Leslie Glass's Blog, page 273
April 24, 2019
If You’re Depressed, Reach Out
Your call to action when depressed: Reach Out. It can save your life.
Tens of thousands of people perish in the US every year from suicide and despair related to substance and alcohol use. When substances don’t work anymore and people feel drug sick all the time, hopeless can take over. It’s crucial to remember that recovery is possible at any age and any stage of the disease.
Make a call for help and connect
It’s hard to ask for help when you’re down. I wasn’t taught to ask for help, were you? Feeling alone, being alone, and unable to engage with others when things are at their worst are human feelings. They’re not just hallmarks of addiction. We all feel alone and lonely sometimes.
Even when we have the tools to reach out, sometimes we just can’t. When I feel the worst is when I need help the most. And it’s the time I really have trouble picking up the phone.
Why is reaching out and making that call so important?
When you’re lost in your own head, you’re actually lost. You could just as well be in the Gobi desert. Or on Mount Everest. In quicksand up to your ears. Up the creek without a paddle. Doesn’t matter where you are. You’re lost. When you’re lost on the road, GPS can help.
When you’re lost in your head, only other people can help
Sometimes just the words, “I understand” can help you turn the corner. Sometimes you need perspective only someone else can give you. Sometimes you need a lot more help than that. If you’re really in trouble, a friend offering to take you to the movies is not enough, or a pull up your socks lecture from a family member could make things a lot worse.
Reach out to a professional
This is not the time to call someone who’s mad at you. An aunt who remembers what you did to your mother when you were ten, or the brother whose wedding you ruined with a tantrum, or the ex who harbors a grudge, or any of the people you think may have harmed you. And you may have a long list. These are not the people to call for sympathy, empathy or the path to feeling better.
Help can come from many sources
This is the time to rely on the kindness of genuine friends, people who accept you no matter what, or strangers in safe places. Help is most likely to come from people who won’t use your current misery as an opportunity to call you out or remind you of all the times you may have been a pain in the ass. 12 step fellowships and meeting provide those crucial connections for millions of people. For addiction recovery 12-step programs are often the first place to go.
Reach Out
If the content in ROR has helped you or a loved one, please consider making a donation to keep us going. We need your support to survive and thrive.
For Depression and risk of suicide. The numbers below are trusted sources of help.
Crisis Call Center
800- 273-8255 or text ANSWER to 839863
24 hours a day, seven days a week
http://crisiscallcenter.org/crisisservices-html/
National Suicide Hotline
800-SUICIDE (784-2433)
800-442-Hope (4673)
24 hours a day, seven days a week
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
800-273-TALK 8255
24 hours a day, seven days a week
http://suicidepreventionlifeline.org
Thursdays Child National Youth Advocacy Hotline
800-USA-Kids (872-5437)
24 hours a day, seven days a week
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How Much Do People Spend On Alcohol? An Analysis Shows How Much People In U.S. Cities Spend Over A Lifetime
From Bustle:
Whether you like an occasional tipple or a have favorite go-to cocktail, there’s no denying that drinking can get expensive. It may be one of the most common ways to socialize, but it can do a lot of damage to your wallet. In fact, if you’ve ever found yourself wondering, “How much should I spend on booze?” then you’re not alone. Recently, Alcohol.org, an alcohol use disorder resource, looked at how much people spend on alcohol over the course of a year — and over the course of a lifetime. The results might just make your bank balance wince.
Now, obviously it can be tricky to work out exactly how much a given person spends — it depends on what they drink, how much, and where they drink it, not to mention how much things cost in that particular city. So to find out, Alcohol.org looked at City-Data to work out how many drinks people have per week on average in different cities — then they used CDC data on life expectancy to work out the number of drinks consumed over a lifetime. To figure out the actual cost of all those drinks, they used Expatistan data to look at the costs of drinks in different cities, assuming that people had two drinks out per week and the rest were had at home. Of course, where you drink can make a big difference. So if you’re someone who drinks in expensive bars a few times a week, your spending could be much higher than the average — but if you tend to just enjoy drinks at home with dinner, it might be less.
1. Many Cities Have Six-Figure Spending Over A Lifetime
Yup, when you look at the amount people spend over a lifetime, some places get very expensive. Those living in New York, Minneapolis, and Miami all spend over $116,000 on drinks in an average lifetime. That’s twice as much as someone spends in Birmingham, Alabama — which comes in at around $58,000 — and so much more than what I make. It hurts a little to see it all add up.
2. New Yorkers Spend Over Two Grand A Year On Average
When you break down the spending year by year, you see many of the same cities appear in the highest and lowest spending charts, but not exactly the same breakdown. New Yorkers were still the biggest spenders and the only city to top over two grand a year on average — while Buffalo and Richmond jumped into the top three lowest spenders in the country.
