Alcohol & drug abuse

[Avery]

Why people drink alcohol and drugs, and destroy their health?
Beer, wine, and all alcohol drinks are very harmful for our health, destroy our main organs such as heart, liver, and lung and cause serious diseases. We must try our best to avoid the all drugs and alcohol.

 

[waltky]

Koosh:

Mighta had a kidney stone...

... dem things hurt like hell.

 

[Katzndogz]

Most of the Russian kids put up for adoption were victims of fetal alcohol syndrome. Lucky for us Putin decided to stop shipping them to the US and keep them all to be future KGB members.

He'll need all those KGB members when they come here as peacekeepers.

 

[waltky]

Fighting opioid addiction...

US Officials Call for Greater Use of Medications to Treat Drug Abuse
April 24, 2014 ~ More than 15 million people around the world have substance abuse issues, according to the World Health Organization. In the United States, health officials say the abuse of prescription drugs is worsening and that deaths from prescribed painkillers have increased to more than 16,000 a year. They are calling for greater use of inexpensive and effective medications to treat what they are calling the epidemic of opioid addiction.

Officials with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington say these life-saving drug therapies are underutilized because of the widespread misperception within the medical community that drug abuse medications replace one addiction with another. In commentary published this week in The New England Journal of Medicine, National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Nora Volkow said the medications, when used properly, are safe and can improve lives as well as reduce the risk of overdose.

In addition to increasing the use of therapeutic drugs, the commentary said behaviorial counseling can help reduce drug dependence, while data-driven monitoring programs can track the progress of efforts aimed at stemming the over-prescription of opioid drugs.

Therapeutic drugs to treat prescription drug abuse include methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone. Methadone has for years been widely administered at heroin clinics in the U.S.; buprenorphine can be prescribed by qualifying doctors, and naltrexone is now available in once-a-month, long-acting injectable form.

Naltrexone in particular can block the deadly effects of opioids when administered at the first signs of an overdose. In addition to Volkow, the commentary was authored by anti-drug abuse leaders at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, among others.

US Officials Call for Greater Use of Medications to Treat Drug Abuse

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - today's kids are so smart...

Drug, Alcohol Use Falls Among US Teens
December 13, 2016 - American teenagers are using fewer forbidden drugs and less alcohol, according to a newly released survey.

The results of the survey “show a continued long-term decline in the use of many illicit substances, including marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco, and misuse of some prescription medications, among the nation’s teens,” according to a news release. The 2016 Monitoring the Future annual survey is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health, and surveys students in eighth, 10th and 12th graders. For eighth graders, the survey found they have the lowest use of illicit drugs in survey history. With the exception of marijuana, drug use was down for all ages in the survey. For eighth graders, the survey found that marijuana use “dropped significantly” in 2016 with 5.4 percent having used it in the past month compared to 6.5 percent in 2015. Daily use was down from 1.1 percent to 0.7 percent.

For 12th graders, 22.5 percent reported monthly marijuana use and six percent reported daily use. Those numbers were similar in 2015. Marijuana use among 10th graders also remained stable, the survey found. "Clearly our public health prevention efforts, as well as policy changes to reduce availability, are working to reduce teen drug use, especially among eighth graders," said Nora Volkow, director of NIDA. "However, when six percent of high school seniors are using marijuana daily, and new synthetics are continually flooding the illegal marketplace, we cannot be complacent. We also need to learn more about how teens interact with each other in this social media era, and how those behaviors affect substance use rates."

Marijuana plants for sale are displayed at the medical marijuana farmers market at the California Heritage Market in Los Angeles​

With marijuana increasingly legal in the U.S. for both medical and recreational use, the survey found that 38.3 percent of 12th graders in states with medical marijuana laws reported using marijuana in the past year. That was five percent higher than in states with no legal medical marijuana. Cigarette use saw a large drop in all three grades, furthering a long-term decline. In 1991, 10.7 percent of high schoolers said they smoked a half-pack of cigarettes a day or more. That number is 1.8 percent in the 2016 survey. Researchers point to anti-smoking campaigns as well as policy changes for the drop. Alcohol use among teens also dropped, the survey found. But 37.3 percent of 12th graders reported being drunk over the past year. That was down from 53.2 percent in 2001.

Despite the ongoing opioid crisis afflicting millions of Americans, teen use of prescription opioids is declining. For 12th graders, there was a 45 percent drop in the number of users from five years ago, with 2.9 percent of seniors saying they’d used Vicodin over the last year, down from 10 percent 10 years ago. "It is encouraging to see more young people making healthy choices not to use illicit substances," said National Drug Control Policy Director Michael Botticelli. "We must continue to do all we can to support young people through evidence-based prevention efforts as well as treatment for those who may develop substance use disorders. And now that Congress has acted on the president's request to provide $1 billion in new funding for prevention and treatment, we will have significant new resources to do this."

