drinking

Social Drinking Often Fueled by Peer Pressure

Social drinking may seem harmless and acceptable, but it can sometimes lead to excessive drinking and other unhealthy habits. And while some people may rarely drink by themselves or with dinner, there is no shortage of reasons to partake in drinking when out socializing. Parties, holidays, events, special occasions, celebrations, meeting new people and sometimes even work functions are all typically times when alcohol is consumed by more people. For many people, especially middle-aged adults, it has become expected to consume at least some alcohol on a regular basis, and this form of peer pressure or expectation can be disheartening when it has negative effects.

This expectation may be ok for some people, but for others, it is the catalyst for an alcohol abuse problem or even alcoholism. Additionally, it has also been found that older adults are at greater risks for developing alcohol addictions because of a lifetime of consuming alcohol and their inability to cope with major life changes like retirement.

One reporter recently decided to challenge herself when it came to alcohol consumption. Rozalynn Frazier eliminated alcohol and sweets from her diet for one month. Her decision was fueled by the desire to lose weight, but along the way she discovered that other people had a harder time with her alcohol abstinence than she did. “One of the more interesting lessons from my little experiment is that it’s much more socially acceptable to skip a piece of cake than it is to not have a drink in your hand. I guess because so much socializing happens with the help of alcohol, being the non-drinker means being a pariah,” explained Frazier.

Many people use alcohol as a social crutch. After a drink or two they begin to ease their tensions and seem more comfortable to talk to strangers or coworkers or even friends. However, it is very hard to predict when the amount of alcohol being consumed is too much. It is difficult to stop an addiction to alcohol if everyone around the person consumes alcohol as well. Because alcohol addictions are difficult to spot, they can also be difficult to treat. Oftentimes an alcoholic has been allowed to drink heavily for years before anyone is able to realize that a problem may exist.

If you have a friend or family member who you suspect has a problem with alcohol, contact us today to find out what solutions are available.

Regulators Warn Kombucha Makers with High Alcohol Content

According to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Trade Bureau (TTB), kombucha is “a fermented beverage produced from a mixture of steeped tea and sugar, combined with a culture of yeast strains and bacteria. Some kombucha products also have fruit juice or other flavors added during production. The combination of sugar and yeast triggers fermentation, which may produce a kombucha with an alcohol content of 0.5% or more alcohol by volume.”

The popularity of this drink has exploded in recent years, especially in health food stores, and bottlers have been cashing in on the fad. A recent story broke that claimed the TTB had warned makers of the drink that are generating more than the allowable amount of alcohol.

Is there any real danger in that amount of alcohol, or is it just an arbitrary number? Good question, as it would take a very large volume to produce inebriation. However, it is good that the TTB is seeking to limit would could potentially be dangerous if some kombucha makers let their alcohol content rise much higher.

In a similar fashion as energy drinks that have alcohol content, if young people get their hands on beverages with borderline amounts, they can be abused and cause harm. While this would be exactly the opposite of the intent of kombucha makers, it is a very real possibility they have to be aware of if they let their alcohol content rise up above 1% or more (by comparison, light beer is usually about 4.5%).

Research Reveals Risk for Alcohol Abuse Among Adolescent Females

A group of researchers in Sweden examined the social life of 357 girls over four years. The purpose of the study was to determine what sort of factors influence young girls to try alcohol and drugs. After compiling the data, the research indicated that girls who grow up in families with little supervision are much more likely to consume alcohol.

The study is important because experts agree that children who start experimenting with alcohol at a young age are more likely to develop an addiction as they get older. Parents who are unsure how much control they should exert over their teenage daughters may take some cues from the results of this study, and feel more comfortable enforcing slightly more rules and guidelines for supervision.

In order to conduct the study, researchers followed girls from the age of 13 to 17. For the four years during the study they were asked questions about their curfew and the frequency that they consumed alcohol. The outcome of the study showed that no matter how much parental intervention, teenage girls are likely to experiment with alcohol. However, girls whose parents are more strict tended to drink less than girls whose parents are more lax with their rules. Young girls who fell within the category of strict parent had an 84% increase in alcohol abuse. This is in sharp contrast to the girls who fell into the category of less strict parents. This group had a 234% increase in alcohol abuse.

“…girls alienated from same-age peers seek the company of older, more mature youth during a developmental period when alcohol consumption becomes increasingly normative,” explained the authors of the study. This is important because it shows that parents who go too far with being strict with their girls are more likely to push them into experimenting with alcohol and drugs. There does seem to be a fine line of strict and too strict, according to the study. Researchers pointed out that girls in both groups the girls drank alcohol, however it moved to abuse more often in the group whose parents had less control over the girls.

