This week's big news was that people who are highly stressed not only drink, but have a harder time kicking the habit.
Researchers at the University of Liverpool found (surprise!) that alcoholics have higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol. For those who have stopped drinking, high cortisol levels make it harder to stay sober.
On a related note, cortisol can also make you fat, whether or not you drink. So besides the fructose, the super-sized portions, the bacon cheeseburgers, and our increasingly sedentary lifestyle, stress is also to blame for the obesity epidemic.
So how do you reduce cortisol? Diet, exercise, meditation ... and a nice long vacation on a tropical beach. But maybe without the pina colada.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
A link between impulse and addiction?
Is the inability to control one's impulses what leads to drink? If so, a discovery by researchers at Queen's University in Ontario could lead to yet another route for treating alcoholism.
According to a university press release, a team led by neuroscience Ph.D student Scott Hayton has identified the part of the brain (the medial prefrontal cortex, or mPFC) governing imulsive behavior and the ways in which such behavior is learned. In addition to having an impact on the diagnosis and treatment of alcoholism, these findings, recently published in The Journal of Neuroscience, could also lead to therapies for other disorders and addictions.
According to a university press release, a team led by neuroscience Ph.D student Scott Hayton has identified the part of the brain (the medial prefrontal cortex, or mPFC) governing imulsive behavior and the ways in which such behavior is learned. In addition to having an impact on the diagnosis and treatment of alcoholism, these findings, recently published in The Journal of Neuroscience, could also lead to therapies for other disorders and addictions.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
The sugar/alcohol connection
Booze, as you may or may not know, is just another form of sugar. Talk to any sugar addict, and he/she will describe the struggle to quit, and how even a bite of a cookie leads to an all-night binge.
Of course, you can't get a DUI after consuming a bag of M&Ms, although Twinkies have been linked with violent crime.
But sugar, according to researchers, is as bad for your liver as that glass of pino grigio. Robert Lustig, a California endocrinologist who's recently published a number of papers on the topic, claims that not only is sugar addictive, it can also lead to such disorders as fatty liver disease.
Hence the obesity epidemic -- a compromised liver makes it even harder to lose weight.
Visit science cafeat the University of California, San Francisco, for the high-fructose scoop.
On a related note, check out this article, published several years ago in Psychology Today, linking a sweet tooth to alcoholism.
Of course, you can't get a DUI after consuming a bag of M&Ms, although Twinkies have been linked with violent crime.
But sugar, according to researchers, is as bad for your liver as that glass of pino grigio. Robert Lustig, a California endocrinologist who's recently published a number of papers on the topic, claims that not only is sugar addictive, it can also lead to such disorders as fatty liver disease.
Hence the obesity epidemic -- a compromised liver makes it even harder to lose weight.
Visit science cafeat the University of California, San Francisco, for the high-fructose scoop.
On a related note, check out this article, published several years ago in Psychology Today, linking a sweet tooth to alcoholism.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Blast from the past
Here's an interesting nugget I just happened upon: a 48-year-old paper from the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease on the use of Nialamide in the treatment of alcoholism.
There's a fair amount of information provided in the article's first page, at least enough to whet one's appetite. To read the full text of the article, you or your organization must subscribe to the journal, or you've got to buy it.
FYI, Nialamide is a type of antidepressant known as Monoamine oxidase inhibitor.
There's a fair amount of information provided in the article's first page, at least enough to whet one's appetite. To read the full text of the article, you or your organization must subscribe to the journal, or you've got to buy it.
FYI, Nialamide is a type of antidepressant known as Monoamine oxidase inhibitor.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Drink yourself sober?
Over the past few months, it's become official: Drinking is good for your health. Studies show that moderate drinkers live longer than teetotalers. Moderate drinkers also live longer than heavy drinkers, but heavy drinkers still live longer (only slightly, however) than teetotalers.
So the goal, one would think, would be for teetotalers to regularly have a sip or two, and for heavy drinkers to stop guzzling from the firehose.
Easier said than done, of course, but one not-so-new method that purports to put a kink in the firehose -- and thus slow the gusher to a trickle -- is the Sinclair Method.
Its premise -- based on Pavlov's studies of learning and extinction -- is simple. Keep drinkling! But before you drink, pop a pill (Naltrexone). This will keep you from getting a buzz. Eventually, the spell (your brain's connection between alcohol and pleasure) will be broken.
Developed by Dr. John David Sinclair (currently chief science officer at Lightlake Therapeutics in Helsinki), most of what's known about the Sinclair Method, until now, has come from Roy Escapa's book, The Cure for Alcoholism: Drink yourself Sober Without Abstinence, Willpower, or Discomfort.
This week, however, an article in Newsweek isa certain to change that, and ensure that millions more learn about it too. So check it out.
So the goal, one would think, would be for teetotalers to regularly have a sip or two, and for heavy drinkers to stop guzzling from the firehose.
Easier said than done, of course, but one not-so-new method that purports to put a kink in the firehose -- and thus slow the gusher to a trickle -- is the Sinclair Method.
Its premise -- based on Pavlov's studies of learning and extinction -- is simple. Keep drinkling! But before you drink, pop a pill (Naltrexone). This will keep you from getting a buzz. Eventually, the spell (your brain's connection between alcohol and pleasure) will be broken.
Developed by Dr. John David Sinclair (currently chief science officer at Lightlake Therapeutics in Helsinki), most of what's known about the Sinclair Method, until now, has come from Roy Escapa's book, The Cure for Alcoholism: Drink yourself Sober Without Abstinence, Willpower, or Discomfort.
This week, however, an article in Newsweek isa certain to change that, and ensure that millions more learn about it too. So check it out.
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