Category Archives: Natural Addiction Treatment Certification

Addiction to Energy Drinks

August 17, 2014

Can there be an Energy Drinks Addiction?

What is an energy drink?

This is a kind of beverage containing ingredients are purported to boost the energy levels in the body. These drinks are marketed as providing both mental and physical stimulation due to its paramount ingredient, caffeine. It may sometimes be carbonated and also added sugar or other sweeteners. Herbs extracts and amino acids are also common ingredients to the energy drinks though in very small quantities.

Is energy drink addictive?

Addiction to Energy DrinksLooking at the ingredients that form the energy drink, it is beyond reasonable doubt that energy drinks can be addictive. The main addictive ingredient of the energy drink is the caffeine, though the sugar additives can also be addictive.

Caffeine is a stimulant and it acts by stimulating the central nervous system, which has effect on the brain and hence making you feel wonderfully alert though in the actual sense you are tired. This is so because the caffeine stimulated the nervous system and consequently blocking the message that tells your brain that you are tired. The effect induced by caffeine, is pleasant to many people, but to some it may result to anxiety, depression and other unpleasant side effects.

Energy drinks often contains caffeine or sugar which can affect the neurotransmitter causing temporal energy boost. These are the brain chemicals which regulate the human moods and behaviors, and if they can be stimulated, they can make our bodies have a feel of energy gain. This is the property that the energy drink manufacturers capitalize on. It simply works by blocking the messages which would otherwise trigger energy needs.

What are the side effects of energy drink?

The main cause of side effects in energy drinks is the high amounts of caffeine in them. Though some of the other ingredients can also have some side effects, the main side effects which are attributed to energy drinks are related to caffeine. Thus the side effects that we will look at here may be similar to those of caffeine addiction particularly.

The following are the main side effects of energy drinks:-

  • Risk of cardiac attack – caffeine which is an ingredient of energy drinks is known to cause heart diseases. Taking of energy drinks leaves a person under a very high risk of getting a cardiac arrest. For those with history of heart diseases, this cardiac arrest can occur just after a few energy drinks. Researches done on the effects of energy drugs on the human body have indicated that energy drinks causes forceful heart contractions, which could be very harmful to some with certain heart conditions.
  • Chronic headache – since caffeine is addictive, reduction or too much caffeine can cause severe headache due to the withdrawal symptoms of caffeine. Therefore taking too much energy drinks can lead to severe headaches.
  • May lead to insomnia – since energy drinks stimulate the rain to keep a person awake/alert, its abuse may cause someone to miss sleep. The lack of sleep can be very harmful to your body, since it affects your drive to perform other concentration heavy tasks.
  • Can lead to Type 2 Diabetes – this is a type of diabetes which results from too much sugar in the body. Since these energy drinks many of them have high levels of sugar, their consumption may lead to typpe2 diabetes.

Addiction to Energy Drinks

  • Addiction – another risk or side effect of taking energy drinks is addiction. The ingredients of the energy drinks such as caffeine and sugars are highly addictive. Addiction itself is a danger to your health, but the biggest problem is that the addiction will make you dependent on energy drinks and thus you cannot survive without taking them. This will even put you to a much bigger ganger of the side effects of the individual ingredients of the energy drink.
  • Jittering and nervousness – when caffeine is taken in high levels into the body, it causes some people to shake and be nervous. The energy drinks are high in caffeine and thus when frequently taken, they can lead to this side effect.
  • Interaction with prescription drugs – it has come to the knowledge of scientists that, some of the ingredients of energy drinks can interact with the prescription drugs, especially those meant for depression treatment.

Should energy drinks be made illegal?

The debate on whether energy drinks should be declared illegal has been ongoing in many areas of the world. Some countries are in the process of banning the sale of the drinks, especially to underage. Among the noticeable countries which have come out to show the world that energy drinks should be banned is Lithuania.
The recent reports are that, “Lithuania has banned the sale of energy drinks to anyone under 18 on the basis of health concerns. The ban will take effect in November 2014 after it was approved by parliament in May. Lithuania’s health
ministry said it was setting a precedent within the European Union.” The message from the state read, “According to our survey, a majority of other nations say that they only have recommendations in place, not bans,” ministry official Almantas Kranauskas said. “I think it will serve as an impetus for other countries. Many of them are still hesitating and might be influenced by the lucrative energy drinks industry.”