3. Small Changes Can Save You Big
One of the most fascinating things about this data was seeing how much you can save by just cutting out a few drinks here and there. “Annually, people in these cities could save anywhere from $268 to $507 just by decreasing their alcohol use by 25%. Looking at a 50% or 75% reduction, the annual savings jump to $536+ and $804+, respectively,” the report explains. “Even small habit changes related to alcohol consumption can impact one’s wallet and health.” Over a year, it adds up — and over a lifetime, it definitely does.
4. The Nitty Gritty
If you want to see the breakdown per city, you can find out exactly how many drinks people average per week, what different drinks cost, and how it all adds up. The average tended to fall around five drinks per week in almost every city — but the cost of a drink can vary hugely between cities (and even between drinks).
Everyone’s drinking habits are unique and as long as you’re happy and healthy, that’s cool. But seeing it all laid out, it’s clear that if you’re looking to save a few pennies then cutting back may be one of the quickest ways there.
If the content in ROR has helped you or a loved one, please consider making a donation to keep us going. We need your support to survive and thrive.
The post How Much Do People Spend On Alcohol? An Analysis Shows How Much People In U.S. Cities Spend Over A Lifetime appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.
Cannabis Addiction Influenced By Genetic Makeup
From Medicalxpress:
Some people may be more genetically prone to cannabis addiction, finds a new UCL-led study.
The researchers say their investigation of three genetic markers, published in Addiction Biology, could inform why some people become dependent of cannabis.
“We were interested in asking whether these genetic markers could predict addiction-related responses after inhaling doses of cannabis, such as how much our attention is drawn to cannabis-related pictures,” said lead researcher Dr. Chandni Hindocha (UCL Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit).
The researchers were investigating three different markers of genetic variation which have previously been implicated in cannabis addiction, but have not all been considered in the same study before. The variants are involved in the body’s endocannabinoid system.
For the study, 48 cannabis users took cannabis using a vaporiser, and conducted tests related to addiction predisposition: a test for drug cue salience (which means how attention-grabbing cannabis-related images were versus neutral images, such as side-by-side images of a woman smoking cannabis and a woman holding a pen near her mouth); a satiety measure (testing whether they still want more cannabis after they’ve already had some) and a craving measure. They were also tested for the three genetic markers.
The researchers chose to focus on the specific cognitive mechanisms involved in addiction, rather than a general measure of cannabis dependency, to get a more detailed picture of how genetic markers affect the brain mechanisms that contribute to long-term drug dependency.
The researchers found differences to drug cue salience and state satiety for all three genetic variants. One genotype in particular, regarding the Cannabinoid receptor 1 gene, was associated with people continuing to want more cannabis after having used it, and continuing to be more drawn to cannabis-related imagery while under the influence.
The researchers say this suggests that people with that genetic marker could be more prone to cannabis addiction, especially as THC, the psychoactive component in cannabis, binds to this receptor.
The researchers say that it’s easy to test for these genetic variants, but that more research is needed to optimise such a test.
“There’s still more work to be done to clarify how these genetic variants impact drug effects, and to identify what other factors should be considered to gauge how vulnerable someone is to cannabis addiction.
With time, we hope that our results could pave the way towards more personalised approaches to medicinal cannabis prescription,” said the study’s senior author Professor Val Curran (UCL Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit).
Dr. Hindocha said: “We hope that our findings could lead to the development of a test that could inform clinicians who are considering prescribing a cannabis-derived medication, as we learn more about which genes affect how people react to cannabis,”
Co-author Dr. Tom Freeman (University of Bath) added: “Our findings have the potential to inform precision medicine targeting the rising clinical need for treatment of cannabis use disorders.”
If the content in ROR has helped you or a loved one, please consider making a donation to keep us going. We need your support to survive and thrive.
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What Are The Stages Of Alcoholism
Alcohol still the most abused of all intoxicants, yet many consume alcohol without any problems or ever developing and addiction. Here are some crucial facts about alcohol use in the US, how addiction develops, and how to recover.
Alcohol Is Still The King of Substance Use Disorder
6 Alcohol Facts
Alcohol is the most commonly used addictive substance in the United States.
17.6 million people, or one in every 12 adults, suffer from alcohol abuse in the US.
Alcoholism is a chronic, progressive brain disease that only gets worse without treatment.
Alcohol abuse causes:
Liver disease
Heart disease
Brain damage
Malnutrition
Cancer
Mental health disorders
An increased risk of suicide
There is no such thing as a “functioning alcoholic.” Every aspect of an alcoholic’s life is negatively impacted.
Alcohol abuse causes lasting harm to family members and loved ones.
7 Stages Of Alcohol Use Disorder (A.K.A. Alcoholism/addiction)
1. Abstinence
Alcohol addiction can start before the drinking if a person has attitudes and perceptions consistent with those of addicts.
