Answer Addiction

Tag: heavy drinking

  • Colleges Improve Efforts To Accommodate Students In Recovery

    Colleges Improve Efforts To Accommodate Students In Recovery

    Around 300 schools offer recovery support services in the US.

    As the demand rises for student recovery services, some colleges are making a real effort to provide a sober-friendly environment for students who choose to abstain from drugs and alcohol.

    “Students shouldn’t have to choose between their recovery and their education,” said Alexandre Laudet, a researcher at the National Development and Research Institutes, Inc.

    Roughly 20% of college students meet the criteria for alcohol use disorder, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Illicit drug use is rising as well, according to 2016 data.

    According to the Association of Recovery in Higher Education, some 300 schools offer recovery support services in the US.

    Some features of college recovery programs include addiction counseling, support groups, community check-ins, on-campus 12-step meetings, and service work opportunities, Yes Magazine reports.

    Substance-free social activities are a popular feature of these programs; ensuring that sober students don’t miss out on the fun.

    Some colleges offer sober bowling, canoeing, laser tag, hiking, movies. The University of Houston’s recovery program includes a mountain climbing trip, and the University of Oregon organizes sober watch parties for sports fans.

    These programs will often have applicants sign a code of conduct, promising to “abstain from all substances, adhere to safe behaviors, and hold other members of the community accountable,” according to Yes.

    The results of a survey published in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment showed the many positive outcomes of college recovery programs—including low relapse rates, higher-than-average GPAs, and a higher likelihood that students will stay in school and graduate.

    According to the survey, up to 95% of participating students were able to sustain their sobriety while attending school.

    “It was the life preserver I needed when I was drowning. I feel like I’m supported there,” said one engineering student at the University of Michigan. “There are people who would do anything to help me and know how to help me. It’s a safe space for us no matter what’s happening in our lives.”

    One college recovery program of note is the one at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Its recovery housing program was established in 1988, one of the first of its kind. It is among the more established college recovery programs in the country, alongside Texas Tech and Augsburg University.

    The state of New Jersey has gone farther to promote recovery support in higher education; in 2015 the state legislature passed a law requiring four-year public colleges and universities to provide recovery housing.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Mixing Energy Drinks With Alcohol May Put You At Risk

    Mixing Energy Drinks With Alcohol May Put You At Risk

    A new study investigated how the main ingredient in energy drinks affected behavior. 

    Red Bull, according to the company itself, does not have any dangerous effects when mixed with alcohol. However, a new study indicates that this may not be the case—at least not with zebrafish.

    According to Esquire, researchers from the University of Portsmouth and the Federal University of Santa Maria in Brazil took a common energy drink ingredient called taurine, mixed it with alcohol and tested it with zebrafish. 

    The zebrafish that were given the combination were then compared to zebrafish that had been exposed to water, taurine or alcohol separately. The fish, Esquire reports, were then observed to see how they interacted with one another and how they responded to potential threats. 

    Researchers found that the fish that had been exposed to alcohol and taurine combined were less likely to socialize with the other fish and were more likely to engage in risky behavior, like spending time in what researchers referred to as a “predator zone.”

    “Taken together, these data appear to suggest that mixing alcohol and taurine might be a factor in increasing some of the negative effects of alcohol,” said Dr. Matt Parker, study co-author and senior lecturer at the University of Portsmouth, according to Science Daily. “People should be aware that drinking energy drinks in combination with alcohol may impair their judgement, and should do so with caution.”

    Parker also stated that this particular study was the first of its kind to indicate that mixing alcohol and energy drinks can increase the risk of behaviors like fighting and violence.

    “Binge drinking and general alcohol misuse is a key problem in the UK and across the world, with the numbers of hospital admissions resulting from illness or injury following intoxication costing the NHS millions per year,” Parker told Science Daily. “Alcohol reduces our inhibitions, and in low doses can cause relaxation and euphoria. However, in higher doses this low inhibition can cause problems with fighting or risky behavior. Zebrafish have similar biological and behavioural responses to alcohol, and are a highly social species, making them ideal for studying the effects of alcohol on behavior.”

    While the results of this study seem to imply that the combination of alcohol and taurine can lead to risky behavior, it’s important to note that the study was done on fish, not humans. 

    Meanwhile, Red Bull maintains that there are no side effects of drinking the beverage with alcohol.

