Health and Wellness News

Drug addiction and dependence differ
between sexes due to varying reasons

New York 1/15/2010 08:07 PM GMT (TransWorldNews)

The National Institute on Drug Abuse issued a report that indicates women are affected much differently than men are when it comes to drugs and dependence on a drug. The report suggests that for certain illicit drugs, a woman may proceed more rapidly to drug dependence than a man.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse research continues in an effort to pinpoint what biological mechanism contributes to this finding. Early research seems to indicate a connection with a woman’s menstrual cycle. In certain phases of her menstrual cycle, a woman requires a higher dosage of the particular drug to experience the same level of intensity than a man.

“It has been suspected that women were affected by drug dependence differently than men and this study helps to identify evidence of this conventional observation”, a professional with Mountainside Drug Rehab and Alcohol Treatment Center stated. “It’s important to take these types of findings into consideration when offering a plan for drug addiction treatment. A cookie cutter approach is not the solution. For an effective treatment an individual’s needs must be diagnosed, including the various bio psych social variables. We couple this individualization with progressive addiction rehabilitation therapies, achieving dramatically higher rates of success for remaining sober after leaving our program.”

More…

Canada

Adverse effects from the H1N1 vaccine must be getting to the Canadians…. LB

December 3, 2009

By Nicole Dunne

Alternative medicine consists of products or treatments used for health benefits, but is not always evidence-based. It is often based on cultural and traditional health practices or more recent disproved theories that have remained popular within certain fringe groups. Common types include homeopathy, acupuncture, herbalism and bio-identical hormone therapy.

Generally speaking, complimentary medicine is less regulated, or self-regulated, and should be required to meet the same standards as conventional medicine. Despite little evidence for alternative medicine, public support is growing.

According to a study released by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2002, use of complementary and alternative medicine increased substantially during the 1990s. The study estimated that the U.S. public spent between $36 billion and $47 billion on alternative therapies in 1997. To put that in perspective, that’s more than the U.S. public paid out-of-pocket  for all hospitalizations and about half that paid for physician services that year.

Why is the use of alternative medicine growing? Few studies have looked into the social parameters of alternative therapy; however, growing wait times for Canadian medical treatments and financial barriers to care in the U.S. may be a possibility. Also, people are increasingly trusting doctors and pharmaceutical companies less ­- possibly a paradoxical result of the advent of evidence-based medicine. Most people aren’t concerned with the fatality of minor bacterial infections, the devastation of epidemics like measles or polio or the agony of surgery without anesthesia thanks to advances in conventional medicine. Instead, people are now faced with occasional complications from treatments and drugs.

MORE…

Friday, October 23, 2009 by: Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

There’s a new vaccine for nicotine addiction, and another one for drug addiction. There’s an AIDS vaccines (which doesn’t work) and a vaccine for cervical cancer that’s been approved for use on boys (boys don’t have a cervix). Through the pharmaceutical industry, the big push for vaccines is on!

But why, exactly? Is there suddenly a new rash of epidemic disease requiring vaccine treatments? No, not really. What’s new is the way Big Pharma is latching on to these diseases as new opportunities to sell more drugs.

There’s a huge shift underway from drugs designed for sick people to a whole new class of drugs manufactured for healthy people. The new paradigm is that people need drugs before they get sick, as a sort of “protection” against sickness. Drugs, in essence, are being positioned as nutrients — things the human body needs in order to be healthy. And from the moment you’re born, you’re considered deficient in these drugs. That’s why babies are injected with vaccines within minutes after being born. There’s a strong belief in the medical industry that babies are born deficient in vaccines and that such deficiencies must be “corrected” as soon as possible.

This simple but powerful shift in the marketing strategy of Big Pharma has expanded the potential customer based from a subset of the population (people who are sick) to the entire world population. Now, everybody needs a vaccine for something say the drug companies. All that’s necessary for the financial success of these scheme is to convince sick people that they need more drugs (or vaccines), and that’s easily accomplished through disease mongering campaigns (like the current fear push over H1N1 swine flu).