2.Initial Use
Initial use can include the experimental use of alcohol, occasional use or occasional binge drinking (5-10 drinks in a sitting once or twice a year). Initial use of alcohol may not yet be a problem for the user or those close to him or her. Occasional binge drinking or abuse may cause difficulties while the user is under the influence or the following day. He or she has not reached the stage of addiction.
3. High Risk Use
High risk refers to increased drinking and frequency of drinking as well poor decision-making while under the influence. At this stage, the pattern and frequency of alcohol abuse is high enough to be dangerous for the drinker and those around him or her.
4. Problematic Use
Problematic use of alcohol occurs when the negative consequences of drinking become evident. Health issues, including impaired liver function or sexually transmitted diseases arise. Driving under the influence (DUI) or other drinking-related legal problems occur. Family and friends notice there is a problem.
5. Early Stage of Dependency
The early stage of alcohol addiction is characterized by noticeable lifestyle changes. The user begins to miss work. He or she picks fights with family members and friends while under the influence. He or she chooses to drink despite negative consequences. At this point, treatment or rehab is most effective.
6. Middle Stage of Dependency
During the middle stage of alcoholism, negative consequences escalate. The user loses his or her job due to too many absences. Alcohol-induced fights end relationships. The effects of the negative consequences of alcoholism become irreversible.
7. Crisis Stage of Dependency
At this crisis point, everyone is aware of the effects of alcoholism, including the alcoholic. Serious health problems ensue. The alcoholic is rarely without a drink, but believes he or she is fooling everyone. This stage frequently results in alcohol-related deaths for the users if they do not enter treatment.
5 Stages Recovery
1. Denial
This period may go on for a long time. A user may know there are negative effects from drinking, but minimizes or justifies the choice to drink, seeing more benefits than deficits.
2. Awareness
A user knows there is a problem. He or she may now be open to changing some day, but is uncertain that changing right now is worth the pain and effort. They may plan to start some time in the future.
3. Acceptance
This is a time of preparation when a person understands that he/she is responsible for the drinking and the negative consequences it brings. The user now believes he has the power to change, but knows he can’t do it alone. He/she (often with help from family and/or professional intervention) gathers information and resources to decide what treatment is best.
4. Action
The user makes a commitment to a treatment program, which may include detox, an in-patient stay at a treatment center, intensive out-patient treatment, a sober living community, therapy, a life coach or counselor, alcohol monitoring, 12 step programs, and other health and wellness programs to heal body and mind.
5. Maintenance
Maintenance is the period after treatment when a lifestyle change has been made, but needs continued reinforcement and practice. Now the user has a clear understanding that addiction/alcoholism is a chronic, relapsing disease that needs active maintenance like any chronic disease. To insure success in recovery much more than abstaining is required. The repair of relationships has begun at home and at work. A strong program with a supportive group, a sponsor or counselor, and healthy activities are in place. Added resources with innovative new technology like recovery apps keep people connected. New technology for digital breathalyzer alcohol monitoring has lifted the stigma from monitoring and been proven to effectively reinforce responsibility, rebuild trust and sustain new patterns and lifestyle.
Recovery is possible. Visit www.recoveryguidance.com to find treatment options near you. Recovery Guidance is a safe, commitment-free resource for patients.
Alcohol is still the king of addictions, killing more than 88,000 people each year. ROR’s Stages of Alcohol Use Disorder Poster is a clever yet neutral way to share facts about this cunning and baffling disease.
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April 23, 2019
Stressed, Anxious? Ask The Brain!
Our actions are driven by ‘internal states’ such as anxiety, stress or thirst — which will strongly affect and motivate our behaviors. Little is known about how such states are represented by complex brain-wide circuits, including sub-cortical structures such as the amygdala. Scientists have now used a deep brain imaging technique to monitor amygdala activity in active mice and revealed the neuronal dynamics encoding behavioral states.
When a mouse is hungry, it is going to forage for food; when it is anxious, it is going to stop exploring its environment and freeze or flee. How such internal states correlate with the behavior of an animal has been studied in detail. However, little is known about how the brain encodes and controls internal states.
Jan Gründemann, a SNF Ambizione Fellow in Lüthi’s group and now a professor at the University of Basel, joined forces with Yael Bitterman, a computational neuroscientist working as a postdoc in the Lüthi group, to investigate the neuronal activity in the amygdala of freely moving mice in various states. The amygdala is a small almond-shaped brain structure that is considered a hub for regulating affective, homeostatic (hunger and thirst) and social behaviors via widespread connections with many brain regions. The amygdala is suggested to play a role in the coordination of brain states, but that role is not well understood.
Using a miniaturized microscope imaging technique, Gründemann and Bitterman tracked neuronal activity in the amygdala of mice across different environments that prompted various internal states and behaviors. The results were rather unexpected: The researchers identified two large antagonistic sets of neurons — called ensembles — that were active in opposite behavioral states: When the mice were exploring their environment, neuronal ensemble 1 was active; when they were not exploring (meaning that they were in non-exploratory defensive states), neuronal ensemble 2 was active.
