Baby boomers getting high

Posted on 2009-Oct-21 at 08:00 - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Baby boomers, now well into middle age, are still turning on to illegal drugs, doubling the rates of illicit drug use for the older generation, according to US government statistics.

The rates of people aged 50 to 59 who admit to cultured freshwater pearl using illicit drugs in the past year nearly doubled from 5.1% in 2002 to 9.4% in 2007 while rates among all other age groups are the same or decreasing, the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported.

"These findings show that many in the Woodstock generation continue to use illicit drugs as they age," SAMHSA Acting Administrator Eric Broderick said.

"This continued use poses medical risks to these individuals and is likely to put further strains on the nation's health care system -- highlighting the value of preventing drug use from pearl earrings ever starting."

Baby boomers are the post World War II generation born between 1946 and 1964.

The data used in the study came from various surveys including 16 656 men and women participating in the 2002 through 2007 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health. – (Reuters Health, August 2009)

Traces of cocaine on bank notes

Posted on 2009-Oct-21 at 07:55 - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Chances are there is cocaine in the wallets of citizens in several countries.

Researchers looked at 234 bank notes from 17 cities in the US and found that 90% had small traces of the illegal drug. Bills from larger cities, such as Baltimore, Boston and Detroit, were among those with the highest average cocaine levels. Salt Lake City had the lowest.

Scientists analysed only $1 bills from Washington and found that most had tiny amounts of cocaine. Yuegang Zuo, a professor at the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth, led the study. The findings were presented at the American Chemical Society's meeting in Washington.

Except for Washington, Zuo said he and his colleagues examined a range of denominations, from $1 to pearl beads $100. The researchers did not look at the same number of bank notes from each city. In all, they analyzed money from 30 places in five countries - the US, Canada, Brazil, China and Japan.

No health or legal concern
The bits of cocaine on most bills was so small that consumers should not have health or legal concerns over handling paper money, Zuo said. Some drug amounts ranged from several thousand times smaller than a grain of sand to about 50 grains of sand.

Money can become contaminated with cocaine during drug deals, or when users snort the substance through rolled bills. It can then spread to game machines other cash when banks process the money.

Zuo said his research shows an increase in contaminated US cash. In a similar study two years ago, he found that 67% of bills had traces of cocaine.

Of the 27 bills analysed from Canada, 85% had traces of cocaine. Eight of the 10 bank notes from Brazil were contaminated. Only a few of the 16 bills from Japan had the substance, and a little more than 20 of the 112 bank notes from China had bits of cocaine. - (Sapa, August 2009)

Not only students binge drink

Posted on 2009-Oct-21 at 07:55 - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Binge drinking is usually seen as a problem of college campuses, but many older adults may be overindulging in alcohol as well, a study suggests.

Using data from a government survey of nearly 11 000 Americans age 50 and up, researchers found that 23% of men between the ages of 50 and 64 admitted to akoya pearl binge drinking in the past month, as did roughly 9% of women.

Among adults age 65 and older, more than 14% of men and 3% of women reported bingeing -- defined as having five or more drinks on one occasion, on at least one day in the past month.

Alcohol binges are often considered a problem of youth. One recent government study found that among US college students between the ages of 18 and 24, 45% reported a recent drinking binge.

But the new findings, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, show that older adults can be susceptible too.

"We feel that our findings are important to gemstone necklace the public health of middle-aged and elderly persons as they point to a potentially unrecognised problem that often 'flies beneath' the typical screen for alcohol problems in psychiatry practices," lead researcher Dr Dan G.

How the study was done
Blazer, of Duke University Medical Centre in Durham, North Carolina and colleague Dr Li-Tzy Wu based their findings on a national health survey conducted between 2005 and 2006.

Along with binge drinking, the survey looked at so-called at-risk drinking -- drinking habits that could have negative effects on a person's health. In this study, that was defined as averaging at least two drinks per day.

Among 50- to Keishi pearl 64-year-olds, 19% of men and 13% of women were at-risk drinkers. The figures among older men and women were 13% and 8%, respectively.

Binge drinking carries a number of risks, including accidental injuries, violent behaviour, neurological damage and blood pressure increases. These hazards, Blazer and Wu write, "clearly present" greater consequences later in life, when people often have chronic health conditions that can be aggravated by heavy drinking.

Yet, the researchers note, most people who binge are not dependent on alcohol, so their problem drinking may go unrecognised.