Bypassing the need for scientific evidence

There’s another important shift taking place alongside the big vaccine push: A shift away from “evidence-based medicine” to a new medical paradigm of “dogmatic belief.”

Medicines that treat sick people, you see, have to be proven to work. There have to be clinical trials, and some percentage of those sick people (only 5% or so, typically) have to show some sort of improved response after taking the medicine. This is the so-called “gold standard” of modern medicine. But with vaccines, no proof of efficacy is required. No placebo-controlled studies need to be conducted at all. Vaccines can be openly marketed and prescribed without any evidence that they actually work.

This is the new “free pass” for Big Pharma — a class of medicine that requires no proof! They merely need to be injected into a few hundred people who are observed for as little as two weeks to see if anybody died or collapses into a coma. That’s all the testing that’s required (and sometimes even less). No long-term safety tests are required or pursued, and, importantly, there is no requirement that the vaccine proves it actually works to reduce flu infections (or HPV infections, etc.).

In essence, by pushing for a vaccine approach to virtually everything, including nicotine addictions, the pharmaceutical industry has transformed itself from a small industry that only served sick people with scientifically-proven medicines to a huge global industry that sells vaccines to everyone and needs no proof that they even work. By any assessment, it’s a brilliant strategy for increasing pharmaceutical profits.

Published by Elizabeth at 5:57 am under Complications of mono
May 5, 2009

A woman’s hormone cycle can become irregular or problematic for several reasons including stress, weight loss, inadequate diet, excess exercise, drugs or an illness like Epstein Barr.

The cthat causes glandular fever or mononucleosis, can affect the adrenal or stress glands of the body. Once the adrenals become depleted, the whole hormonal balance of the body becomes disturbed.

Typically the hormone imbalance results in not enough progesterone being produced in the second half of the menstrual cycle. Estrogen remains the dominant hormone. This imbalance can lead to irregular periods, infertility, breast tenderness, headaches and in some cases heavy, painful or more frequent periods.

So what can be done to restore hormonal balance in Epstein Barr patients and re-establish a regular, pain free cycle?

Firstly the herb Vitex agnus-castus (chaste tree) is a good hormonal balancer. It helps the pituitary gland in the brain to send the correct message to other glands in the body to synchronize the menstrual cycle.

Secondly vitamins C, E and the B complex plus magnesium, zinc and fish oils can help nourish the glands and re-balance the hormones.

Liver cleansing is also a good idea as it helps the body to break down excess estrogen. The liver is often affected by EBV, so a low fat diet free of alcohol, coffee and preservatives will help.

There is no quick, easy fix in re-balancing the hormones when the body is affected by EBV. It may take several months of following the above advice before consistent results are seen.

For further information on Epstein Barr treatment and hormones please refer to the e-book “Nature’s Amazing Mononucleosis Cures” by qualified naturopath Elizabeth Noble.

 The drop in popularity of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for the treatment of menopause symptoms has led to an equally large drop in breast cancer rates, according to a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“It confirms that stopping hormones really does reduce cancer,” said researcher Marcia Stefanick of Stanford University.

Researchers conducted a follow-up analysis on 15,000 women who had previously participated in the landmark 2002 Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study, which concluded that use of Wyeth’s drug PremPro, which combines estrogen and progestin, increases women’s risk of breast cancer by 27 percent. All participants in that study were advised to cease using the drug, and the popularity of HRT dropped dramatically across the world. In the United States, prescriptions fell by two-thirds — from 60 million in 2001 to 20 million in 2005.

“It was a big seller — a very big seller. Then there was an enormous change,” said Cindy Pearson, executive director of the National Women’s Health Network in Washington D.C. “It was one of the biggest changes in prescribing habits for a drug commonly used by millions of healthy people.”

The researchers compared breast cancer rates among the 15,000 WHI participants and 41,449 other HRT patients who had not taken part in the study. Approximately half of the latter had chosen to discontinue the therapy after the WHI study, while the others continued using it.