Surprisingly, the activity of the ensembles did not align with spatial areas generally associated with anxiety states such as the safe corners in an open field. Furthermore, the scientists did not expect that complex internal states and their behaviors would be coded with relatively simple, low-dimensional activity patterns in the amygdala. In summary, the study shows that the identified two neuronal ensembles encode opposing moment-to-moment state changes, especially regarding exploratory and defensive behaviors, but do not provide a measure of global anxiety levels of an animal.
“The power of this study is that we managed to interrogate the brain directly about the affective state the mouse is in,” says Lüthi. “If we want to understand a behavior, we need to understand the brain! Drawing conclusions simply based on standardized behavioral observations may be misleading — as we could show.” As a next step, the Lüthi group wants to find out more about how these active ensembles emerge in the amygdala, and how they can influence other regions in the brain.
Can these findings be relevant for human anxiety disorders? “The coding of internal states — such has anxiety — may work in a similar way in humans than in mice,” says Lüthi. “It’s conceivable that in a person with an anxiety disorder there is an imbalance between neuronal ensembles coding for distinct internal states. It will be interesting to test this hypothesis in animal models for psychiatric diseases.”
If the content in ROR has helped you or a loved one, please consider making a donation to keep us going. We need your support to survive and thrive.
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Lovesick: What Are The Adverse Effects Of Love?
Love can be an exhilarating feeling, but it can also lead to psychological distress. We look at some of the adverse effects of intense romantic feelings.
Many people see love as the pinnacle of human existence, and some equate it with happiness itself. But sometimes, being “lovesick” can feel exactly like that — an illness. In fact, romantic love can bring about many adverse psychological effects, and in this Spotlight feature, we take a look at what they are.
On Valentine’s day, people around the world dwell on the positive and beautiful aspects of romantic love. They celebrate the value that this unique feeling brings to human existence and the central role it plays in our search for happiness.
Furthermore, science shows that the neurophysiological benefits of being in love are numerous. A few years ago, we wrote a Spotlight feature on the positive health effects that being in a relationship brings.
From relieving pain, lowering blood pressure, easing stress, and generally improving one’s cardiovascular health, love and being in a relationship have associations with a wide range of health benefits.
But if love was nothing more than positive feelings, warming sensations, and feel-good chemicals, we probably would not apply words such as “smitten” or “lovesick” to describe the intense effects of this emotion.
On this Valentine’s day, we decided to focus our attention on some of the less exhilarating — and sometimes even debilitating — psychological effects of romantic love.
Love and the stress hormone
Being in love triggers a cocktail of chemicals in the brain. Some of the hormones — which also act as neurotransmitters — that the body releases when we’re infatuated can have a soothing effect.
For example, people have dubbed oxytocin as “the love hormone” because the body releases it during sex or physical touch. Neuroscientific evidence also shows that it lowers stress and anxiety.
But levels of oxytocin only start to increase considerably after the first year of love. The neurotransmitter helps to solidify long-term relationships, but what happens in the early stages of love?
A small but influential study that researchers carried out more than a decade ago compared people who had recently fallen in love with people who were in long-lasting relationships or single.
Standard evaluations of various hormones revealed that people who had fallen in love in the previous 6 months had much higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol. When researchers tested the participants again 12–24 months later, their cortisol levels were back to normal.
The higher levels of cortisol released by the brain in the first 6 months of love are “suggestive of the ‘stressful’ and arousing conditions associated with the initiation of a social contact,” the researchers concluded.
High cortisol levels can impair the immune system and lead to a higher risk of infections. It also raises the likelihood of developing hypertensionand type 2 diabetes. Excessive cortisol can impair brain function, memory, and some have suggested it may even reduce brain volume.
Limerence: When love is overpowering
In 1979, psychologist Dorothy Tennov, Ph.D., coined the term “limerence” to describe a somewhat debilitating aspect of being in love.
In her book, Love and Limerence: The Experience of Being in Love , she defines limerence as an involuntary, enormously intense, and overwhelmingly passionate state in which the “limerent” person can feel obsessed with and emotionally dependent on the object of their limerence.
“To be in the state of limerence is to feel what is usually termed ‘being in love,'” the author writes. However, her nuanced account of the feeling distinguishes between limerence, love, and sex. “[L]ove and sex can coexist without limerence, in fact […] any of the three may exist without the others,” she writes.
Tennov lists several components, or signs, of limerence. These include:
“intrusive thinking about the object of your passionate desire”
“acute longing for reciprocation”
dependence on the actions of the object of your limerence, or rather, on the possibility that they might reciprocate your feelings
an inability to have limerent feelings towards more than one person at a time
an intense fear of rejection
“sometimes incapacitating but always unsettling shyness” in the presence of your limerent object
“intensification through adversity,” meaning that the more difficult it is to consume the feeling, the more intense it becomes
“an aching of the ‘heart’ (a region in the center front of the chest) when uncertainty is strong”
“buoyancy (a feeling of walking on air) when reciprocation seems evident”
an intensity of the feeling and narrow focus on the limerent object that makes other concerns and activities pale by comparison
“a remarkable ability to emphasize what is truly admirable in [the limerent object] and to avoid dwelling on the negative”
So, is limerence healthful? In Tennov’s account, the many negative aspects of limerence have not received the attention they deserve.