Can there be an Energy Drinks Addiction?

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Drugs, Sex Trade and the GDP Figures

August 17, 2014

Drug Market Already Adding To GDP Figures

What does GDP mean?

It stands for the Gross Domestic Product. It is an economic measure of any given country, and it is used to gauge the health of an economy of a country. It looks at the total value of all the goods and services produced by a given country for a specified period of time, mostly a period of one year.

Many illegal businesses have not been captured in these estimates in many countries. This is due to the fact that such businesses are considered illegal and are not seen to contribute to the economy of the country in question. Some of such businesses are prostitution and drug trafficking. Though it is still debatable on whether these businesses should or not be considered when estimating the gross domestic product of a given country, some countries have already turned out to include sex business and drugs trafficking in their gross domestic product. Some of the European countries have already boosted their economy by including prostitution and drugs in their GDP.

It is now official that it will be obligatory in September 2014 for all European Union countries to include drugs, prostitution, and other illegal and shadow economy businesses in their gross domestic product
calculations. The 2010 version of the European System of Accounts states that “illegal economic actions shall be considered as transactions when all units involved enter the actions by mutual
agreement. Thus, purchases, sales or barters of illegal drugs or stolen property are transactions, while theft is not.”  The goal is to make European Union countries’ economic data comparable. According to
the Guardian Britain’s Office of National Statistics (ONS) has estimated that illegal drugs and prostitution added £9.7bn to Britain’s economy, equal to 0.7% of gross domestic product, in 2009.

Is USA following the suit soon and include illegal business in the GDP?

Drugs, Sex Trade Every country will always want its GDP to grow by a factor every year, or at least remain at a high level. Any activity or inclusion to the GDP which is considered to boost the GDP will always be welcome as long as it acceptable. Following the acceptance and inclusion of illegal drugs and prostitution in the GDP of many European countries, the United States of America is also believed to be on the verge of following the suit. This idea has though been on a hold as they wait to analyze the result or impact of inclusion of the illegal business from the data from the countries which have already embraced it.

There is likelihood that USA will be including these illegal businesses in their GDP soon, especially looking at the statement given by one of the prominent personnel, who is the chief of public affairs and outreach at the United States Bureau of economic Analysis, Jeannine Aversa. Jeannine Aversa was quoted as saying, “The united states has no plans for now, to start counting illegal sex and drugs. We need to look at the issue closely to see what data are available before any decision could be made.” He also added, “We haven’t done any research yet, so we don’t know how much this would add to the U.S economy as measured by GDP.”

From these statements, there is a probability that U.S will be joining Europe in the inclusion of illegal sex and drugs in the GDP, but this remain to be seen in future. This is in the assumption that there will be a positive impact of the inclusion from the data that will be collected from the forerunners, European countries. This positive impact would be mouthwatering for U.S and hence consider including the illegal businesses in GDP also.

Can sex and drugs inclusion in GDP boost the economy of a country?

This question can be sufficiently answered based on the statistics from the countries which have already done it. A noticeable country which has already included sex and drugs in the GDP is Italy. Italy is one of the countries which were struggling with poor economy for years. Upon inclusion of black market in the GDP, it registered a growth in economy reported to be around 18%. This growth was taking it past UK to make it the fourth richest country in the world. Illegal sex and drug trafficking lie under black market squares and go untaxed. The taxation of these businesses would result to a remarkable boost in the economy by a factor.

It is estimated that in U.S for example, the sale of illegal marijuana business is worth between $10 billion and $100 billion each year. This is a very big figure which evades the government’s taxing and hence a big loss to the state. Just like illegal marijuana, illegal sex among many other illegal or black market businesses go untaxed and governments lose a lot of money which would otherwise contributed to the country’s economy.

Would inclusion of drugs and sex in GDP have benefit to the people involved?

If these businesses succeed to being included in the GDP, it will mean that they will be legalized. This will be a boost to the people involved in these businesses since it is no longer considered illegal by the states and thus transacting in such businesses is not punishable by the state. Likewise to the drugs user, it brings sense of responsibility, as the person can regulate one’s self on when to take the drug and the quantities to take at given times.

