer is actually lowest among light drinkers. The study defines this as a person consuming one to three alcoholic drinks weekly. The risk for cancer or death increases with just one drink added to the week.

Light drinkers had a lower combined risk of death or cancer when compared with non-drinkers, but the study did not look at why.

The data from the study concluded that the average lifetime alcohol intake reported among the adults was 1.78 drinks per week. Men reported that they drink more—at 4.02 drinks per week—than women (0.80 drinks per week).

The study showed that for both women and men, risk of death was lowest among those who consumed less than 0.5 drinks per day.

“The reasons for the reduced risk in light drinkers compared to never drinkers are still open to debate amongst the scientific community,” said Dr. Andrew Kunzmann, a research fellow at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland and lead author of the study, according to CNN. “Some have suggested that alcohol may have cardio-protective effects that may reduce risk of cardiovascular disease.”

The data for the study came from the U.S. Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial, covering 99,654 adults between the ages of 55 and 74 in the United States.

The recommended alcoholic intake in the U.S. is two or fewer drinks a day for men, and one drink a day for women, per the American Cancer Society and the American Institute For Cancer Research. The study’s researchers suggest that this new data might call for a redefining of those recommendations.

On the overall view of the study, Dr. Noelle LoConte, an oncologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said to CNN, “I think it reinforces what we already knew, which is moderate and heavy drinking is bad universally for cancer.”

View the original article at thefix.com

29 June 2018
Controversial "Moderate Drinking" Study Shut Down By Officials

The news comes on the heels of Anheuser Busch’s decision to pull millions in funding from the study.

A highly controversial National Institutes of Health study is no longer in the works, NIH director Francis Collins announced Friday, June 15.

According to STAT News, Collins said the $100 million study would be shut down after a task force discovered “severe ethical and scientific lapses in the study’s planning and execution.”

The study, which would examine the possible health benefits of consuming one daily drink, had been in the headlines after a New York Times investigation revealed that the federal agency had courted the alcohol industry for funding, leading to concerns that the results could be skewed.

Recently, Anheuser Busch decided to pull its own funding out of the study.

STAT News reported that the task force found that the manner in which the NIH funded the research “casts doubt” as to whether “the scientific knowledge gained from the study would be actionable or believable.”

The task force also found that beginning in 2013, “there was early and frequent engagement” between NIH officials and those in the alcohol industry. These communications, the task force stated, seemed to be “an attempt to persuade industry to support the project. Several members of NIAAA (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) staff kept key facts hidden from other institute staff members.”

Michael Siegel, public health scientist of Boston University, says the decision to end the study was the right one.

“NIAAA undermined its own scientific integrity by soliciting and accepting alcohol industry funding to study the health ‘benefits’ of alcohol,” he told STAT News.

The study raised ethical concerns in part due to how it solicited its funding. The New York Times investigation revealed that in 2014, the scientists involved in the study went as far as to tell executives in the alcohol industry that the study “represents a unique opportunity to show that moderate alcohol consumption is safe and lowers risk of common diseases.”

The Times also reported that they told officials that the study would supply a “level of evidence [that] is necessary if alcohol is to be recommended as part of a healthy diet.”

Aside from ethical concerns, the study was also found to have other flaws. According to STAT News, the group looking into it found that it didn’t have enough patients and the follow-up time was not sufficient, meaning “the trial could show benefits while missing harms.”

Before the study was shut down, 105 participants had enrolled and $4 million had already been spent.

Dr. Kenneth Mukamal of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center was to lead the study. In a statement, the medical center said it is “deeply committed to ensuring the scientific and ethical integrity of any research study involving our investigators.”

The statement also noted that Dr. Mukamal “is an experienced researcher who has led dozens of important studies over his career. We take the working group’s findings very seriously and will review the report carefully.”

View the original article at thefix.com

20 June 2018
Anheuser Busch Pulls Out Of Federal Drinking Moderation Study

The alcohol company was set to contribute $15.4 million over a 10-year period for the study.

One major backer of a $100 million federal study related to alcohol consumption has pulled out due to surrounding controversy.

According to the New York Times, Anheuser-Busch InBev, a Belgian-Brazilian brewing company, was to be one of five alcohol companies financially backing the study, which plans to examine the health benefits of consuming one daily drink.

But on Friday, June 8, Anheuser-Busch InBev announced it would be withdrawing funding due to controversy around the study and the sponsorship. The company stated that the controversy would “undermine the study’s credibility,” according to the Times.

The announcement came via a letter to Dr. Maria C. Freire, who serves as the president and executive director of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.

According to the Times, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health is “a nongovernmental entity that is authorized to raise money from the private sector for NIH (National Institutes of Health) initiatives and manages the institutes’ public-private partnerships.”

In May, the NIH discontinued enrollment for the study due to reports that officials and scientists from the NIH met with alcohol companies to seek out funding and gave the impression that the study outcome would support moderate drinking habits.

Nearly 25% of the funding for the study had been contributed by Anheuser-Busch InBev, the Times reports. Of the $66 million in funding, the company was contributing $15.4 million in payments over a 10-year period, beginning three years ago.

Andrés Peñate, global vice president for regulatory and public policy for Anheuser-Busch InBev, stated in the letter that the company had initially decided to fund the study “because we believed it would yield valuable, science-based insights into the health effects of moderate drinking.”

He continued, “We had no role in the design or execution of this research; stringent firewalls were put in place with the Foundation for National Institutes of Health to safeguard the objectivity and independence of the science.”

The letter concluded, “Unfortunately, recent questions raised around the study could undermine its lasting credibility, which is why we have decided to end our funding.”

The study is expected to examine the potential effects of moderate drinking such as reducing risk of heart disease, diabetes and cognitive impairment. It is seeking out participation from 7,800 men and women with a high risk of heart disease.

During the study, half the group will be asked to not drink alcohol and the other half will be asked to have a single drink every day of the week. Participants would be followed for an average of six years.

View the original article at thefix.com

14 June 2018