Limerence has associations with many “tragic situations,” she says, including intended “‘accidents’ (much fantasy involves situations in which the limerent gets an injury and [the limerent object] is ‘sorry’), outright suicide (often with note left behind to [the limerent object]), divorce, homicide, and a host of ‘minor’ side effects” that she documents in her book.
Furthermore, in retrospect, people who have experienced limerence report feelings of self-hatred and tend to berate themselves for not having been able to shake off the uncontrollable feeling.
Tennov’s book is filled with many strategies that limerents have tried — more or less successfully — to rid themselves of the feeling, including journaling, focusing on the limerent object’s flaws, or seeing a therapist.
Love as an addiction
Recently, more and more scientists have been suggesting that the neurobiological mechanisms that underpin the feeling of love resemble addiction in various ways.
For example, it’s a known fact that love triggers the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that was nicknamed “the sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll” hormone because the body releases it when a person engages in pleasurable activities.
Overall, from a neurological point of view, love activates the same brain circuitry and reward mechanisms that are involved in addiction. Helen Fisher, Ph.D., a biological anthropologist and a research fellow at the Kinsey Institute, University of Indiana, led a now-famous experiment that illustrated this.
In the study, researchers asked 15 participants who reported feeling intensely in love to look at images of their lovers who had rejected them. As they did so, the scientists scanned the participants’ brains in a functional MRI machine.
The study found high brain activity in areas associated with cocaine addiction, “gains and losses,” craving, motivation, and emotion regulation. These brain regions included the ventral tegmental area, the ventral striatum, the medial and lateral orbitofrontal/prefrontal cortex, and the cingulate gyrus.
“Activation of areas involved in cocaine addiction may help explain the obsessive behaviors associated with rejection in love,” write Fisher and colleagues. Some of these behaviors include “mood swings, craving, obsession, compulsion, distortion of reality, emotional dependence, personality changes, risk-taking, and loss of self-control.”
Such traits have prompted some researchers to consider including love addiction in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), together with other behavioral addictions, such as “gambling disorder, sex-addiction, compulsive buying,” as well as addiction to exercise, work, or technology.
Other scientists, by contrast, have taken a more temperate attitude to the issue of the addictive nature of love.
In an article entitled Addicted to love: What is love addiction and when should it be treated? , Brian Earp and his colleagues from the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics, at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, write, “[E]veryone who loves is on a spectrum of addictive conditions.”
“[B]eing addicted to another person is not an illness but simply the result of a fundamental human capacity that can sometimes be exercised to excess.”
However, when a person does exercise it to excess, love should be “treated” in the same way as any other addiction. While an often exhilarating feeling, it is worth being wary of love’s adverse effects.
As Earp and colleagues conclude, “There is now abundant behavioral, neurochemical, and neuroimaging evidence to support the claim that love is (or at least that it can be) an addiction, in much the same way that chronic drug-seeking behavior can be termed an addiction.” They continue:
“[N]o matter how we interpret this evidence, we should conclude that people whose lives are negatively impacted by love ought to be offered support and treatment opportunities analogous to those that we extend to substance abusers.”
If the content in ROR has helped you or a loved one, please consider making a donation to keep us going. We need your support to survive and thrive.
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April 22, 2019
Is Ghee Healthy? Here’s What the Science Says
From Time Ghee is a type of clarified butter used in the cuisines of India and the Middle East. Traditionally, it’s made by gently heating cow’s-milk butter until its water content evaporates and its milk solids can be skimmed and strained away, leaving behind only the liquid fat.
“Clarified butter is very similar [to ghee], but it’s sometimes made using high heat, whereas ghee is simmered at 100 degrees or less,” says Chandradhar Dwivedi, a distinguished professor emeritus of pharmacology at South Dakota State University.
While ghee takes longer to make than some other types of clarified butter, it retains more vitamins and nutrients thanks to its low-heat preparation, he says. Specifically, ghee is a source of vitamin E, vitamin A, antioxidants and other organic compounds, many of which would be broken down or destroyed if boiled at higher temps, he explains.
Ghee is also a component of Ayurveda, a roughly 6,000-year-old form of complementary medicine that is still widely practiced in India and elsewhere. “Ghee is used as a vehicle for herbal medication,” Dwivedi explains. “The thought process was that ghee is sacred, and when given with medicine, you get both the medical benefit and a spiritual benefit.”