Drug Market Already Adding To GDP Figures

 

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Is there a Law to Govern Drug Abuse by Pregnant Women?

August 16, 2014

Drug Abuse By Pregnant Women

What does the law require?

drug abuse by pregnant womenThis new law does not affect men; it is among the few laws which affect a given gender, the females only. This law seeks to protect the newborns against the effects of drugs as result of abuse of these drugs by the mother while they are pregnant.

Among the drugs which triggered the enactment of this law were the heroine and heavy prescription drugs which the pregnant mothers abused and hence their effects depicted in the newborns. It was found that many of the newborns were born with dependency on the drug which the pregnant mother abused. This is what prompted the need to regulate the drug abuse by the pregnant mothers, with sight to protect the newborns from drug addiction.

Is this law in use anywhere in the world?

The law which criminalizes the use of drugs by a pregnant woman has not been embraced in many states of the world. The alternate laws have rarely been used to charge the women who cause harm on the newborn due to use of a certain drug while pregnant. Contrary to these countries, a country known as Tennessee has enacted a law which declares it a crime for any woman to use drugs while she is pregnant.

Drug abuse by pregnant women has been criminalized in Tennessee, and it remains to be seen whether more states will be following the suit. A bill signed into law by the Republican Governor of Tennessee Bill Haslam explicitly criminalizes drug abuse while pregnant. The law came into effect in July and will remain in effect until 1 July 2016. While other US states, such as Alabama and South Carolina, have used fetal harm laws to charge drug-using pregnant women, Tennessee is the first state to adopt this criminalization approach. The new law allows women to be criminally charged with an “assaultive offense for the illegal use of a narcotic drug while pregnant, if her child is born addicted to or harmed by the narcotic drug or for criminal homicide if her child dies as a result of her illegal use of a narcotic drug taken while pregnant”. Supporters of the new law say its aim is to protect babies but a coalition of medical, public health, women’s rights, and social justice groups worked to oppose the bill as it made its way through the Tennessee legislature: “Under the Obama administration, we’ve really tried to reframe drug policy not as a crime but as a public health-related issue, and that our response on the national level is that we not criminalize addiction”, Our national strategy is based on the fact that addiction is a disease. What’s important is that we create environments where we’re really diminishing the stigma and the barriers, particularly for pregnant women, who often have a lot of shame and guilt about their substance abuse disorders”.

Even after signing this bill into law, due to its controversy the Governor of Tennessee was quoted as saying, “I understand the concerns about this bill, and I will be monitoring the impact of the law and regular updates with the court system and health professionals,”

This law has already been put into use and some women have been charged for committing the crime of using heavy drugs while pregnant.

Does this law have any benefit?

Arguably, this law has benefits especially to the newborns. The law protects the newborn from effects of the heavy drugs which the pregnant mother may use. Research has shown that newborns can be born with dependency on the drugs which the mother abused during the pregnancy. This law seeks to reduce these chances of a child being born with dependency in a given drug.

Another advantage of this law is that it can help in the reduction of drug abuse and consequently addiction. Since pregnant mother will fear the course of the law due to the effects of the drugs they abuse during pregnancy. This will make such women to be willing to undergo recovery from drug addiction or stop taking drugs if not yet addicted. This temporal stoppage of taking of the drugs can cause the patient to permanently stop taking the addictive drugs.

drug abuse by pregnant women

What makes this law controversial?
This law has been controversial ever since it was a bill. The main problem with this law is that it focuses on the effect of the drugs on the newborn with a view that they were taken during the pregnancy period. The fact is that some people may be taking the drugs before the pregnancy and stop immediately they become pregnant but still pass the effects of the drugs to the newborn.

Another factor is that this law doesn’t respect the rights of drug addicts, who cannot be able to stop taking the drug during the pregnancy period. Even if they were to enter a recovery period during the pregnancy period, it is not possible to completely stop taking the drugs, since all the recovery programs emphasizes on gradual withdrawal from the drug, which is a process which can cover the entire pregnancy period before completely withdrawing from the drug.

Another controversy of this law is that it also talks about addiction from opioids which are prescription drugs which are likely to be prescribed to the pregnant women for pain killing. This aspect has attracted questioning of the law by doctors who claim that it is very likely that a pregnant woman will be prescribed opioids and thus the law would make the women charged for a mistake they cannot avoid.

