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God’s promises are like the stars: the darker the night the brighter they shine. ~David Nicholas

Researchers working with rats have shown for the first time that the compulsion to overeat that leads to obesity has the same biological mechanism as seen in addiction to drugs like cocaine and heroin.

The study was conducted at The Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida. The study confirms that junk food can become “addictive.” It explains what happens in animals’ brains when high calorie, high fat food is accessible.

“It presents the most thorough and compelling evidence that drug addiction and obesity are based on the same underlying neurobiological mechanism,” said Professor Paul J. Kenny.

“In the study, the animals completely lost control over their eating behavior, the primary hallmark of addiction.”

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The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said. ~Peter F Drucker

More than a quarter of people aged 12 to 20 (27.6 percent) drank alcohol in the past month, according to a new survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The study shows that the underage drinking rates were as high as 40 percent in some states like North Dakota and Vermont.

SAMHSA and the Ad Council launched a new series of national public service announcements (PSAs) to encourage parents to talk to their children about drinking alcohol at a young age. The campaign and study are released in conjunction with Alcohol Awareness Month (April) and as part of the Surgeon General’s “Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking.”

Alcohol is the most widely used substance of abuse among youth. Alcohol contributes to the three leading causes of death among 12 to 20 year olds (unintentional injury, homicide and suicide). Research shows that those who start drinking before the age of 15 are six times more likely to have problems with alcohol as adults than those who start drinking at 21.

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Is the glass half empty, half full, or twice as large as it needs to be? ~Author Unknown

According to a British physician, alcohol abuse is the “new lung cancer.” Dr. John Lowes of Torbay Hospital said he is treating increasingly young patients in Devon who are dying from alcohol-related illness. In the past three years, 642 people under the age of 18 from Devon, Torbay and Plymouth have been admitted to the hospital for alcohol-related problems like liver disease or alcohol poisoning.

In Torbay, more than 40 people under the age of 18 have received treatment for alcohol addiction in the last six months.

“We shall see an increasing epidemic as we did 20 or 30 years ago with lung cancer and cardiovascular disease with the effects of smoking,” said Lowes. “We’re going to see the same with the effects of alcohol on our population with people being admitted for a whole range of alcohol-related harm.”

Costs to Britain’s National Health Service are increasing as a result of this epidemic. Lowes believes that society is paying “a huge price” with the physical and social harm created by the effects of alcohol abuse.”

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Passion makes the world go round. Love just makes it a safer place. ~Ice T,

Kelly Osbourne will use her experience with drugs and addiction to help others on The Dr. Phil Show. Osbourne joins the show as a special correspondent and will talk about prescription drug use in Hollywood and its effects on teenagers.

“I am excited to be a part of Dr. Phil as a contributor for the show – it offers a great opportunity for me to bring a youthful perspective and opinion on the issues that affect ourselves, our families and society as a whole, and I’m very honored to be a part of it. I really hope I can use my life experiences to do some good.”

“She has dealth with drug addiction as well as addictions within her family,” said Dr. Phil. “She’s also fought the battle with obesity, and the public scrutiny that often accompanies it.”

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Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week. ~Spanish Proverb

Documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy appeared last week at The Ritz-Carlton in Palm Beach at a luncheon fundraiser for the Comprehensive Alcoholism Rehabilitation Programs, Inc. (CARP). Kennedy is the co-founder and president of Moxie Firecracker Films. She showed clips from two of her films and talked about how drug and alcohol abuse takes its toll on families and society.

“Addiction affects every member of the family, particularly children,” Kennedy said. “Addiction and domestic violence are intricately connected.”

Kennedy presented clips from “Women of Substance” her first film produced after her graduation from Brown University. “I was a major in women’s studies, and the crack cocaine epidemic was at its peak. Most women could not get into drug treatment programs at the time. There was a lot of coverage of crack mothers giving birth to crack babies. Pregnant women were being incarcerated for delivering drugs to a minor through the umbilical cord.”

Kennedy hailed the benefits of recovery programs to help the poor who struggle with addiction.

“I feel that treatment options are more important than the criminal justice approach. Treating people through a program is much more effective, and the benefits are enormous.”
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A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit. ~John C. Maxwell

Social networking is not just a phenomenon anymore. It has changed the way people communicate. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego and Harvard University discovered that spending excess amounts of time on social networking sites leads to poor sleep patterns. This, in turn, influences drug use in teenagers.

The study was led by Sara C. Mednick, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the VA San Diego Healthcare System.

“This is our first investigation of the spread of illegal drug use in social networks,” said Mednick. “We believe it is also the first study in any age population on the spread of sleep behaviors through social networks.”

The researchers mapped the social networks of 8.349 kids in grades 7 through 12. They found clusters of poor sleep behavior and marijuana use that extended up to four degrees of separation (to one’s friends’ friends’ friends’ friends’) in the social network.

