Testing It Up

A recent proposal to decrease the blood alcohol content (BAC) threshold for drivers is getting flak from anti-drunk driving advocates.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a comprehensive report lobbying to reduce the legal limit of a non-commercial driver’s blood alcohol level from 0.08 to 0.05. By logic, this seems common sense, since drivers with lower alcohol content in their blood tend to function better on the road than drunk drivers.

However, critics and advocates are not pleased with this effort, according to a news release. In fact, the group Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) believes that the government’s focus is slightly off-base. MADD President Jan Withers expressed her opposition to the proposal, saying that reducing the BAC limit “will take a lot of effort for a potential result that is many, many years down the line.”

In its report entitled “Reaching Zero: Actions to Eliminate Alcohol-Impaired Driving”, the NTSB discusses the relative crash risk of a driver with varying blood alcohol content levels. The study shows that drivers with a BAC of 0.05 have 38 percent likelihood of figuring in a drunk-driving accident, while at 0.08 the driver has more than 150 percent risk.

Despite the clashing sides, the NTSB and its critics agree that drunk drivers should be kept off the road, and that effective policies must be in place to reduce incidents of drunk-driving accidents. Driver education on the effects of drinking must be strengthened, while technologies to prevent drunk people from driving should be further developed.

NTSB Chair Deborah Hersman says that the statistics of road fatalities due to alcohol impairment may have plateaued, but the issue has not been totally solved yet.

A recent study by the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) formed the basis for updating its own recommendations on screening and counseling interventions related to alcohol misuse.

As representative of USPSTF, Virginia A. Moyer, MD, MPH conducted a comprehensive literature review in order to update the 2004 USPSTF recommendations related to screening and clinical counseling of people immersed in alcohol misuse. New evidence on the effectiveness of alcohol screening procedures was reviewed, particularly in the sections related to the improvement of health outcomes, procedural accuracy, impact of behavioral counseling on long-term results, disadvantages of screening and counseling interventions, and influence of the health care system on the effectiveness of alcohol screening and counseling interventions.

Based on the results of the literature review, Dr. Moyer and colleagues updated the 2004 recommendations by strengthening the definition of alcohol misuse to include the entire array of unhealthy drinking behaviors instead of limiting the meaning to hazardous or harmful drinking.

The team recommends the primary care screening of adults 18 years old and above for alcohol misuse. Meanwhile, people engaged in risky or hazardous drinking should be subjected to short behavioral counseling interventions in order to reduce alcohol misuse (Grade B recommendation). However, the same statement cannot be said for alcohol misuse in adolescents due to insufficient evidence.

While the recommendations were based on strategic and systematic review, USPSTF declares that the decisions should be based not merely on evidence presented, but also on other factors. Intervention and clinical decisions should still be tailor-fit to the specific patient or condition.

The world we live in today presents so many distractions and influences that contribute to an imbalanced brain. Stress is everywhere, and so are junk foods. What’s more, addictive substances are proliferating and existing in some new, legal forms which when taken can cause certain changes in brain chemistry.

According to Lee Gerdes, founder and CEO of Brain State Technologies, alcohol consumption and drug use can be severely life compromising and ultimately impact the potential of the brain to function.

“Substance abuse comes in many forms – drugs, alcohol, medication, food, etc – and all of these have a chemical effect in the brain,” Gerdes explains. He added that alcohol and drugs  can either deaden or change the user’s brain function, and ultimately compromise wellbeing in one or many ways.

Gerdes’ Brain State Technologies has helped over 4,000 people with substance abuse problems. It espouses a holistic and non-invasive approach in achieving greater brain balance and harmony.

“A balanced brain – one which is not ‘stuck’ in an unbalanced pattern – is one which can move readily to higher activation levels when the task at hand demands, and one that can also relax fully to regenerate when regeneration is needed,” Gerdes said.

To read the full text of the interview, visit Exclusive Interview With Lee Gerdes.

So much has been said about alcohol drinking and cigarette smoking. Even though both practices have been widely accepted since time immemorial, a bunch of laws were put in place to regulate the distribution, sale, and possession of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products. Similarly, a string of research has associated alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking to a number of medical conditions that are blamed for lost productivity and increased health care expenditures.

Still, the question remains: which is worse, smoking or drinking?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), excessive alcohol consumption is responsible for approximately 80,000 deaths each year in the U.S., making it the 3rd leading lifestyle-related cause of death in the nation. In 2006, there were over 1.2 million emergency room visits and 2.7 million physician office visits due to excessive drinking. That same year, excessive alcohol use cost the country an estimated $223.5 billion.