Drug Abuse By Pregnant Women

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The US Drugs Control Strategy

August 16, 2014

The Us Drugs Control Strategy May Favor Physicians

The 2014 US drugs control policy came as an advancement of the 2013 National Drug Control Strategy, which emphasized for an approach based on scientific research on addiction, evidence-based prevention programs, increased access to treatment, a historic emphasis on recovery, and criminal justice reform. This policy seeks to reduce the increasing rates drug addictions triggered deaths which have been on a rise.

This policy is actually an incentive and a sure new income stream for Physician who are professionals in drug addiction recovery. Physicians need to take advantage of this law to learn about the natural treatment of addiction and implement it in their offices for realization of great psychological and financial rewards.

The US National Drug Control Strategy 2014 is a continuation of the approach of the Obama administration’s earlier strategies with an emphasis on early intervention, treatment, recovery support, criminal justice reform, effective law enforcement, and international cooperation. While the overall framework, goals, and the agency responsibilities set out in Obama’s first Strategy remain in effect, the 2014 Strategy seeks to address issues such as declining perceptions of harm and increases of use of cannabis among young people, problem opioid use disorders and new synthetic drugs. The strategy has goals to be attained by 2015 including a decrease in the 30-day prevalence of drug use among 12- to 17-year-olds by 15 percent and a reduction of drug-induced deaths by 15 percent.

Why should physicians take advantage of this policy?

The physicians should actually take advantage of this policy to research on the natural treatments for addiction. The process of researching on new ways through which a given disease can be treated is obviously an expensive adventure. Many physicians may not afford to conduct sufficient research due to the limitations in resources required in the process of conducting the research.

The intervention of the US government has not only given the physicians a go ahead to conduct these researches but also allocated resources to sponsor any physician who seeks to contribute to the achievements of the drugs control strategy‘s objectives. Some of the treatments when discovered need to be piloted on. The right to administer a medication on a human being to determine its effectiveness requires authorization. With the US government’s drugs control strategy, it is very unlikely that such rights will not be granted, and thus the physicians’ experimentation process receives a boost.

What does the drug control strategy entail?

The drugs policy strategy has its key issues outlined. These are the key issues that must be addressed for the realization of the strategy’s objectives. The following are these key issues outlined by the strategy:-

  • Strengthening the Efforts to Prevent Drug Use in the Communities

The strategy here, looks at addiction as controllable if prevented in the first place. It focuses on the community and the role which each of the persons in the community can play in controlling the drug substance use and hence controlling addiction. It seeks to strengthen the community’s norms against drugs abuse. It also views the personal educational achievements as one of the causations of drugs abuse. It therefore emphasizes on the need to ensure self-sufficiency in the community.

  • Seek Early Intervention Opportunities in Health Care

The strategy emphasizes on the needs to diagnose the disorder drug usage and control it before it causes disorders to the patient. This makes the health care costs lower than treating the disorders when left to occur. This can be helpful to the physicians if they device a natural treatment which can diagnose and control the early symptoms of the drugs’ disorders.

  • Integration of substance use disorder treatment into health care

The US government also strategized to Integrate Treatment for Substance Use Disorders into Health Care and to Expand Support for Recovery. Since the process of recovery from drug addiction is a long process, this strategy seeks to make it possible for the patients to be able to get support from health care professional. It also discourages the use of opioids in the treatment of pain, since it is known to be addictive. If the physicians can exploit this opportunity by researching on the natural effective natural treatment, they can get the backup of the government as offering the appropriate medication and hence realization of great financial rewards.

 

  • Break the Cycle of Drug Use, Crime, Delinquency, and Incarceration

Drug addiction may lead to the abuser being charged before a court of law especially if the addiction is from an illegal drug. Even after the sentence, the person is likely to repeat the punishable behaviors and form a crime cycle. To end this cycle, breaking of the drug cycle is importanr. This strategy proposes that during the sentence, the addict should be put under recovery scheme which should continue even after the sentence.

If you need help with addiction or know of a friend suffering from this addiction, call in live or email us and we will help you get trusted treatment and advice. We are true professionals with proven track records and are very reliable in treatment.