Setting aside the spiritual aspects, Dwivedi says modern science shows that eating fat-rich foods like ghee can increase the “bioavailability” and absorption of some healthy vitamins and minerals. By cooking or eating vegetables or other healthy foods along with ghee, your body may have access to more of their nutrients, he says. Ghee also tastes good, he adds, and so it can make some healthy but unappetizing foods more palatable.
But is ghee itself healthy?
Well, it’s a type of fat. And until recently, dietary fats had a universally bad reputation. Fat is a calorie-dense macronutrient, so eating all types of fatty foods was thought to promote weight gain and obesity. Ghee and other types of butter are also high in saturated fat, which was long associated with heart disease.
But the thinking on fat has shifted. Far from promoting obesity, many forms of dietary fat—foods like olive oil and avocado—are now considered hunger-satisfying additions to a healthy diet. While experts still disagree about saturated fat, some no longer consider it to be an obvious health risk.
“The more research I’ve done, the more total saturated fat seems relatively neutral—neither good or bad for your heart,” says Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and professor of nutrition at Tufts University. “Dairy fat, for example, doesn’t seem to be linked to heart disease or diabetes, and even seems to be protective against diabetes,” he adds.
This viewpoint is in line with some recent studies tying the consumption of some saturated-fat-rich foods to health benefits. Also, a 2016 review on butter found “relatively small or neutral” links between its consumption and heart disease or diabetes.
“There was concern that consuming saturated fatty acids was not good for you and that it could increase the risk of coronary artery disease,” Dwivedi says. “So people were very concerned and [were avoiding] saturated fat, including ghee.”
In an effort to understand the heart-health risks of ghee, Dwivedi conducted several studies on rats. (While animal research doesn’t necessarily translate to people, Dwivedi’s work is some of the only published research looking specifically at ghee.) Among healthy animals, he found that packing their diets with up to 10% ghee did not lead to elevated levels of harmful cholesterol or other markers of heart disease. On the other hand, when examining a species of inbred rat with a genetic predisposition for various disease, eating a ghee-heavy diet increased their blood’s levels of unhealthy cholesterol and triglycerides.
“In nutritional research, rats tend to be a good experimental model for humans,” he says. “Our findings suggest that consuming ghee up to 10% of the diet will not increase the risk of heart diseases, but for those predisposed because of family or genetic factors, 10% may be harmful.”
There’s not much hard evidence to suggest that ghee is healthier than other forms of butter. “Claims of special health-giving properties of ghee are unsubstantiated,” says Dr. Rosalind Coleman, a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Coleman says that ghee, which does not include milk solids, may be easier to digest for adults who are lactose intolerant. Ghee also has a higher smoke point than plain butter, which may make it healthier for cooking, she says. But the same is true of clarified butter. “The actual kinds of fats are the same in butter and ghee, so moderate use of both would be recommended,” she adds.
All this suggests that if you’re healthy and looking to add more fat to your diet, ghee may be a fine option. But there’s not strong evidence to suggest that ghee is a “superfood” that should replace other cooking fats in your diet.
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Mindful Body Awareness Training During Treatment For Drug Addiction Helps Prevent Relapse
From Science Daily:
A novel type of body awareness training helps women recover from drug addiction, according to new research from the University of Washington. People in the study made marked improvement, and many improvements lasted for a year.
It’s the first time the mindfulness approach has been studied in a large randomized trial as an adjunct treatment. The training helps people better understand the physical and emotional signals in their body and how they can respond to these to help them better regulate and engage in self-care.
“We could teach this intervention successfully in eight weeks to a very distressed population, and participants not only really learned these skills, they maintained increases in body awareness and regulation over the yearlong study period,” said Cynthia J. Price, a research associate professor in the UW School of Nursing and lead author of the study. “The majority of participants also reported consistent use of MABT skills, on a weekly basis, over the duration of the study.”
And likely due to using the skills learned in the intervention, the women showed less relapse to drug and alcohol use compared to those who didn’t receive the intervention, Price said. The findings were published in March in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
The training included one-on-one coaching in an outpatient setting, in addition to the substance use disorder treatment the women were already receiving. The intervention is called Mindful Awareness in Body-oriented Therapy (MABT) and combines manual, mindfulness and psycho-educational approaches to teach interoceptive awareness and related self-care skills. Interoceptive awareness is the ability to access and process sensory information from the body.
Researchers studied 187 women at three Seattle-area locations. The cohort, all women in treatment for substance use disorder (SUD), was split into three relatively equal groups. Every group continued with their regular SUD treatment. One group received SUD treatment only, another group was taught the mindfulness technique in addition to treatment, and the third group received a women’s education curriculum in addition to treatment in order to test whether the additional time and attention explained any positive study outcomes.
Women were tested at the beginning, and at three, six and 12 months on a number of factors including substance use, distress craving, emotion regulation (self-report and psychophysiology), mindfulness skills and interoceptive awareness. There were lasting improvements in these areas for those who received the MABT intervention, but not for the other two study groups.