Excessive alcohol drinking includes heavy drinking, binge drinking, and any drinking by pregnant women or underage youth. Among its immediate health risks include unintentional injuries, risky sexual behaviors, violence, miscarriage and stillbirth among pregnant women, and alcohol poisoning. Over time, people with alcohol problems may develop chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular problems, liver diseases, certain cancer, or other gastrointestinal problems.

Although the minimum drinking age in the country is 21, there are currently 40 states that have set their own exceptions to allow underage drinking under certain circumstances. According to the non-profit organization ProCon, the 10 states that have no exceptions in their underage alcohol consumption laws are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

But despite the health risks associated with  heavy and frequent alcohol consumption, some research indicates that light to moderate drinking helps reduce risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, and ischemic strokes. It may also possibly lower the person’s risk of gallstones.

With tobacco smoking, however, any benefit — if there’s any — is unlikely to get mentioned. Instead, we hear a couple of horror stories about the negative side effects of lighting up a cigar, regardless of how seldom or frequently you smoke. Even smokeless tobacco is viewed as a harmful alternative to traditional cigarettes.

CDC data showed tobacco smoking accounts for about 1 in 5 deaths annually in the U.S., or about 443,000 deaths per year. During 2001-2004, cigarette smoking costs the nation more than $193 billion — $97 billion in lost productivity and $96 billion in health care expenditures.

Studies show that smokers are at greater risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, respiratory problems, lung cancer, kidney cancer, and bladder cancer, to name a few. Similarly, people who are exposed to secondhand smoke are at risk of developing serious illnesses. Children who breathe in secondhand smoke are more likely to experience chronic cough, bronchitis, or asthma attacks. Approximately 49,000 smoking-related deaths are the result of secondhand smoke exposure.

If we are to get the opinion of health experts, chances are we’ll be advised to abstain from smoking and drinking to achieve a healthy wellbeing. But people aren’t the same, there will always be those who will find alcohol consumption safer than cigarette smoking, and vice-versa, despite what statistics say. Likewise, there are people who’ve been there and successfully quit.

Green Day lead vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong opens up about his years of alcohol and prescription drug abuse in the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine.

The 41-year-old rock musician said: “I couldn’t predict where I was going to end up at the end of the night. I’d wake up in a strange house on a couch. I wouldn’t remember how. It was a complete blackout.”

Armstrong realized it was time for him to seek professional help following a September 2012 incident at the iHeartRadio festival in Las Vegas where he angrily smashed his guitar after the band was told to wrap up their set.

“I remember tiny things,” Armstrong said. “The next morning, I woke up. I asked [my wife] Adrienne, ‘How bad was it?’ She said, ‘It’s bad.’ I called my manager. He said, ‘You’re getting on a plane, going back to Oakland and going into rehab immediately.’”

In October, the group canceled the rest of their 2012 tour dates for their album trilogy ¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, ¡Tre!. But by late December they announced that they were ready to hit the road again, with a fully-packed schedule beginning in March. Armstrong has issued a statement through his Instagram account thanking fans for their support in the previous tumultuous months and promising them that the show must go on.

The full Rolling Stone interview will be available when the issue hits news stands on Friday.

There are now a handful of vaccines that aim to protect people from various illnesses, and it looks like it won’t be too long before a vaccine for alcoholics becomes available.

The Santiago Times reports that researchers at the University of Chile are set to begin preclinical trial for the alcoholism vaccine in February. Initially, the researchers will test the vaccine  on mice, and they will apply their findings to a human trial in November this year. If all goes well, the vaccine may be available two years from now, according to Dr. Juan Asenjo, director of the Institute for Cell Dynamics and Biotechnology at the university.

“If it works, it’s going to have a worldwide impact, but with many vaccines one has to test them carefully. I think the chances that this one will work are quite high,” Asenjo said.

The vaccine would work by speeding up the hangovers in alcohol drinkers in order to discourage consumption. Although the concept isn’t new, Asenjo said his research team is heading up the only trial of alcohol vaccines in the world.

But despite the promise of the vaccine, Asenjo was quick to point out that it isn’t a cure-all for people with an alcohol problem, though it could provide an important first step.

“People who end up alcoholic have a social problem; a personality problem because they’re shy, whatever, and then they are depressed, so it’s not so simple,” Asenjo noted. “But if we can solve the chemical, the basic part of the problem, I think it could help quite a bit.”

Sponsoring the research is Chile’s National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research’s (CONICYT) Fondef program.

A study published in the Annals of Family Medicine concludes that doctors are missing drinking problems in nearly three out of four patients because they do not perform alcohol screening.