Latest National Survey Shows Youth Alcohol Consumption Down

Each year the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) releases the results of the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) in September during National Recovery Month. Among the annual tracking of substance abuse and related behavioral health information, the ongoing survey finds patterns in usage statistics that help give not just a snapshot of consumption, but also help predict trends in drug and alcohol abuse.

The latest survey found some mixed results. Predictably, there was a rise in marijuana usage, given the legalization for adults in several states. However, one positive note was that alcohol consumption among adolescents decreased over the previous year. More specifically, past-month drinking among teens aged 12 t0 17 fell from 17.6 percent in 2002 to 11.5 percent by 2014.

Overall underage drinking is down over the past decade, but there was little change from the previous year when looking at binge drinking and heavy drinking rates. Some believe that the total usage statistics remain generally equal year after year, but the trends in the substances change. While plausible, this doesn’t negate the fact that less young people abusing alcohol equals an improvement in our society.

Therapeutic Site for Vets Helps Reduce Drinking and PTSD Symptoms

Hundreds of thousands of returning active duty soldiers and veterans have drinking problems that are connected to their service for our country. Recently, those who served in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom seemed to be highly affected. The drinking is often in an attempt to self-medicate the PTSD symptoms they are experiencing.

A few years ago, research was conducted on the effectiveness of an online tool for helping these men and women reduce their drinking as well as their PTSD symptoms. It is called VetChange, and the randomized clinical trial showed that the program did indeed help. The results had been published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

Today VetChange is a free service that is sponsored by Boston University and VA Boston Healthcare System in partnership with the National Center for PTSD, with support from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation and the National Center for PTSD.

“Many veterans use alcohol to self-medicate for PTSD-related issues, such as stress, anger and sleep problems. Our program focuses on alcohol and its link to PTSD. It helps them learn to address these problems and other stressors in their lives without using alcohol,” said Dr. Brief, Director of Residential and Rehabilitation Services at the VA Boston Healthcare System, and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at Boston University.

The tool can be used by itself for Vets looking to reduce their drinking and improve the quality of their lives, and it can also be used in conjunction with traditional substance abuse and mental health treatments or therapies.

Alcohol Abuse Down Worldwide, but Increased in U.S.

Worldwide, alcohol abuse has gone down by 7.6%, according to a recent study that looked into world epidemiology. The research was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and showed that despite the good global news, alcohol abuse has actually increased by 5.5% in the United States. This means that current preventative methods are not creating enough of an effect as much as policy makers had hoped.

Of the 76.8 million people around the world who were diagnosed with alcohol use disorders, 5.1 million of those people are from the United States. Researchers criticized the U.S. for not making more efforts to prevent alcohol abuse. In addition to the growing alcohol problem, illicit drug use is also a major problem in this country, and is more of a problem here than the rest of the world.

The report, which was published in The Lancet, included the rates of abuse of other drugs as well, and overall the U.S. isn’t doing very well in the substance abuse category. University of Washington professor and lead study author Theo Vos told CNSNews.com that the reported declines in substance abuse are modest, and that little progress has been made to prevent alcohol and drug abuse in the U.S. and around the world.

Media Influence on Drinking

A common misconception is that alcohol is healthy for an individual. Several years ago a report was issued stating that a glass of wine daily would fend off heart disease. For years afterwards many people would cite this study as a reason why it was ok to promote drinking. However, since the study was released, researchers have discovered that any health benefits from a glass of wine a day are negligible and there were likely problems with the study in the first place. The danger of publishing information is that is not accurate is that the millions of people that it reaches will subsequently make decisions off of wrong information.

“It is particularly interesting to note that those who believe alcohol to be heart healthy actually drink more alcohol. Whether their belief causes this behavior, or merely justifies it, remains an interesting unknown,” explained Dr. Gregory Marcus, director of clinical research at the University of California, San Francisco.

Marcus and his team conducted a study to determine people’s perceptions on alcohol and any related health benefits. They discovered that 80% of the people who believed that alcohol was healthy for an individual felt this way because of the reports produced by the media on the health benefits of wine. Additionally, the researchers discovered that those that believed that alcohol was healthy had high rates of alcohol abuse. These people consumed 47% more alcohol than people who did not believe that alcohol was healthy for a person.

The correlation between the media and the public’s decisions is interesting, and highlights the major role the media has when it comes to the decision making process. Experts agree that the danger of consuming too much alcohol far outweighs any minor health benefits a glass of wine has for a person. Binge drinking and drunk driving are threats that make alcohol consumption a risky endeavor, especially for those that tend to over drink in the first place.