Drug, Alcohol Use Falls Among US Teens

 

[yiostheoy]

Here in VacationLand, prescription pain meds are the NUMBER ONE abused drug.

Once one gets addicted to Oxi, it's a real bitch to kick.

Shit folks, its basically articial heroin.

Young adults are hopelessly getting hooked on these modern designer drugs.

I think this is the unintended backlash from badmouthing alcohol.

If people learned how to drink responsibly they would not be getting into these drug alternatives.

 

[yiostheoy]

Granny says, "Dat's right - today's kids are so smart...

Drug, Alcohol Use Falls Among US Teens
December 13, 2016 - American teenagers are using fewer forbidden drugs and less alcohol, according to a newly released survey.

The results of the survey “show a continued long-term decline in the use of many illicit substances, including marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco, and misuse of some prescription medications, among the nation’s teens,” according to a news release. The 2016 Monitoring the Future annual survey is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health, and surveys students in eighth, 10th and 12th graders. For eighth graders, the survey found they have the lowest use of illicit drugs in survey history. With the exception of marijuana, drug use was down for all ages in the survey. For eighth graders, the survey found that marijuana use “dropped significantly” in 2016 with 5.4 percent having used it in the past month compared to 6.5 percent in 2015. Daily use was down from 1.1 percent to 0.7 percent.

For 12th graders, 22.5 percent reported monthly marijuana use and six percent reported daily use. Those numbers were similar in 2015. Marijuana use among 10th graders also remained stable, the survey found. "Clearly our public health prevention efforts, as well as policy changes to reduce availability, are working to reduce teen drug use, especially among eighth graders," said Nora Volkow, director of NIDA. "However, when six percent of high school seniors are using marijuana daily, and new synthetics are continually flooding the illegal marketplace, we cannot be complacent. We also need to learn more about how teens interact with each other in this social media era, and how those behaviors affect substance use rates."

Marijuana plants for sale are displayed at the medical marijuana farmers market at the California Heritage Market in Los Angeles​

With marijuana increasingly legal in the U.S. for both medical and recreational use, the survey found that 38.3 percent of 12th graders in states with medical marijuana laws reported using marijuana in the past year. That was five percent higher than in states with no legal medical marijuana. Cigarette use saw a large drop in all three grades, furthering a long-term decline. In 1991, 10.7 percent of high schoolers said they smoked a half-pack of cigarettes a day or more. That number is 1.8 percent in the 2016 survey. Researchers point to anti-smoking campaigns as well as policy changes for the drop. Alcohol use among teens also dropped, the survey found. But 37.3 percent of 12th graders reported being drunk over the past year. That was down from 53.2 percent in 2001.

Despite the ongoing opioid crisis afflicting millions of Americans, teen use of prescription opioids is declining. For 12th graders, there was a 45 percent drop in the number of users from five years ago, with 2.9 percent of seniors saying they’d used Vicodin over the last year, down from 10 percent 10 years ago. "It is encouraging to see more young people making healthy choices not to use illicit substances," said National Drug Control Policy Director Michael Botticelli. "We must continue to do all we can to support young people through evidence-based prevention efforts as well as treatment for those who may develop substance use disorders. And now that Congress has acted on the president's request to provide $1 billion in new funding for prevention and treatment, we will have significant new resources to do this."

Drug, Alcohol Use Falls Among US Teens

I do not see the problem getting any better in my state -- it is getting worse actually -- not better.

 

[yiostheoy]

I abused 3 tall cans of Mickeys last night.

My poison of choice is moonshine.

But I have rules:

1 - one drink per day for Mon thru Thur;

2 - 2 drink limit on Fri & Sat;

3 - no drinking at all on Sun -- a detox day of the week.

 

[yiostheoy]

Americans Still Drink Too Much...

Study says too many Americans still drink too much
February 24, 2013
On any given day in the United States, 18 percent of men and 11 percent of women drink more alcohol than federal guidelines recommend, according to a study that also found that 8 percent of men and 3 percent of women are full-fledged "heavy drinkers."