More than 1,500 patients were asked to complete questionnaires which included five alcohol questions; 94 clinicians from 40 different primary care practices were recruited for the cross-sectional study. Of the 171 patients that that had positive screening test for hazardous drinking and 64 for harmful drinking, the clinicians suspected alcohol problems in only 81 patients.

The researchers observed that when clinicians relied on suspicion instead of using a screening instrument, they missed almost three out of four patients who screened positive for alcohol problems.

“I hope that by papers like this, it’s going to be a nudge to physician to say … ‘Maybe I should start screening.’ It’s not that hard to do,” study author Dr. Daniel Vinson, professor of family and community medicine at the University of Missouri School of Medicine in Columbia, Missouri, told CNN.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends clinicians to screen all adults 18 and older and pregnant women for alcohol misuse and provide individuals engaged in risky or hazardous drinking with brief behavioral counseling interventions to reduce alcohol misuse. But Dr. Dave Mersey, a family physician in Tucson, Arizona, said the procedure is generally not part of routine primary care. Still, experts say asking patients a few questions about their drinking habits can lead to interventions that may help them cut back on their risky behavior.

The  latest Vital Signs report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), showed that 1 in 8 women and 1 in 5 high school girls report binge drinking, an activity defined as consuming four or more drinks on an occasion for women and girls.

Binge drinking was found to be most common among women aged 18-34 and high school girls, whites and Hispanics, and women with household incomes of $75,000 or more. Nearly 14 million women in the U.S. binge drink about three times a month, and consume an average of six drinks per binge.

“It is alarming to see that binge drinking is so common among women and girls, and that women and girls are drinking so much when they do,” Robert Brewer, M.D., M.S.P.H., of the Alcohol Program at CDC, said in a news release.

The report also highlights how binge drinking puts women at increased risk for many health problems such as breast cancer, sexually transmitted diseases, heart disease, and unintended pregnancy. Women who binge drink during pregnancy expose a developing baby to high levels of alcohol, which can lead to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and sudden infant death syndrome.

But Brewer added that the problem can still be prevented by using “the same scientifically proven strategies for communities and clinical settings that we know can prevent binge drinking in the overall population.”

Boston ranked No. 1 in the list of America’s Drunkest Cities compiled by The Daily Beast on January 4.

The news reporting and opinion website first analyzed data from Experian Simmons, a leading market-research firm, which provided data on the average number of alcoholic drinks per month the residents of more than 200 cities across the country reported to have consumed in a survey from earlier this year.

“As well, we considered the percent of the population that are either binge drinkers or heavy drinkers for each metro area, according to the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control,” The Daily Beast explained. The average number of drinks was given twice the weight of the heavy- and binge-drinking population for the final rank.

The list indicates that adults in Boston consumed on average 15.5 drinks per person per month. The city’s population over age 21 is 4,750,296 — 7.4 percent of which are heavy drinkers and 20.1 percent are binge drinkers.

The top 20 alcohol-abusing areas in America are:

1. Boston, Massachusetts
2. Springfield, Massachusetts
3. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
4. Reno, Nevada
5. San Antonio, Texas
6. Chicago, Illinois
7. Austin, Texas
8. St. Louis, Missouri
9. San Diego, California
10. Tucson, Arizona
11. Burlington, Vermont
12. Charleston, South Carolina
13. Denevr, Colorado
14. Las Vegas, Nevada
15. Fort Myers, Florida
16. Buffalo, New York
17. Sioux Falls, South Dakota
18. Lincoln, Nebraska
19. Seattle, Washington
20. Bismarck, North Dakota

A study conducted by researchers at the University of California San Diego showed alcohol consumption by teenagers is more worrisome than marijuana use.

Susan Tapert, co-author of the study and a neuroscientist at UC San Diego, told Huffington Post that teenagers consuming typically five or more drinks at least twice a week had reduced white matter brain tissue health. However, marijuana use — up to nine times a week during the 18 months — did not have the same effect.

The researchers followed 92 teenagers, ages 16 to 20, for 18 months. Their goal is to find out the impact of alcohol and marijuana use in the structure and functionality of the brain’s white matter — one of the components of the central nervous system that plays a role in decision making, memory and attention span — during adolescence.

All participants were subjected to brain scans and toxicology screening for substances at the start of the study and again after eighteen months.  Detailed substance use assessments were taken at the start and every six months throughout the study.

After eighteen months, half of the teens — who already had extensive alcohol and marijuana use histories — continued to use marijuana and alcohol in varying amounts. The other half abstained or kept consumption minimal, as they had throughout adolescence, the article notes. The researchers did not test performance; they only looked at brain scans.

Joanna Jacobus, postdoctoral fellow at the UC San Diego, and co-author of the study, said the damage occurs because teenagers’ brain continue to develop until their 20s.