“Our behaviors are connected to each other and we need to start thinking about how one behavior affects our lives on many levels,” said Mednick. “Therefore, when parents, schools and law enforcement want to look for ways to influence one outcome, such as drug use, our research suggests that targeting another behavior, like sleep, may have a positive influence.”

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To swear off making mistakes is very easy. All you have to do is swear off having ideas.

Leo Burnett

Alcohol use disorders are influenced by multiple genetic, environmental and behavioral factors, which makes it difficult to find individual genetic markers to help identify people at risk of developing them. A new study examined how a person’s level of response to alcohol, which is closely connected to the development of alcohol use disorders, is related to “gene sets” rather than individual genes. The study shows that glutamate receptor signaling genes that allow brain cells to respond to chemicals, and then communicate that response, are involved in a person’s level of response to alcohol.

“Alcohol dependence is a very complex disorder<’ said Geoff Joslyn, senior scientist at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center and author of the study.

“We know that inherited genes account for about half of a person’s risk of becoming alcohol dependent but this genetic risk is spread across many genes. To simplify the genetic risk, we took advantage of clinical and epidemiological studies that have shown that a person’s innate response to alcohol, that is people who must drink more than the average person to become drunk, are at a greater risk of becoming alcohol dependent. We studied this alcohol response because we think it is a sub-component of alcohol dependence and is much less genetically complex.”
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Remember the tea kettle – it is always up to its neck in hot water, yet it still sings!

Children whose mothers abused methamphetamine during their pregnancy show abnormalities in their brain. These abnormalities may be more severe than prenatal exposure to alcohol. The results of a new study are published this week in The Journal of Neuroscience. The study identifies vulnerable brain structures that may help predict learning and behavioral problems in children exposed to methamphetamine.

“We know that alcohol exposure is toxic to the developing fetus and can result in lifelong brain, cognitive, and behavioral problems,” said Elizabeth Sowell, PhD, of the University of California, Los Angeles, who led the study. “In this study, we show that the effects of prenatal meth exposure, or the combination of meth and alcohol exposure, may actually be worse. Our findings stress the importance of drug abuse treatment for pregnant women,” Sowell said.

The caudate nucleus, the area of the brain that controls learning, memory, motor control and motivation, was one of the areas more affected by methamphetamine abuse than alcohol exposure. According to data from the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health, 19,000 pregnant women reported using methamphetamine. About of the women who say they used the drug during pregnancy also used alcohol, so isolating the effects of methamphetamine on the developing brain is difficult.

The research team evaluated the specific effects of prenatal methamphetamine exposure by comparing MRIs of the brain of 61 children – 21 with prenatal methamphetamine and alcohol exposure, 13 with heavy alcohol exposure only, and 27 children that were not exposed to any substance. The MRIs showed that the sizes and shapes of certain brain structures varied depending on the prenatal drug exposure.

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A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject. ~Winston Churchill

Two new studies published online in the British Medical Journal show that obesity and alcohol work together to increase the risk of liver disease in both men and women. Rates of liver disease and obesity are rising in the UK. Alcohol is a major cause of cirrhosis, but recent evidence suggests that excess body weight may also play a role.

In the first study, researchers from the University of Oxford examined the link between body mass index (BMI) and liver cirrhosis in 1.2 million middle-aged women as part of the Million Women Study. Compared to women of a healthy weight, women who were overweight or obese had an increased relative risk of liver cirrhosis. Although this relative risk did not differ significantly by alcohol consumption, the absolute risk did. Among women who reported drinking an average of about a third to half a drink a day, 0.8 in 1000 will be admitted to the hospital with or will die from liver cirrhosis over five years if they are of normal weight. This is compared with 1 in 1000 women who are obese.

In the second study, researchers from the Universities of Glasgow and Bristol investigated the joint effects of B;MI and alcohol consumption on liver disease in more than 9,000 Scottish men. Both factors were related to liver disease and, more importantly, the combination of high BMI and alcohol consumption was greater than the cumulative effect of the two separate factors.

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Life shouldn’t be printed on dollar bills. ~Clifford Odets

The District Attorney in Sonoma County, California is happy with a judge who handed down a 68 month sentence to a man after his 13th DUI conviction. Robert James Feenan, 50, of Santa Rosa, was arrested Nov. 20 after the car he was driving crashed into another car. There were no injuries, but police determined that Feenan’s blood alcohol level was 0.44 percent, more than five times the 0.08 percent that constitutes drunken driving.

Feenan already had 12 DUI convictions. His last arrest was in June 2008 when he had a blood alcohol level of 0.22 percent. He was sentenced to a year in jail plus probation. Feenan completed residential treatment for alcohol addiction more than five months before his November 2009 arrest.

Judge Elliot Daum of Sonoma County Superior Court sentenced Feenan to five years and eight months in state prison.

Assistant District Attorney Diana Gomez said that this was the maximum sentence and that prosecutors “applaud the court.”

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