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More Deaths Are Caused By Addiction In Alaska

The colder parts of the country have always been plagued by alcoholism and addiction. Long winters and very little work is the perfect recipe for heavy drinking. In many parts of America there is no authority present to control drunk driving, which means that in a place like Alaska a person can drink for many years without seeing many consequences, if any, from the law. More deaths are caused by addiction in Alaska than any other one thing. In fact, "nine of the 10 leading causes of death in Alaska - all but Alzheimer's disease - include alcohol, tobacco or other drug addiction as an underlying cause", the Juneau Empire reported March 15.

David Driscoll of the University of Alaska Anchorage and colleagues examined seven underlying causes of death in communities in the north polar region of the globe. They determined that many deaths in Alaska are preventable with the aid of community programs and education about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. Smoking is a leading cause of many health problems including cancer, heart disease and stroke. Alcohol use, aside from being highly addictive, can contribute to serious liver and pancreas problems, as well as, influence the onset of diabetes. There are many cases of people committing suicide while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. Cold, dark and depressing climates in conjunction with drugs and alcohol can be a recipe for disaster - many people simply lose the will to continue living.

Unfortunately, places like Alaska, Montana, and northern Maine have very limited education due to the lack of funding. It is very difficult getting teachers out to the middle of nowhere to teach a few kids. Many kids are home schooled and are influenced heavily by the actions of their parents. If a child is around a parent all the time who happens to have a drinking problem, the child will without a doubt adopt some of that parent's behavior. Without community outreach programs and better schools in rural areas it is unlikely this pattern of addiction related death will change.

Blood Test Could Identify Heavy Drinkers

Testing for drugs and alcohol has been a controversial subject for some time now. Employers have been drug testing employees to determine whether or not someone who works for them has a drug problem. What about people who strictly have an alcohol problem? Up until now there was no way to tell if someone had been up all night drinking whiskey. Not only does that affect places of employment determining whether or not someone has a problem, but, also drug treatment facilities that let their clients go about the town without supervision had no way to determine, short of a breathalyzer, whether or not clients had been drinking. Breathalyzers will tell you if someone is drunk, but it will not tell you if someone had been drunk recently. A blood test that could identify heavy drinkers could greatly help start the process of recovery much sooner.

Penn State University recently has been experimenting with alcohol and ways of identifying if someone is a heavy drinker. Researchers claim that by measuring a set of protein changes in the blood linked to alcohol use could help create a more precise test for identifying an alcohol problem."Unlike routine testing for illicit drugs, you can't just look for a trace of alcohol because many people enjoy a drink in a responsible manner and alcohol is very quickly metabolized. Discriminating between excessive and responsible levels of drinking makes this a greater challenge", said Willard M. Freeman, department of pharmacology and lead investigator, reported ANI.

17 proteins were identified by researchers at Penn State, which accurately predicted the amount of alcohol used 90 percent of the time, with non-human primates. The amount of alcohol consumed, directly affected the way protein levels would rise or fall in the subjects.

Researchers separated usage into three categories:

• no alcohol use
• drinking up to two drinks per day
• drinking at least six drinks per day

"We observed that the levels of some proteins increased or decreased with as little as one or two drinks a day. These same changes occurred with heavier levels of drinking. We also found other proteins that responded only to heavy levels of drinking. Combined, these proteins allow us to classify subjects into non-drinking, alcohol-using, and alcohol-abusing groups," Freeman said.

The research was published online in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Prescription Drug Abuse Is A Growing Concern

The American College of Emergency Physicians has issued a warning to parents regarding the dangers that accompany prescription drug abuse. Prescription drug abuse is a growing concern because they are now the second most abused drugs, right behind marijuana. Dr. Angela Gardner, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, said that, "Often when you hear that someone has overdosed on drugs you think of illegal substances, such as cocaine or heroin. But parents need to know that many young people are taking prescription drugs from the medicine cabinets. Many of the kids wrongly believe the drugs are not addictive, and they don't realize they can be lethal". Dr. Gardner is absolutely correct, many people who come into contact with prescription medicine are not aware of what the drug is capable of; this naivety plays a huge part in the number of overdoses each year.

In 2006, nearly three-quarters of a million people (741,425) needed emergency care as a result of prescription drug abuse. The drugs abused the most are pain killers, opiates like Oxycontin, Percocet, and Vicodin are the most commonly prescribed, but, they are many other pain killers that could be inside a parent's medicine cabinet. On top of pain killers, there are tranquilizers which are dangerous by themselves; mixing tranquilizers like Valium, Xanax, and Ativan with alcohol can be and often is a lethal combination. One could disagree with Dr. Gardner's statement that prescription drugs are only safe for the person they are prescribed for, only if they take the medicine as prescribed. Let's face it, you can take a medicine as prescribed and still wind up becoming dependent, it may take a little bit longer, but, sooner or later continued use will bring addiction. There are people who were prescribed morphine for 15 years, took the medicine as prescribed, and ended up having serious withdrawal symptoms when they stopped taking it. It doesn't matter how strong a narcotic is or whether you take the medicine as prescribed - narcotics are addictive.