    “There is no indication that Red Bull Energy Drink has any specific effect (negative or positive) related to alcohol consumption,” the company’s website reads. Red Bull also states that this claim is backed up by a 2012 decision from the UK Committee on Toxicity. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • How Binge Drinking May Affect Young Adults

    How Binge Drinking May Affect Young Adults

    Young adults who are heavy drinkers may be heightening their risk for future cardiovascular issues, according to a new study.

    In addition to the obvious effects of excessive drinking, young adults who binge drink may also be at risk of heart disease and stroke as they age. 

    Authors of a new study published in Journal of the American Heart Association suggest that the one-in-five college students who binge drink have reason to be concerned for their health. 

    In the study, researchers examined the responses of 4,710 individuals between 18 and 45 years old who had taken part in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between the years 2011 and 2012, and 2013 and 2014. 

    Those individuals were then broken into three categories: those who did not drink, those who binge drank 12 or fewer times per year, and those who binge drank 12 or more times per year.

    Of the individuals involved, about 25% of men and about 11% of women binge drank “frequently.” For those who binge drank 12 or fewer times per year, 29% of men and 25% of women fell into the category.

    Researchers found that those who binge drank frequently seemed more likely to exhibit risk factors such as high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, which could lead to cardiovascular issues and strokes later in life.

    Researchers also looked at the effects of alcohol consumption on young men versus young women. They concluded that men who binge drank often had higher blood pressure and higher cholesterol than those who did not binge drink often. When compared to low frequency drinkers, women who binge drank had higher blood sugar levels.

    Mariann Piano, an author of the study and professor of nursing at Vanderbilt University’s School of Nursing, tells Newsweek that a main takeaway from this study is that risky behavior can be changed. 

    “Implementing lifestyle interventions to reduce blood pressure in early adulthood may be an important strategy to prevent cardiovascular disease later in life,” she said to Newsweek. “As part of this intervention pattern, young adults should be screened and counseled about alcohol misuse, including binge drinking, and advised on how binge drinking may affect their cardiovascular health.”

    This study is only one of a few recent studies focusing on how unhealthy lifestyles in youth can affect them later in life.

    In July, researchers in England published a study that found that being overweight as a teen could change the heart’s shape and affect the manner in which it functions.

    Like Mariann Piano, Ashleigh Doggett, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, also told Newsweek that habits can be changed at a young age to avoid such dangers later in life. 

    “It can be a common misconception that heart-related issues only affect an older demographic, which we know isn’t the case,” she said. “This study highlights the importance of endorsing a healthy lifestyle from a young age—the earlier we reinforce healthier habits, the greater impact it can have.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • How Alcoholism Can Affect Communication Even After Sobriety

    How Alcoholism Can Affect Communication Even After Sobriety

    The voices of people with alcoholism were perceived as “less expressive,” “rougher,” and “more flat” in a new study.

    It’s no secret that alcoholism and other substance use disorders can take a huge toll on communication. People who are addicted have the reputation of being unreliable, forgetful or unorganized in their communication.

    However, a new study suggests that alcoholism may physically change a person’s ability to communicate via speech, and that those changes last even after a person gets sober.

    A new study, published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, found that people who were alcoholics have trouble using pitch to communicate the emotion behind their statements.

    For the study, people in recovery were recorded saying a sentence, as were people in a control group who did not have a history of alcoholism. The recordings were then played for a group of volunteers. The listeners had more trouble distinguishing the intended emotion in the recordings by people with alcoholism.

    In addition, the voices of people with alcoholism were perceived as “less expressive,” “rougher,” and “more flat.”

    This can lead to trouble communicating, since the same words can have vastly different meanings depending on the tone and pitch that they are spoken with. 

    “These results suggest that emotional communication difficulties can persist long after alcoholics have quit drinking,” the study authors wrote.

    In speaking with Healthline, Silke Paulmann, a cognitive sciences professor at the University of Essex and leader of the study, said that there is a physical reason for at least some of the communication difficulties that many people with alcoholism and their loved ones experience. 

    “Our data clearly indicate that they can modulate pitch, but do so less effectively,” she said to Healthline. 

    The study did not examine why the changes occur, but Paulmann said that it is likely due to changes either in the vocal chords or in the brain caused by alcoholism. The right side of the brain controls pitch and can be damaged by drinking too much alcohol. 