They study found that the cancer risk among women who continued using HRT was even higher than previously thought, doubling every year among women who used it for five years of more. In contrast, the risk of breast cancer dropped dramatically among women who stopped using the therapy. Likewise, breast cancer rates have significantly declined since 2002, roughly on par with the drop in HRT use.

“I would encourage women to try and make it through menopause without starting hormone treatment,” Stefanick said. “If you do start, go for the lowest dosage and the shortest duration.”

Sources for this story include: www.mercurynews.com.

Dr. Mark Hyman

A hidden epidemic races around the globe — we can’t see it or touch it,
which makes it so dangerous.

The invisible epidemic has led to the suffering of millions who spend
billions on drugs, only to find they don’t work.

This is an epidemic of broken brains.

“Broken brains” go by many names — depression, anxiety, memory loss, brain fog, attention deficit disorder, autism, and dementia, to name a few — and show up in radically different ways from person to person, making each seem like a separate problem.

But the truth is that these “diagnoses” are all the result of a few basic
problems with our biology. Pinpoint these biological problems, fix them, and let your body’s natural healing intelligence take over to repair your brain.

Now you can experience an UltraMind — one that is highly focused and able
to pay attention at will, with a strong, reliable memory and a mood that is
calm, confident, in control, and in good spirits.

We have all heard of the mind-body connection or how our thoughts affect thehealth of our body. But the reverse is far more powerful: what you do to
your body, your basic biology, has a profound effect on your brain.

Have you ever experienced instant clarity after exercise? Alertness after
drinking coffee? A mental crash after popping candy? Does your brain
inexplicably slow down during stress, while multitasking, or when meeting a
deadline? Each is an example of how what we do to our bodies — whether
through nutrition, sleep, exercise, or stress — has a dramatic effect on
our brains.

Conventional treatments don’t help, or provide only slight benefit, because
they just manage symptoms rather than deal with — and heal — the
underlying problem. And just as brain problems all stem from the same root
causes, they all have the same solution — The UltraMind Solution.

Our ancient genes interact with our environment to create systemic
imbalances that affect our brains. Correct those imbalances — most caused
by nutritional deficiencies, allergens, infections, toxins, and stress –
and you can achieve optimum mental health without drugs or psychotherapy.

The UltraMind Solution is the future of medicine, the culmination of the
last twenty years of research on what makes the brain happy, focused, and
calm; research that has uncovered a few simple factors that explain why
things go wrong and how to fix them.

Don’t wait for this revolution in medicine to trickle into your doctor’s
office: it usually takes research twenty years to move from the lab to the
patient. The answers are here, right now, in The UltraMind Solution.

By Brian Orelli, Ph.D.
February 5, 2009

Let me see if I understand this – excess hormones – estrogen – causes obesity, early puberty, acceleration of cell growth/mutation – so to slow down this process use more drugs?  Insert them into a young girls arm – Norplant the six cylinder hormone implant was taken off the market in the last few years because of the dangers of the unchecked drip of hormones, and the incisions in the arms. Women are guinea pigs at all ages.

L. 

By JANET ST. JAMES / WFAA-TV

September 18, 2008

DALLAS — Over the last few decades, the childhood of American girls has shortened significantly. Some studies indicate girls are maturing physically two years earlier….

Some blame hormones in milk and meat for earlier maturity. Others cite chemicals in plastics.

Obesity can also be a cause…..

New Treatment for Early Puberty on the Market

Supprelin LA is a one-inch plastic tube that is embedded into a patient’s arm. It looks like a birth control implant, except it supresses hormones continuously.  MORE…

Associated Press – 2/05/03
by DEVLIN BARRETT

WASHINGTON (AP) – Young girls and women are more easily addicted to drugs and alcohol, have different reasons than boys for abusing substances and may need single-sex treatment programs to beat back their addictions, according to a study released Wednesday, February 5, 2003.

