If Drinking Starts at Puberty, It’s More Likely to Lead to Alcohol Problems
Getty Images Taking your first drink in your early teens may put you at greater risk of developing alcohol problems later on, according to new research. The study adds to work suggesting that early start to substance use may be particularly dangerous — not only because those who are at high risk of becoming dependent [...]
How Exercise Can Moderate Brain Damage Caused By Drinking
Image Source / Getty Images Aging and drinking result in similar changes in the brain, and if aerobic exercise can alleviate the age-based damage, could it do the same for alcohol-related harm? That’s the question researchers led by Hollis Karoly, a graduate student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, asked in a new study published [...]
Task Force Recommends Screening All Adults for Alcohol Misuse
Jimmy Anderson / Getty Images Questions about alcohol use should be a part of regular physical checkups, according to a panel of experts. About 21% of American adults admit that they engage in risky drinking behaviors, from overindulging, which can lead to physical and mental harm, to alcohol dependence. And it remains the third leading [...]
Brain Scans Can Predict Which Alcoholics Are Most Likely to Relapse
Getty Images/Flickr RF / Getty Images/Flickr RF For any addiction, external cues and stress can trigger cravings that are hard to resist, and the latest research points to an area of the brain that might be responsible for sabotaging recovery. The study, which was published in JAMA Psychiatry, found that those with elevated activity in [...]
Vitamin E May Boost Return to Healthy Hearts in Former Smokers
Design Pics/Chris Knorr / Getty Images/Design Pics RF Smoking can harm the heart, and while quitting is the most powerful way to avoid heart disease, taking vitamin E after putting out the cigarettes may speed the process along. Studies show that it can take a decade or more after smokers stop lighting up for their [...]
‘Safe’ mental health patient out using amphetamines
Staff at the Princess Alexandra Hospital’s mental health unit three weeks ago told the father of a severely-depressed woman his daughter was at the centre and safe when instead she was high on amphetamines and with a drug dealer in a house in suburban Brisbane. Queensland Health’s Metro South chief executive Richard Ashby said privacy [...]
A New Way to Curb Drinking? Planting False (Bad) Memories of a Bender
Colin Gray / Getty Images Researchers are exploring the possibility that convincing drinkers they had a bad experience with liquor — even if they didn’t — could lead them to drink less. As surprising as it sounds, dozens of studies now show that it is relatively easy to create false childhood memories. By using suggestive [...]
Safe risks ‘prevent adolescent drug use’
Professor Dan Lubman, director of the Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre, said the younger people were when they started using drugs, the more likely they were to have mental health issues later in life. One alternative to prevent this growing problem was to give teenagers something else to do. “Risk-taking is part of adolescence, [...]
Just Say No to Talking About Your Own Drug Use with Your Kids
Getty Images/Brand X / Getty Images/Brand – Father talking to son Parents who talk to their kids about their own, past drug may not be helping their kids to avoid drugs. “Talk to your kids about drugs,” has been a refrain sung to parents by anti-drug activists and in public service message for decades. But [...]
Around 1 in 10 young mentally ill teens drinks, smokes, and uses cannabis, Australian research finds
Around one in 10 young teens with mental health issues also drinks alcohol, smokes cigarettes, and uses cannabis on a weekly basis, indicates Australian research published in the online only fully journal BMJ Open. The prevalence of this pattern of substance use increased with age, the study found, prompting the authors to raise concerns that [...]
