Blog entries

TGIF 11-20-09 Blog O'The day

Kevin Kline — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:09:25 +0100

The Lord gives us friends to push us to our potential – and enemies to push us beyond it. ~Robert Brault

Alcoholism is an addiction that is poorly understood in Japan. As liquor consumption grew sixfold over the last 50 years in Japan to match its economic affluence, alcoholism became a growing but misunderstood problem.

Alcoholic beverages are easily available at convenience stores and vending machines. Liquor ads are prevalent on television and drinking with work colleaRead More...

Thursday 11-19-09 Blog O'the day

Kevin Kline — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:50:00 +0100

Learn all you can from the mistakes of others. You won’t have time to make them all yourself. ~Alfred Sheinwold

At the Faculty of Public Health conference in Scotland, the call was made to the Scottish and UK governments to introduce new measures to curb binge drinking, anti-social behavior and to tackle Scotland’s increasing alcohol-related health problems.

Scotland has one of the fastest growing chronic liver disease rates in the world, and one in three divorces isRead More...

Wednesday 11-18-09 Blog O'The day

Kevin Kline — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:39:03 +0100

God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it’s me. ~Author Unknown

Millions of people across the United Kingdom could be putting themselves at risk of alcohol-related violence, casual sex or blackouts, according to a new survey.

Sixty-one percent of people questioned had been adversely affected following a night’s heavy drinking. The most common occurence was not being able to rememberRead More...

Tuesday 11-17-09 Blog O'the day

Kevin Kline — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:14:10 +0100

An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind. ~Mahatma Gandhi

Enhancing the effects of dopamine, a chemical in the brain, influences how people make life choices by affecting expectations of pleasure, according to new research from the UCL Institute of Neurology.

The study, published in Current Biology, confirms an important role for dopamine in how human expectations are formed and how people make complex decisions. It also contributes to an understanding of how plRead More...

Monday 11-16-09 Blog O'the day

Kevin Kline — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:16:41 +0100

Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. ~William Faulkner

New research has exposed the risks and dangers of alcoholic energy drinks (AEDs). There has been a continuing effort from state attorneys to ban the drinks. On Nov. 13 the FDA asked 30 manufacturers of AEDs to provide safety data related to adding caffeine and other stimulants to their products.

The research from Wake Forest University Baptist MedicalRead More...

TGIF 11-13-09 Blog O'The Day

Kevin Kline — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:02:15 +0100

The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of myself. ~Jane Addams

More than 500 pounds of unwanted medications were collected at five sites in Polk County, Iowa last weekend.

Law enforcement agencies, substance abuse treatment and prevention organizations, and more than 50 volunteers participated in the Polk County Substance Abuse and Addiction Workgroup’s event.

“This is a tremendous outcome from the first initiative this group has underRead More...

Thursday 11-12-09 Blog O'the day

Kevin Kline — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:21:22 +0100

Praise the bridge that carried you over. ~George Colman

Giving heroin to heroin addicts may not sound like a great idea, but it could soon become the preferred treatment for addicts. Switzerland and a handful of other countries already have clinics that give small, supervised doses, and Britain could be next after completing a four-year trial on the practice. The results were encouraging. Street-drug use among participants fell 75 percent in six months.

The goal is to eventuallRead More...

Wednesday 11-11-09 Blog O'The day

Kevin Kline — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:28:43 +0100

Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. ~Natalie Goldberg, Wild Mind

A rise in heroin abuse by teenagers across the country has led one high school to issue an ultimatum to parents: attend a seminar on the dangers of heroin or your child will be banned from the prom. More than 1,000 parents showed up to the forum in Smithtown, New York two weeks ago.

Those teenagers include Natalie Ciappa, a National Honor Society member, star of school plays, Read More...

Tuesday 11-10-09 Blog O' The Day

Kevin Kline — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:53:57 +0100

Carrying a resentment is like being pregnant. Everyone else sees it but your the one that feels it. David Chalkley

A group of drunken fruit flies have helped researchers from North Carolina State and Boston universities identify entire networks of genes – also present in humans – that play a key role in alcohol drinking behavior.

This discovery provides a significant explanation of why some people seem to tolerate alcohol better than others, as well as a potential tRead More...

Monday 11-9-09 Blog O'The day

Kevin Kline — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:05:00 +0100

The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who stays away. ~Barbara Kingsolver

Ireland has the fourth highest use of cocaine among 15 to 24-year-olds in Europe.

The annual report of the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction found that almost 4 percent of 15 to 24-year-olds used cocaine in Ireland last year. Denmark had the highest rate, with 5.6 percent, Spain had 5.4 percent, and the rate was 5 percent inRead More...