“They get hooked faster, they get hooked using lesser amounts of alcohol and drugs and cocaine, and they suffer the consequences faster and more severely,” said Joseph A. Califano Jr., chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, which conducted the survey of girls and young women over three years.

“With some exceptions the substance abuse prevention programs have really been designed with a unisex, one-size-fits-both-sexes mentality,” Califano said. “We now know that girls are different than boys – let’s recognize it and let’s help them.”

The study, based on a nationwide survey of females age 8 to 22, found the gender gap is narrowing between boys and girls who smoke, drink and use drugs.

Approximately 45 percent of high school girls drink alcohol, compared with 49 percent of boys, and girls outpace boys in the use of prescription drugs, the study found.

While boys often experiment with cigarettes, alcohol and drugs in a search for thrills or heightened social status, girls are motivated by a desire to reduce stress or alleviate depression, the study found.

Girls are also more likely to abuse substances if they reached puberty early, had eating disorders or were ever physically or sexually abused, researchers said.

Their likelihood of using cigarettes, alcohol or drugs also increases when they move to a new community, or advance from middle school to high school or from high school to college.

Califano said more treatment centers need to give female recovering addicts “a chance to be with just women,” adding that substance abusers who were victims of physical abuse may not respond well to a group with men.

Some traditional confrontational methods of beating addiction may also be the wrong approach for women, researchers found.

Califano said facilities like the Betty Ford Center, which now has separate treatment programs for men and women, may be the model for future success.

“We have not put together prevention programs that go to the things that influence girls and influence young women,” Califano said. “Women have paid a fearful price for this failure.”

The study recommends that parents, educators and doctors do more preventive work with girls who fall into the various risk categories.

It also faults alcohol and tobacco companies for promoting their products by linking them to glamorous models, and calls for a ban on alcohol advertising on television and cigarette and alcohol advertising in magazines with large numbers of young readers.

On the Net:

National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse:

02/05/03 11:06
 

Center for Alcohol and Substance Abuse (CASA)

February 5, 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CASA’s new report calls for nationwide overhaul in prevention and treatment program

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Girls and young women use cigarettes, alcohol and other drugs for reasons different from boys, their signals and situations of higher risk differ and they are more vulnerable to substance abuse and addiction and its consequences, according to a report released today by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA*) at Columbia University, The Formative Years: Pathways to Substance Abuse among Girls and Young Women Ages 8-22.

This 231 page report, the culmination of more than three years of research and analysis underwritten by the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, is an unprecedented analysis of the characteristics of girls and young women who abuse substances, when they are at highest risk of doing so and the impact of such abuse.

Despite promising statistics on recent declines in youth substance use, more than one quarter (27.7 percent) of high school girls currently smoke cigarettes, 45 percent drink alcohol, more than a quarter (26.4 percent) binge drink and 20 percent use marijuana. Younger girls are smoking and drinking like boys. High school girls are almost as likely as boys to use cocaine and inhalants. More girls are using substances at earlier ages, nearly as early as boys. Unfortunately, girls suffer consequences beyond those of boys.

“The findings from this study cry out for a fundamental overhaul of public health prevention programs,” says Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA president and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. “Unisex prevention programs – largely developed without regard to gender, often with males in mind – fail to influence millions of girls and young women. The women of America have paid a fearful price in premature death and destroyed lives for our failure to craft programs aimed at their unique needs.”

Califano noted that launching prevention programs designed for girls and young women will reduce the number of women abusing and addicted to substances: “A reduction of only 25 percent would mean saving 8 million women from smoking addiction, one million from alcoholism and alcohol abuse and half a million from drug abuse and addiction.”