Alcohol-Related Homicides More Common Among Troubled Youth

Most people would assume that a life of drug dealing and gang banging puts a person directly in the path of death. It is not a strange assumption, as the news and newspapers are constantly filled with articles stating another person has died in a drug-related homicide. While it is true that the gang lifestyle and drug dealing are dangerous and produce many unnecessary fatalities, there is one activity that is more deadly by comparison – alcohol abuse.

A new study led by Professor Linda Teplin of Northwestern University shows that there are more homicides associated with alcohol abuse than those involving dealing drugs or being involved in a gang. Experts believe that this may be because younger people tend to drink alcohol put themselves in situations that can easily become volatile.

Researchers decided to look into this by examining the deaths of 1,829 younger people who were formerly in a youth detention center. Of the main factors associated with these premature deaths, those diagnosed with an alcohol use disorder had that highest percentage – more so than the other factors that people would typically thing are more life-threatening.

“People who drink are often in situations where tempers flare. Bad things can happen: barroom brawls, drinking on the front steps on a hot summer night,” explained Teplin.

The professor also points out that many children who abuse alcohol also have signs of other problems in their lives. Personality disorders, anger issues, depression and toxic home environments all play a major factor in a child’s use of alcohol. Being aware of the problems that precede alcohol abuse seems to be an important factor in preventing more alcohol-related deaths. Spotting warning signs and triggers early on in a child’s life may prevent them from being involved in an alcohol-related homicide.

Revisiting Alcohol’s Supposed Benefits

Updated research on the potential benefits of consuming a small amount of alcohol shows that it may not be all that healthy. After pouring over ten years’ worth of information, scientists believe they have located the original study’s mistakes and how these mistakes may have led to an increased amount of people consuming alcohol, buying into the notion that a glass of wine a day is good for your heart.

Researchers today say that the study promoting wine for heat health was poorly ran and made some glaring errors. The first error was that they combined people who have never consumed alcohol in the same group as people who used to be drinkers. Former alcoholics are likely to have health problems and experience depression. So, when researchers compared the health of people who consumed moderate amounts of alcohol to a group of people that consisted, in part, of former alcoholics they mistakenly came to the conclusion that those who drank in moderation were healthier.

“Given the harms attributed to alcohol use, it is not surprising that reports showing possible mortality benefits for low level users attracted enthusiasm among consumers, the media the alcohol industry. In health as elsewhere, if something looks too good to be true, it should be treated with great caution,” explained Craig Knott, lead author and researcher of the new meta study.

Ensuring that the public has the right information is vital. People who are inclined to drink too much are likely to use any excuse to justify this behavior. If a study comes out stating that some alcohol is healthy for a person that is just the reason someone may need to continue drinking and making poor decisions. Additionally, the perception that alcohol is healthy goes against what most people believe in the first place.

Alcohol on TV a Potential Problem for Teens

Teenagers are often susceptible to peer pressure, negative comments, insecurities about their bodies, personalities and minds. There is evidence that alcohol-related TV ads are potentially harmful to teenagers as well. A new study shows that exposure to television ads that show alcohol increase the likelihood of adolescents picking up a drink. Further study also shows that those adolescents that are more likely to pick up a drink are also more likely to engage in risky and dangerous behavior when it comes to alcohol.

Currently, alcohol companies are self-regulating their ads when it comes to underage drinkers. This means that the companies are taking it upon themselves to keep their ads away from young viewers and thereby prevent them from being persuaded to drink because of the advertisements.

For years now, alcohol companies have claimed that their ads are shown on channels and at times when teenagers are not likely to be present. “Alcohol companies claim their advertising does not affect underage drinking – that instead it is parents and friends that are the culprits. This study suggests otherwise: that underage youths are exposed to and engaged by alcohol marketing, and this prompts initiation of drinking as well as transitions from trying to hazardous drinking,” explained James D. Sargent, a pediatrician and a pediatric oncology professor at Dartmouth University.

According to the study, viewers between the ages of 15 and 17 were over 23% likely to see televised ads relating to alcohol, that number is similar to viewers between the ages of 18 and 20. Despite what the marketing companies for alcohol beverages claim, both age groups are as likely to see these ads as those between the ages of 21 and 23. These numbers illustrate the discrepancy between what the alcohol companies are claiming and reality. Children are just as likely to view ads selling alcohol as those that are of drinking age.

Because of the familiarity with advertisements relating to alcohol, children are more receptive to alcohol. Researchers point out that a correlation between viewing these ads and binge drinking exists. 29% of children between the age of 15 and 17 report binge drinking, and 18% admit to risky behavior when it comes to alcohol.