That means the great majority of Americans stay within the advised limit of two drinks a day for men and one for women, according to the study that appeared in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. "And in fact, most adults don't drink at all on any given day," said lead author Patricia Guenther, a nutritionist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. "But the fact remains that it is a significant public health problem that many people do drink to excess." Guenther said that members of the committee that drafted the current USDA guidelines on alcohol consumption wanted to know how many adults exceeded the limits. She and her colleagues collected data from a nationally representative survey on health and nutrition, which included about 5,400 adults over age 21. Among other things, each was asked how much alcohol they drank the previous day.

The researchers found that 64 percent of men and 79 percent of women said they drank no alcohol at all that day, and another 18 percent of men and 10 percent of women drank within the recommended amounts. Nine percent of men said they had three to four drinks the day before and 8 percent of women said they drank two to three alcoholic beverages, the researchers said. The heaviest drinkers of all were the 8 percent of men who had five or more drinks, and 3 percent of women who had four or more. "Overall the study confirms that rates of unhealthy alcohol use in the U.S. are significant," said Jennifer Mertens, a research medical scientist at Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, California, who was not part of the study.

Regularly drinking more than recommended levels is "linked to increased alcohol-related problems," Mertens wrote in an email to Reuters Health. "Binge drinking (more than four drinks on any one day for men and more than three on any one day for women and older adults) even one time can increase the risk of injury from falls, motor vehicle accidents and other accidents," she added. Among men, the 31-to-30-year-old age group had the most heavy drinkers, at 22 percent. Ammonal women, the heaviest drinkers - 12 percent - were between 51 and 70 years old.

Guenther said that's important to note because it highlights that heavy drinking is not just part of life among the college set. "People need to be aware that there are people of all ages who drink to excess," she told Reuters Health, adding that the new study is also important because it may help people recognize whether they themselves are drinking more than recommended. "There are people who don't realize that they are drinking more than what's beneficial to their health," she said.

Source

I have found that 2 drinks per day is way to much alcohol in your system.

1 per day with a detox day every Sunday makes more sense.

I allow 2 drinks on Fri's and Sat's only.

 

[yiostheoy]

Yeah, it pissed me off, I had to go to the ER a couple of months ago for severe abdominal pain. Normally, I refuse to take pain pills. For example, I had a tooth pulled about a week before that and never took a pain pill. Had Advil standing by, but never even bothered with that. I don't like the possible side effects of any of that crap.

Anyway, at the ER I'm in enough pain to take pain meds. In fact, I'm asking for something. I think they got the idea I was just trying to get pain pills. It irritated me, and I told them so. Showed the doctor my prescription for pain meds from the dentist that I hadn't even bothered to fill. They ended up giving me intravenous morphine at the ER and gave me a prescription for 10 pain pills. I still have four of them left. I took six because I needed to. When the pain was gone, I stopped taking them.

My point is, there is so much abuse that now people who really NEED pain pills are suspect. I told the doctor, don't blame me for all the junkies out there. I don't even drink anymore and quit smoking 11 years ago. No way I want to put a bunch of drugs into my system unless I absolutely have to.

It was some bad pain. They thought it was my gallbladder, but an ultrasound did not confirm that. So I'm undiagnosed. Went to a follow-up doctor who wanted to do a cat scan which I refused because of the radiation. If I have another attack, I'll get a cat scan, but otherwise no way, next thing I know I'll have cancer from the radiation.

You have to watch out for those doctors, sometimes they'll just make your situation worse. : (

Sounds like gall bladder. I had the same thing.

Took a couple of years for the condition to get bad enough so that the CT scan found the stone, which by then was the size of a pickle.

 

[yiostheoy]

Koosh:

Mighta had a kidney stone...

... dem things hurt like hell.

If it goes away after a few days and you can feel it moving down your back to your bladder then it is a kidney stone.

I have had a couple of those too.

They are caused from not drinking enough water.

 

[yiostheoy]

waltky great thread Monkey Face.

 

[Lewdog]

Other than a couple years, I've been prescribed opiates for my back since a car accident since 2005. I don't snort or use needles, and take them like I'm supposed to. Personally I think addiction is a genetic disorder.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Other than a couple years, I've been prescribed opiates for my back since a car accident since 2005. I don't snort or use needles, and take them like I'm supposed to. Personally I think addiction is a genetic disorder.

You are correct that there's a genetic component to addiction. However, because it is behavior-based, the person with the addictive personality does have the ability to control his/her problem.

Addictive personalities run strong in my family, and I've always known this. I choose the vices I will have very carefully (because I can't cut EVERYTHING out of my life, and I WILL get addicted to anything that IS in my life), and I maintain strict control over my contact with anything extra-addictive and harmful, like alcohol, drugs, junk food . . .

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right lil' ladies - don't let yerslf get fat so's ya won't end up a drunk...