    “Heavy drinking has been linked to brain atrophy in the right hemisphere,” she said to Healthline. “We don’t have scans of our participants, but if their brain has been affected by their drinking history, this may explain the differences as well.”

    Speech therapy could potentially help people with alcoholism who are in recovery overcome this communication issue. However, Paulmann said that just being aware of the issue, and talking about it with friends and family, can also make a big difference. 

    “On the receiver’s end, some of the communication problems in families might be less severe if the parties involved understand that it is not indifference that leads to ‘less expressive’ reactions,” she told Healthline.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Is Alcohol Consumption Among Women On The Rise?

    Is Alcohol Consumption Among Women On The Rise?

    A number of studies over the past few years have noted an eye-opening change in the drinking habits of women.

    It was an incident in which she put her daughter in danger that made Laura McKowen of North Shore, Massachusetts realize she needed to stop drinking.

    “I put her in danger at the wedding. I left her unattended for a long period of time. She was 4,” McKowen told WebMD. “I knew eventually, I would lose custody of my daughter if I kept drinking. It was inevitable. I knew I would lose pretty much everything.”

    And McKowen isn’t alone. Research from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) shows that alcohol use disorder in women in the U.S. doubled from 2002 to 2013. 

    Today, McKowen is a prominent voice in the recovery sphere and has nearly 30,000 followers on Instagram, where she often posts about life in recovery as a mother. She uses her story to reach out to women who may be part of the rising number battling alcohol. 

    According to WebMD, historically, males have been heavier and more frequent drinkers than women. However, new research from a number of organizations is pointing to a changing trend.

    For example, high-risk drinking (3 or more drinks in one day or 7 or more in one week for women) grew about 58% from 2001-2002 to 2012-2013.

    Another study, from 2018, found that from 2014 to 2016, alcohol-related ER visits increased more steeply for women than men. Female fatalities as a result of liver cirrhosis also increased from 2000 to 2013.  

    In addition to drinking more, studies have also found that women are starting to drink earlier, WebMD notes. 

    A 2017 study from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) discovered that gender gaps in drinking as early as high school and middle school were narrowing, whereas males used to far outweigh females when it came to starting drinking early. 

    “Now, by eighth grade, more females than males are drinking. Females are now, for the first time in history, more likely to drink in 10th grade than males; and by 12th grade, where there used to be a big gap 10 or 15 years ago, it’s now dead even,” Aaron White, PhD, senior scientific advisor to the director of the NIAAA. 

    One aspect of higher female drinking rates that is especially concerning is that females are more prone to certain drinking-related health issues, like liver inflammation, cardiovascular disease, neurotoxicity, and cancer, according to Deidra Roach, MD, medical project officer of the NIAAA Division of Treatment and Recovery Research. She adds that women are also more likely to experience blackouts.

    “This is a very serious issue for women,” she says. “We need to do more in terms of getting this message out to young women and medical providers who work with young people. Because once you end up on the slippery slope of harmful drinking, it becomes difficult to reverse.”

    According to WebMd, the reasons for the increase could have to do with a change in cultural norms, as well as an increase in depression and anxiety and possibly violence towards women.  

    As the issue continues to grow, McKowen plans to continue using her voice to let others know that sobriety is not the end. 

    “I thought sobriety was going to be a terrible death sentence, and it is by far the best thing that has ever happened in my life,” she told WebMD. “Now I have honest relationships. I am a far better mother, and I am doing work I actually love because I had the presence of mind to move to that. I am just living a more honest, joyful, and free life.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • The Go-Go’s Talk Addiction, New Broadway Musical

    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

  • Simon Pegg Details Alcoholism, Depression Battle: It Was Terrible, It Owned Me

    Simon Pegg Details Alcoholism, Depression Battle: It Was Terrible, It Owned Me

    “It’s like you have grown a second head and all it wants to do is destroy itself, and it puts that ahead of everything else—your marriage, children, your job.”

    Now feeling secure in his recovery, British actor Simon Pegg is discussing the years he spent hiding his drinking problem and depression from his family and friends.

    “One thing [addiction] does is make you clever at not giving anything away. People think junkies and alcoholics are slovenly, unmotivated people. They’re not—they are incredibly organized. They can nip out for a quick shot of whisky and you wouldn’t know they have gone. It’s as if… you are micro-managed by it,” he told the Guardian, while promoting his new film Mission: Impossible: Fallout.