“Those who received MABT relapsed less,” Price said. “By learning to attend to their bodies, they learned important skills for better self-care.”
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The History Of Intoxication In America
From Psychology Today:
Mood modification through drugs—intoxication—is a standard cultural reality in American history; it’s possibly even more so today. Rather than hopelessly pursuing a drug-free country or world, a more mature response might ask: How can we successfully manage this reality?
The World Health Organization announced last year that the ideal amount of alcohol a human being should consume is…none. Somehow, I doubt that alcohol producers are panicking or anti-alcohol epidemiologists rejoicing in the wake of this pronouncement, which follows many similar ones. In all likelihood, Americans will continue to drink and use other drugs—perhaps even more so.
Drinking in America
Americans have a long and conflicted history with alcohol. Colonial America, for instance, was soaked in it. Protestant sects observed sacramental wine in church; the tavern was the center of family and community gatherings; alcohol was served during sessions of state legislatures.
Consider that drinks were doled out at the signing of the Declaration of Independence and throughout the Constitutional Convention—our founding national documents were written by inebriated men!
A picture of drinking in Colonial America was presented in the 2015 National Archives exhibit, Spirited Republic: Alcohol in American History. In an interview titled, “The time when Americans drank all day long,” Bruce Bustard, senior curator of the exhibit, commented:
Early Americans took a healthful dram for breakfast, whiskey was a typical lunchtime tipple, ale accompanied supper and the day ended with a nightcap. Continuous imbibing clearly built up a tolerance as most Americans in 1790 consumed an average 5.8 gallons of pure alcohol a year.
The framers of the Constitution organized a farewell party for Washington before signing off on the document; we still have the tavern tab. The 55 attendees drank 54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of claret, eight of whiskey, 22 of porter, eight of hard cider, 12 of beer, and seven bowls of alcoholicpunch. That’s more than two bottles of fruit of the vine, plus a number of shots and a lot of punch and beer, for every delegate. It works out to perhaps 16-20 standard drinks each.
That was some party! How is such drinking humanly possible, let alone how our most prominent citizens actually behaved?
Bustard explains, as best as possible:
We think of that as an astounding amount—you would think people would be staggering around drunk, but most people were able to handle their alcohol because it was integrated into daily life.
This was also a period when most people were working in the fields which presumably didn’t require much focus. And living in a tight knit community meant people could keep an eye on each other and intervene if somebody was thought to be overdoing it. Even so, modern Americans look quite abstemious by comparison, consuming only two gallons of pure alcohol per year.
In 1830, on the eve of Temperance, consumption peaked at seven gallons per person per year, three and a half times as much as the average American drinks today. But the nineteenth century saw Americans curtail their drinking substantially, leading finally to national Prohibition in 1920–which was then repealed in 1933.
Then Came Opiates
In his classic book, Dark Paradise: A History of Opiate Addiction in America, David Courtwright details how 19th-century America was awash in opioids. Laudanum (tinctured opium) was sold in drug stores without prescription, hawked as a miracle cure on street corners, and given to teething babies. Morphine was widely introduced during the Civil War, and heroin was developed by the Bayer company by the end of the century.
Courtwright compellingly describes the prevalence of opioids in the 19th century, but the title of his book is misleading. Widespread addiction to opioids was not evident in America until (as he himself describes) heroin became a street drug, typically purveyed among disadvantaged populations, after the turn of the 20th century.
In other words, addiction is not inherent in the properties of the drugs themselves (as Carl Hart has shown in High Price), but is instead bound up in the difficult social and economic circumstances of people’s lives. Nonetheless, opiates, cocaine, and marijuana were banned in America by the Harrison Act of 1914.
Contemporary Trends in Psychoactive Substance Use
In contemporary America, alcohol is once again a normal part of the lives of Americans (although not in the quantities typical for Washington and other Colonial Americans): According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, nearly 90 percent of us have drunk in our adult lives, and 56 percent of us have done so within the past month (although rates in many European countries are higher).
Drinking rates are highest among well-off, educated Americans. Indeed, beverage alcohol is most often a high-end product, including prestige wines, local and imported small-batch spirits, and craft beers. When Elizabeth Warren appeared on Instagram Live in her run-up to seeking the Presidency, she began by telling her audience, “I am going to get me a beer.”
It seems safe to say that America is not poised to return to the kind of widespread prohibition and individual abstinence sought so ardently by some, and resisted with as much urgency by others, in the past.
Meanwhile, marijuana is commercially legal in 10 states, while cannabis is legal for medical use in well over half the states. Meanwhile, a majority of Americans nationwide now support the legalization of the drug. It would be hypocritical if they didn’t: The National Survey showed that most (52 percent) of us have used marijuana, and 44 percent of those who have tried it still use it.
So Americans are fairly well accustomed to the idea of normal intoxication and in many cases the experience of it, with alcohol and now marijuana, even as they worry about it.