Here are some warning signs that your child may be abusing prescription medications:

• Sudden changes in mood or personality
• Defensiveness
• Change in daily habits and appearance
• Usage increase
• Memory loss

Teens Do Not Fear The Problems That Come With Alcohol

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 27.6 percent of 12- to 20-year-olds in the U.S. consumed alcohol in the past month. The report showed that New England and the upper Midwest are areas of the country where underage drinking is extremely high. Underage drinking has had a hand in the deaths of many teenagers every year form drunk driving accidents. Naively, teens do not fear the problems that come with alcohol like they do the problems associated with drugs; this misconception is a large reason why teen continue to drink. The research is out there, we now know the serious health problems that accompany alcohol; yet, today's youth does not seem to heed the warnings for one reason or another.

Another major concern with underage drinking is the development of alcoholism at a young age. Countless people come into this world with a predisposition to drink alcohol that they inherited from someone in their family tree. The younger a person is when problems like these come to the surface, the harder it will be to quit when the time comes. There is no age limit to being an alcoholic; the disease of alcoholism does not discriminate. Alcoholism at a young age can be very difficult to discern, for some parents, the idea that their child could have an alcohol problem is unfathomable. Parents need to be vigilant and keep tabs on their children's activity so that if there is a problem it can be dealt with sooner rather than later. Ask Questions!

Federal Data:

• underage drinking rates were highest in North Dakota (40.6 percent) and Vermont (40.4 percent)
• underage drinking rates were lowest in Utah (13.7 percent)
• 8.6 percent of underage drinkers were able to purchase their own alcohol, 18.8 percent in Louisiana and the District of Columbia
• Underage drinkers in Alaska (3.1 percent) and New Mexico (3.7 percent) were the least likely to report buying their own booze.

The best thing a parent can do is talk to their kids about the dangers of alcohol, find news stories to provide examples that children can understand. There is no question, parents are the first line of defense against underage drinking; kids will look for guidance and they certainly model what they witness at home. Take a Stand!

UCLA Study: Babies Exposed to Methamphetamine and Alcohol

Every year countless babies are born with defects or disorders as a result of the mothers actions during pregnancy. The substances a mother consumes, just like the food she eats, eventually finds its way to the fetus greatly increasing the chances of the baby having health problems. Extensive research has been done in the way of studies and experiments that prove that the effects of drugs and alcohol are monumental.

HealthDay News reported that a study done by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that babies exposed to methamphetamine and alcohol before birth have smaller caudate nucleus regions in the brain than non-exposed children or children exposed to alcohol only in the womb. What are caudate nucleus regions?

The caudate nucleus helps with:

• learning
• memory
• motor control
• motivation

Researchers who worked on the study compared and contrasted brain scans of 13 children exposed to alcohol in the womb, 21 children exposed to both methamphetamine and alcohol, and 27 children whose mothers did not use anything. "We know that alcohol exposure is toxic to the developing fetus and can result in lifelong brain, cognitive and behavioral problems," said researcher Elizabeth Sowell of the University of California at Los Angeles. "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."

This information is not all that surprising, if alcohol is bad for a baby, then alcohol and meth would be terrible. Drugs and alcohol rob a child of their chances for success, babies need pollutant free environments to develop in; otherwise Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and, or, a sleuth of other health problems will result. There are many drug and alcohol treatment facilities that specialize in the recovery of pregnant addicts; any pregnant women that wants assistance getting clean, have the opportunity to give their baby a chance at life.

The findings were published March 17, 2010 in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Original Manuscript Of The Book Alcoholics Anonymous Sold

If someone asked you the question, "What are the most influential works of writing in history?", you might think of something different than me. There are countless books that have sparked revolutions on a global scale; religious, scientific, and philosophical books all have made an everlasting impression on society. In attempt to protect the existence of original manuscripts, collectors will keep these historical treasures locked away out of the public's eye. Private collectors with large bank rolls have the ability to purchase pieces of history.

Recently I came across an interesting blog post from a few years ago that raised some provocative questions, questions I thought to be a worthy topic for today's post. The post discussed a Sotheby's auction from 2007 where The “Master Copy” of the Original Manuscript of the book of Alcoholics Anonymous sold in New York City for the hammer price of $850,000. Sotheby's obtained the 1938 document from an A.A. member, Joseph B. He said his aunt, an A.A. member who knew Bill Wilson (A.A's co-founder), gave him the manuscript. Joseph B. claimed that he attempted to find interest for the manuscript within A.A., but "ran into a lot of brick walls, a lot of dead ends." My first thought or rather, question was, why isn't this going into a museum to be studied and visible to the public? Who would be the individual that would have the honor of owning what has been considered perhaps the most profound and influential work of writing from the twentieth century; and finally, what would the person who purchased the manuscript do with it?

The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous coupled with 70 years of fine tuning aided by many expansionary writings has been the keystone in the recovery of countless alcoholics. Hundreds of 12-Step programs were modeled after the principals of A.A., principals which can be adopted free of charge. In June of 2007, Ken R, a wealthy commodities teacher who retired in 2006, purchased what he calls “the ultimate commodity: There’s only one of Bill Wilson’s original working manuscript!" When he referred to the manuscript as a commodity I thought surely he would hide this away in his vault, but, I was wrong; Ken R created a website dedicated to the original manuscript, which he has dubbed "the holy grail". “This is one of the most significant manuscripts of all time! It’s divinely inspired, has helped millions of people, and I’m surely not one to hide this light under a bushel! No, this is not something to lock away in a vault somewhere . . . .”

The fact of the matter is, after two years there does not seem to be much that has been made available by Ken R regarding the manuscript. There are a couple sneak peak pictures of the writing with editing from A.A.'s original members on the sides, but, really not a whole lot. This is testament to why one of the most influential writings of all time belongs in a museum not in private hands. What are your thoughts?