    But one can only hide it for so long, he cautioned. “Eventually the signs are too obvious. You have taken the dog for one too many walks,” he said.

    Pegg’s secret battle with alcoholism and depression—“It was awful, terrible. It owned me.”—was even hidden from his best friend and collaborator Nick Frost. The two have starred in many films together, including Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead.

    The actor, now 48, says he’s felt depressed since he was 18. He drank to self-medicate. “It’s like you have grown a second head and all it wants to do is destroy itself, and it puts that ahead of everything else—your marriage, children, your job,” he said.

    The worst of it—the “crisis years”—began during filming of Mission: Impossible III (2006).

    Even the birth of his daughter Matilda was not the turning point he’d hoped it would be. “It was the most cosmic experience of my life. I thought it would fix things and it just didn’t. Because it can’t,” he said. “Nothing can, other than a dedicated approach, whether that’s therapy or medication, or whatever.”

    That dedicated approach came a year later, when his drinking came to a head during a 2011 Comic-Con convention in San Diego. “I sort of went missing for about four days. I got back to the UK and just checked myself in somewhere,” he said in a June interview.

    At rehab, Pegg seized the opportunity to get well. “I got into it. I got into the reasons I was feeling that way. I went into AA for a while, too. I don’t think I would be here now if I hadn’t had help,” he told the Guardian.

    Now that he’s come out on the other side, he’s more comfortable discussing the times that he struggled.

    “I’m not ashamed of what happened. And I think if anyone finds any relationship to it, then it might motivate them to get well,” he said. “But I am not proud of it either—I don’t think it’s cool, like I was Mr. Rock ’n’ Roll, blackout and all that shit. It wasn’t, it was just terrible.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Does Teen Drinking Affect Metabolism?

    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

  • Can Drinking Increase The Likelihood Of Cancer Or Death?

    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

  • Drag Race Star: Sobriety Taught Me A Different Way To Look At My Life

    Drag Race Star: Sobriety Taught Me A Different Way To Look At My Life

    “I have a long journey to continue of loving myself, but I can start by doing a few things today to get to where I want to be in life.”

    In a recent interview, Blair St. Clair, a former contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race, addressed his DUI arrest, life as a sober drag performer, and unpacking the trauma of his sexual assault.

    The 22-year-old Indianapolis native, born Andrew Bryson, was eliminated from Drag Race back in April, but the impact he made by speaking up about his sexual assault still resonates.

    He revealed on the show that his first sexual experience was being raped at a college party. Bryson shared with Mic in a recent interview that he had “not talked to another human being in my entire life about that… It’s something that I didn’t want to believe.”

    It didn’t dawn on him until later that he was in denial for a long time over how he had been hurt.

    “I didn’t understand myself because I had so many emotions that I hadn’t yet felt,” he said. “Those things inevitably were still working without me knowing that they were working in my brain.”

    After his DUI arrest in March 2017, the budding star watched as his mugshot went viral and became tabloid fodder. It was a difficult time, he said, but necessary for him to make a change. “Thank you TMZ. Because TMZ is the reason and the wake-up call I needed to see a mugshot of mine spread like wildfire across the media.”

    This prompted him to become sober. “It really comes down to acceptance… Are you being honest with yourself that you have a problem? Or are you telling yourself you have a problem because that’s what you want people to hear? … Do you also desire to seek change?”

    When interviewer Evan Ross Katz asked what sobriety has taught him, Bryson responded, “What has sobriety not taught me? Sobriety has taught me a different way to look at my life. I’m not perfect, I make mistakes, and I’m still growing… It allows me to take a pause and step back and reflect and look at my life and look at my choices. And recognize that I am in control of my life today.

    “I finally decided to look at my life as a means for loving myself. Because I didn’t recognize and I didn’t know and I didn’t understand for such a long time that I was not in a place of loving myself… I have a long journey to continue going of loving myself, but I can start by doing a few things today to get to where I want to be in life.”

    Despite heavy drinking being a large part of gay culture, which Bryson also discussed, being able to distinguish drinking and partying from performing as Blair St. Clair helped keep him focused on his sobriety.

    “We celebrate by drinking when we’re happy, we’re mad, we’re sad, any emotion we feel. I had to remember… these changes were made for me, they were made to protect me, but they were also made to protect my career at the end of the day.”

    View the original article at thefix.com