The message for doctors, Blazer said, is that they should be asking their older patients specifically about binge drinking.

Patients who do report bingeing may also need to cultured pearl be screened for other types of substance abuse, according to the researchers.

In this study, men who reported binge drinking had a higher risk of illegal drug use than men who drank but did not binge, while female binge drinkers had a heightened likelihood of prescription drug abuse. – (Reuters Health, August 2009)

Daily drink ups risk for cancer

Posted on 2009-Oct-21 at 07:49 - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Men who drink beer or liquor on a regular basis may face a heightened risk of several different types of cancer, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that among nearly 3 600 Canadian men ages 35 to 70, those who averaged at least a drink per day had higher risks of a number of cancers than men who drank occasionally or not at all -- including cancers of the oesophagus, stomach, colon, lungs, pancreas, liver and prostate.

When the researchers looked at individual types of alcohol, though, only beer and "spirits" -- and not wine -- were linked to round pearl elevated cancer risks.

In general, the odds increased in tandem with the men's lifetime alcohol intake, according to findings published in the Cancer Prevention and Detection.

With several cancers, men who drank at least once per day tended to have higher risks than those who drank on a regular, but less-than-daily, basis.

When it came to oesophageal cancer, for instance, men who drank one to six times per week had an 83% higher risk than teetotallers and less-frequent drinkers, while daily drinkers had a three-fold higher risk.

Longer you drink, higher the risk
In addition, when the researchers looked only at daily drinkers, the risks generally increased with twisted pearl necklace the number of years the men had been at it.

"Our results show that the heaviest consumers over the lifetime had the biggest increases in the risks of multiple sites of cancer," said lead researcher Dr Andrea Benedetti, of McGill University in Montreal.

Many studies have suggested that moderate drinking -- usually defined as no more than a drink or two per day -- can be a healthy habit, particularly when it comes to heart disease risk.

But the current study suggests that even such moderate drinking levels are linked to higher risks of certain cancers, at least when the alcohol of choice is beer or liquor.

The question of whether moderate drinkers should cut down, however, cannot be answered by a single study, according to pearl jewelry Benedetti.

"In terms of balancing this risk (of cancer) with risks of cardiovascular disease," she said, "people should talk with their doctor." – (Reuters Health, August 2009)

Ban alcohol ads, say doctors

Posted on 2009-Oct-21 at 07:49 - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

In a move that will give courage to South African campaigners, British doctors have called for a ban on alcohol advertisements, saying the move was necessary to challenge Britain's dangerous drinking culture.

The British Medical Association argued in a report that a rapid increase in alcohol consumption among young Britons in recent years was being underpinned by "clever alcohol advertising" and that a prohibition on alcohol-related publicity was needed to Keishi pearl help turn the situation around.

"Our society is awash with pro-alcohol messaging and marketing," Dr Vivienne Nathanson, the association's head of science and ethics, said in a statement. "We need to look beyond young people and at society as a whole."

The association, which represents more than two-thirds of Britain's practicing doctors, has repeatedly warned of the dangers of the country's increasingly deadly drinking habit.

Alcohol-related deaths doubled
In a widely publicised report last year, the association said Britain was among the hardest-drinking countries in Europe and noted its alcohol-related death rate had nearly doubled between 1991 and 2005 - from 6.9 to 12.9 per 100 000 people.

Although the group has lobbied for pearl jewelry wholesale higher taxes and stricter regulation in the past, its new report called for a total ban on all alcohol advertisements.

The report said Britain's drinks industry spends 800 million pounds annually promoting alcohol consumption, wielding its "prodigious marketing skills and massive budgets to promote positive images about alcohol, and back these up with incentives, branding and sophisticated public relations."

The report called for the drinks industry to be banned from sponsoring sporting events like the FA Cup - currently backed by Danish brewer Carlsberg - or the Grand National race - whose title sponsor is John Smith's Ale.

It also said alcohol ads should be wiped from newspapers and billboards and kicked off radio and television.

Brewers not in favour of ban
British brewers acknowledged that the country's drinking culture could use changing, but said bans and higher taxes weren't the answer.

"We believe culture change is more likely to wholesale pearl be achieved through long-term education and tough enforcement," said Jeremy Beadles, the chief executive of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association.

Britain's government would not be drawn on the idea of an ad ban. The Department of Health said in a statement that "it's not always right to legislate," while the Advertising Standards Authority said its codes were already "among the strictest in the world." – Sapa, September 2009)