Among risks and consequences of smoking, drinking and drug use that the CASA report identifies as unique to girls and young women are these:

• Girls experiencing early puberty are at higher risk of using substances sooner, more often and in greater quantities than later maturing peers; puberty is a time of higher risk for girls than boys.
• Girls are more likely than boys to be depressed, have eating disorders or be sexually or physically abused–all of which increase the risk for substance abuse.
• Substance use can sink into abuse and addiction more quickly for girls and young women than for boys and young men, even when using the same amount or less of a particular substance.
• Girls using alcohol and drugs are likelier to attempt suicide.
• Girls and young women are likelier than boys and young men to experience more adverse health consequences, such as greater smoking-related lung damage. Women are more susceptible to alcohol-induced brain damage, cardiac problems and liver disease, which occur more quickly and with lower levels of alcohol consumption than with males.
• Girls are likelier than boys to abuse prescription painkillers, stimulants and tranquillizers.
• Girls who move frequently from one home or neighborhood to another are at greater risk of using substances than boys who move frequently. 
• Transitions from elementary to middle school, from middle to high school, and from high school to college are times of increasing risk for girls. Girls making the transition from high school to college show the largest increases in smoking, drinking and marijuana use.
• Girls are more likely to be offered substances by a female acquaintance, a young female relative or a boyfriend and to receive offers in private settings, while boys are more likely to be offered drugs by a male acquaintance, a young male relative, a parent or a stranger and to receive these offers in public settings.
• Religion is more protective for girls than for boys.

“My heart goes out to all those saddened parents across America whose daughters have sunk into substance abuse and addiction,” says Florida First Lady Columba Bush, a CASA board member who, along with Califano, released the report. “By showing the many and varied paths that girls may go down to substance abuse and how these paths frequently differ from those of boys, CASA’s report empowers families, schools, communities and clergy to take steps needed to make a difference.”

The report reveals that caffeine is a little known risk factor. Girls and young women who drink coffee are significantly likelier than girls and young women who do not to be smokers (23.2 percent vs. 5.1 percent) and drink alcohol (69.8 percent vs. 29.5 percent). Young women who drink coffee began smoking and drinking at earlier ages. Parents are the first line of prevention. CASA’s Formative Years survey showed that most girls (61.6 percent) who had conversations with their parents about substance use said that the conversation made them less likely to smoke, drink or use drugs.

Prevention programs should target girls at times of highest risk and be sensitive to the reasons why girls use drugs, how they get them and conditions such as depression that increase their risk.

Health professionals should screen young female patients for substance use, depression, sexual and physical abuse, poor school performance, eating disorders, and stress and provide appropriate referrals.

Government should invest resources in research, prevention and treatment that focus on the special needs of girls and women.

The media should refrain from presenting glamorous images of women smoking and drinking or making positive associations between smoking or drinking and thinness or sex appeal; refuse to accept alcohol advertisements for television and for magazines with high proportions of young female readers; and include more programming and articles that convey prevention messages against smoking, drinking, drugging and excessive dieting.

For a decade, CASA, with financial support from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, has been on the forefront of studying women and substance abuse–in its reports Substance Abuse and the American Woman (1996) and Under the Rug: Substance Abuse and the Mature Woman (1998). The Formative Years: Pathways to Substance Abuse Among Girls and Young Women Ages 8-22 completes the trilogy.

As part of this study, CASA conducted a unique national survey of 1220 girls and young women passing from elementary to middle school, from middle to high school, from high school to college, and from college into the world beyond. CASA also conducted focus groups with preadolescent girls and with their parents to understand their attitudes, beliefs and behaviors about smoking, drinking and using drugs.

###

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University is the only national organization that brings together under one roof all the professional disciplines needed to study and combat all types of substance abuse as they affect all aspects of society. CASA’s missions are to: inform Americans of the economic and social costs of substance abuse and its impact on their lives; assess what works in prevention, treatment and law enforcement; encourage every individual and institution to take responsibility to combat substance abuse and addiction; provide those on the front lines with tools they need to succeed; and remove the stigma of substance abuse and replace shame and despair with hope.

With a staff of more than 70 professionals, CASA has conducted demonstration projects in 60 sites in 32 cities and 21 states focused on children, families and schools, and has been testing the effectiveness of drug and alcohol treatment, monitoring individuals in numerous programs and drug courts in several states.