TGIF Blog O'The Day

Kevin Kline — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:38 +0100

Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower. ~Hans Christian Anderson

The Royal College of Nursing in England issued a report suggesting that alcohol use will cause over 90,000 avoidable deaths in the next decade.

The Royal College of Nursing wants better regulation of the alcohol industry to lessen the dangers and health care costs associated with heavy drinking.

“For 90,000 lives to be thrown away as a result of excessive drinkRead More...

Thursday 11-5-09 Blog O'The day

Kevin Kline — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:30:42 +0100

The future is always beginning now. ~Mark Strand, Reasons for Moving

Your genetic content may predispose you to drink more but may not increase your genetic risk for alcoholism. New research pinpoints genetic pathways and genes associated with levels of alcohol consumption but not with alcohol dependence in rats and humans.

Researchers at the University of Colorado used rats to identify the genetic pathways affecting alcohol drinking behavior. They found that the rats’ drRead More...

Thursday 11-5-09 Blog O'The Day

Kevin Kline — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:15:14 +0100

The future is always beginning now. ~Mark Strand, Reasons for Moving

Researchers at the University of Colorado used rats to identify the genetic pathways affecting alcohol drinking behavior. They found that the rats’ drRead More...

Wednesday 11-4-09 Blog O'The Day

Kevin Kline — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:33:43 +0100

Unless I accept my faults I will most certainly doubt my virtues. ~Hugh Prather

Alcohol consumption has long been linked to cancer and its spread, but the underlying mechanism has never been clear. Now, researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago have identified a cellular pathway that may explain the link.

The researchers found that alcohol stimulates what is called the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, in which ordinary cancer cells morph into a more aggressiRead More...

I just discovered my boyfriend is a crack user.

Chelsea Varner — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:42:58 +0100

I am new to this but I am looking for some guidance on this issue from an outside source. I have been dating a wonderful guy for over a year now. I had my suspicions for quite some time that something was going on. My boyfriend worked for a gentleman who often smoked crack and that's why my initial suspicions came in to place. He would ditch me for one specific friend, more often recently. He also disappeared about 6 months back for 3 days and told me afterwards thRead More...

Tuesday 11-3-09 Blog O'The Day

Kevin Kline — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:10:51 +0100

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” Woody Allen

Tennis star Andre Agassi admits in his new autobiography that used crystal meth in 1997 and lied to tennis authorities when he failed a drug test. That result was thrown out after he said he “unwittingly” took the drug.

Agassi used the drug before the World Anti-Doping Agency was founded in 1999, when anti-doping in tennis was managed by individual governing bodies.

“I cRead More...

Monday 11-2-09 Blog O'The day

Kevin Kline — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:32:49 +0100

After all is said and done, a lot more will have been said than done. ~Author Unknown

New animal studies suggest that memory and other cognitive problems experienced by cocaine-addicted people can result directly from the cocaine abuse in addition to preexisting traits or lifestyle factors.

“Our results clearly demonstrate the negative impact that even limited access to cocaine can have on cognitive function,” said senior author Charles W. Bradberry, Ph.D., of the URead More...

Unique Addiction Treatment Method

Maria — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:00:16 +0100

Today I would like to speak to you about an area of medicine that will soon become one of the fastest developing branches of medical tourism – the treatment of addiction. Or to be more exact - the treatment of drug addiction, alcoholism, and gambling.
A few figures, very few indeed, will suffice to show you just why the treatment of addiction has, if you will forgive the expression, a bright future.
Firstly, we find an enormous number of patients suffering from addiction, a Read More...

TGIF 10-30-09 Blog O'The Day

Kevin Kline — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:19:26 +0100

Halloween wraps fear in innocence,
As though it were a slightly sour sweet.
Let terror, then, be turned into a treat…
~Nicholas Gordon, poemsforfree.com

A woman in England who bit a woman on the side of her face at a New Year’s Eve party was sentenced last week. The judge told her she was lucky not to have received a jail sentence.

Victoria Nevill admitted assaulting Sarah Piggott. She bit Piggott three times on her face. Nevill was given a four-montRead More...

Thursday 10-29-09 Blog O' The Day

Kevin Kline — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:59:12 +0100

The only thing that ever sat its way to success was a hen. ~Sarah Brown

A new study found that chronic alcohol consumption reduces the number of new brain cells that form in the hippocampus of adolescent rhesus monkeys. This finding suggests these cells are vulnerable to alcohol and their presence may be essential for preventing alcohol dependence.

The findings were presented at Neuroscience 2009, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world’s largest Read More...