At the same time, since 2000, the number of Americans on long-term antidepressant therapy has tripled. Then, there are highly utilized drugs for other mental disorders: benzodiazepines (anti-anxiety drugs), antipsychotics, and stimulants (used for ADHD and ADD)—all of which are used in large and growing quantities.
And we still need to account, of course, for the use of opioids, consumed by many tens of millions of Americans—most of whom follow prescriptions and use the drugs safely, albeit with a small, high-risk minority who do not, creating our current opioid crisis.
This limited but significant trend in destructive opioid-painkiller use, typically in dangerous combinations with other drugs, is the source of great, understandable alarm. But how exactly are we to fight this phantom considering that reducing prescriptions doesn’t reduce the death rate—or even halt its growth.
Does it seem as though an awful lot of people are currently using a wide variety of substances to modify their feelings and consciousness? This is our past, present and future reality—even as we exude anxiety about it. So it seems that what would be most useful are sensible and largely safe ways for a society to accommodate the human penchant for intoxication.
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Early Intervention Programs For Mood And Anxiety Disorders Improve Patient Outcomes
From Science Daily:
In a series of studies from Lawson Health Research Institute, Western University and ICES, researchers examined the impact of Canada’s only early intervention program for youth with mood and anxiety disorders. Results suggest that treatment at the First Episode Mood and Anxiety Program (FEMAP) at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) leads to improvements in patients’ symptoms and functioning, access to psychiatric care in the most appropriate settings and fewer visits to the emergency department (ED).
FEMAP is a novel outpatient mental health program that provides treatment to emerging adults, ages 16 to 25, with emotional concerns that fall into the categories of mood and anxiety symptoms. Treatment at FEMAP takes a patient-centred approach in a youth-friendly setting where patients receive care from a multidisciplinary team.
For past FEMAP patient and research participant, Kirstie Leedham, the value of programs like FEMAP is clear. “FEMAP helped me to understand that there wasn’t something wrong with me and that I wasn’t alone in the way that I felt. I learned to cope and deal with things in more constructive ways that made things so much easier. Before entering the program, I had trouble finishing school, no job prospects and couldn’t hold down a relationship. Now, three years out of the program, I have a great job, am married and own a house, which are things I never thought would be possible.”
Through a recent study published in Psychiatric Services, researchers found that treatment at FEMAP leads to improved patient outcomes. The study included 370 youth eligible for FEMAP services. Before beginning treatment at FEMAP, they were, on average, experiencing moderate depression, moderate anxiety and low satisfaction with their quality of health. They also reported poor functioning an average of 4.3 days per week.
Of 370 youth eligible for treatment at FEMAP, 322 attended a clinical assessment. Seventy-one disengaged from treatment either before or immediately following the clinical assessment. The research team found that those who disengaged early had less severe symptoms than those who stayed engaged.
Follow-up questionnaires were completed by 174 youth approximately six months into treatment. The research team discovered significant improvements in patient outcomes, including reduction in mood and anxiety symptoms, improved functioning and a higher quality of health satisfaction.
“These results demonstrate the effectiveness of early intervention programs offering personalized treatment that adjusts to patient’s needs and wishes. The data suggests our model is successful in helping patients manage their mood and anxiety disorders,” says Dr. Elizabeth Osuch, Clinician-Scientist at Lawson, Associate Professor at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, and Medical Director at FEMAP.
Another study by the team, published in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, suggests that FEMAP improves patients’ access to care. The team analyzed de-identified public health data from 2009 to 2014. They discovered patients treated at FEMAP were three times more likely to see a psychiatrist, had more rapid access to care and lower rates of ED visits when compared to patients treated elsewhere in the same geographic region.
“Our results suggest FEMAP provides access to mental health care in the most appropriate settings by preventing ED visits, demonstrating the health system potential of this novel treatment program,” notes Dr. Kelly Anderson, Associate Scientist at Lawson, Assistant Professor at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, and Adjunct Scientist at ICES.
The research team is also investigating FEMAP’s impact on costs to the health system. In a study published in Early Intervention in Psychiatry, they examined de-identified public health data from 2009 to 2015 to compare 366 FEMAP patients to a control group of 660 patients who received care elsewhere in the geographic region. They found that over the course of one year, FEMAP patients cost the health system significantly less money for inpatient hospital services, ambulatory services and drug benefit claims, and significantly more money for physician services. Overall the cost of FEMAP was less, but the difference was not statistically significant.
“While the total cost difference was not found to be significant, these results might represent FEMAP patients accessing care in settings most appropriate to their needs,” explains Dr. Ava John-Baptiste, Associate Scientist at Lawson, Assistant Professor at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, and Adjunct Scientist at ICES. “Increased use of physician services combined with access to a broader range of treatments, including psychology, counselling and social services, may make FEMAP a worthwhile investment.”
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