Body image problems in teen girls tied to alcohol use
December 21, 2016 - High school girls who have issues with body image and weight are more likely to be drinkers than ) their peers, a recent U.S. study suggests.

Researchers focused on body image behavioral misperceptions (BIBM) – when girls try to gain or lose weight to change how they look even though there’s no medical need for them to alter their weight. In the study of more than 6,500 teen girls, 38 percent had these misperceptions and roughly two-thirds had tried alcohol at least once.

When teen girls had body image issues that drove them to try to change their weight, they were 29 percent more likely to have tried alcohol and 22 percent more likely to be heavy drinkers than young women without these body image problems, the study found. “We know that using alcohol as an adolescent is associated with an increased risk for experiencing multiple problems, including school problems, social problems, legal problems, hangovers, illness, risky sexual behavior, disrupted growth and development, physical and sexual assault, alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents, unintentional injury, memory problems, drug misuse, and death,” said lead study author Anna Schlissel of the University of Chicago. “We also know that heavy episodic drinking is associated with even higher risks of health and social problems, and that the younger people start drinking alcohol, the greater their risk for developing substance use disorders later in life,” Schlissel added by email.

Drinking can also make body image problems or eating disorders worse, Schlissel said. To explore the connection between alcohol and body image behavioral misperceptions, researchers examined survey responses collected in 2013 from female high school students, most of whom were 14 to 18 years old. Overall, 18 percent reported episodes of heavy drinking during the previous month, when they consumed at least five drinks in rapid succession, researchers report in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, online December 12. Older students were more likely to report alcohol use than teens still in ninth grade, and Hispanic girls were more likely to drink than white girls. Teens who reported smoking in the past month were also more likely to drink, as were girls who became sexually active before age 13.

Students in twelfth grade and teens with a history of depression or smoking were more likely than younger girls or non-smokers to report heavy drinking. Among the teens with body image issues, black girls were less likely to have heavy drinking problems than teens in other racial and ethnic groups. One limitation of the study is that the survey depends on teens to accurately recall their drinking habits and body image issues, the authors note. It’s also impossible to tell which started first: the drinking or the body image issues. The study also doesn’t prove that either problem is a cause or effect of the other.

MORE

 

[LyndaSexton]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[waltky]

Granny says is why so many alcoholics are overweight...

Alcohol flips brain into hungry mode
Tue, 10 Jan 2017 - Alcohol switches the brain into starvation mode, ramping up appetite and hunger, scientists discover.

In tests on mice, alcohol activated the brain signals that tell the body to eat more food. The UK researchers, who report their findings in the journal Nature Communications, believe the same is probably true in humans. It would explain why many people say they eat more when they have had a few drinks. Rather than loss of restraint, it is a neuronal response, the Francis Crick Institute team says.

Aperitif

The mice were given generous doses of alcohol for three days - a dose being equivalent to around 18 units or a bottle-and-a-half of wine for a person. The alcohol caused increased activity in neurons called AGRP. These are the neurons that are fired when the body experiences starvation. The mice ate more than normal too. When the researchers repeated the experiment but blocked the neurons with a drug, the mice did not eat as much which, the researchers say, suggests that AGRP neurons are responsible for the alcohol-induced eating.

Alcohol itself contains lots of calories. A large glass of wine, for example, can contain as many as a doughnut. The study authors, Denis Burdakov and colleagues, say understanding how alcohol changes the body and our behaviour could help with managing obesity. Around two-thirds of adults in the UK are overweight or obese.

Prof Sir Ian Gilmore, from Alcohol Health Alliance UK, said people should be made aware of the impact alcohol can have on how much they eat and what they eat, along with the associated health risks. "Alcohol is responsible for over 60 illnesses and conditions on its own, and drinkers place themselves at even greater risk when their drinking is combined with over-eating: especially because when people drink they are more likely to make less healthy food choices. "Alcohol and obesity cause 90% of liver deaths and alcohol is twice as toxic to the liver in very obese patients."

Alcohol flips brain into hungry mode - BBC News

 

[Muhammed]

Does Rush know that?

Does Rush know that?

I'm sure he does know that because he learned it the hard way.

It's a price one pays when they sit on their ass for a living. The lack of physical activity caused by having a desk job reduces muscle tone and the amount of nutrients going to your skeletal system. This often causes painful conditions such as chronic lower back pain, obesity, arthritis, osteoporosis etc, etc... Severe pain that requires strong medication to control.

And one of the adverse side effects of pain medications is a loss of hearing, which must be devastating to a talk radio host.