The Us Drugs Control Strategy May Favor Physicians

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Effects of Heavy Use of Cannabis On the Brain and Body

August 15, 2014

Effects Of Chronic, Heavy Cannabis Use On The Executive Brain Function

What is cannabis?

This is a plant which is commonly known as marijuana and by many other names. Though this plant is sometimes used for medicinal value, it is commonly used for recreational purposes as a depressant. If the drug is taken in large doses it can be an hallucinogen.

What makes cannabis to have effects in the brain?

Heavy CannabisThere is a specific chemical which is found in the cannabis, and which is responsible for the effects that cannabis have in the brain. This chemical is called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). This chemical varies in quantity in the cannabis depending on factor such as the part of plant that is used, the plant variety, and the condition under which the plant was grown. This is what makes cannabis from different geographical areas to be different.

When this chemical enters in the brain, it causes the user to have a ‘high’ feeling. This is because the chemical (THC) enter the brain reward system and activates it. This occurs by stimulating the brain cells to release another chemical known as dopamine.

How does cannabis have medicinal value then?

Cannabis when taken in small doses may cause little or no harm in your body. When it is abused can have an intense negative effect on your body though. For medicinal value of cannabis, small doses are administered due to the properties of the chemical THC which emulates properties which make it have medicinal value. These properties are:-

  • Cannabis has shown to be effective as an anti-nausea drug.
  • It has also shown to be effective in the treatment of glaucoma, which is a very serious eye condition.
  • It has likewise shown to be valuable in stopping loss in weight, improving moods and also easing of pain. This is according to (National Task Force on Cannabis 1994:17)

What are the effects of using cannabis?

Just like we earlier mentioned, when cannabis is abused it can have effects on the user. These effects can be categorized as either short term or long-term effects. There are effects which will be witnessed after a short period of abuse, while there are others which may take quite long before they are witnessed on the cannabis user. In most cases, the short-term effects are the ones considered as effects of cannabis abuse.

The following are the general effects of cannabis abuse:-

  • Mood fluctuations – the person experiences mood changes occasionally, revolving around relaxed, ‘high’, sleepy, anxious depressed and many other mood forms.
  • Impaired memory and attention – the person faced difficulty in remembering as well as paying attention.
  • Stronger sensory experience
  • Increased heart beat rate may result
  • The person may be faced with dizziness and nausea
  • Cannabis abuse has been associated with abnormal hunger.
  • May cause dilated pupils and blood-shot eyes.
  • Other effects of cannabis abuse worthy mentioning are confusion, anxiety, hallucination, delusion, agitation and sometimes paranoia. In the long run, apart from these short term effects of cannabis, it may lead to smoking related cancers. This is in the most cases the respiratory system cancer. It may also lead to permanent memory loss and difficulty in learning.

What effects can cannabis abuse have on employees?

The effects of cannabis in employees may make the workplace an abyss. In any given workplace, teamwork is key, but how the employees relate determines whether teamwork will ever exist in a given firm. The usage of cannabis by either the employees or the CEO affects the workplace in the following ways:-

  • Poor interpersonal relations – the employees will not relate well, since the cannabis effect of ‘highness’ cause disrespect. The cannabis user rarely relates well with the other employees and hardly respects the authority.
  • Poor/ low output – the output of the employees who use cannabis decline. This is as a result of impairment in memory and retention of instruction. For instance, a person may forget how a given machine is normally operated, though he/she has been working with it before.
  • Activities such as meetings and time bound tasks will be negatively affected. This is especially the case with the person whose memory has been affected and cannot remember scheduled events like meetings.

Heavy Cannabis

  • Accident proneness – the employee who uses cannabis will be at a high risk of causing accident especially if he/she is working by use of machines which can cause accidents. For instance, if an employee was using an electrically powered machine, a small mistake may lead to shock or even loss of one’s live.
  • The levels of error are high- this can be a serious problem especially with doctors, where a small error may cost life of a patient. If a doctor is using cannabis, errors such as wrong prescription of drugs, inappropriate operation, misinterpretation of results etc. may occur, causing damage or loss of live of the patient. Imagine of a surgeon who is to do a surgery but he/she is in cannabis ‘highness!’ actually a serious damage may occur, since the surgeon cannot be keen with details.
  • Relationship with clients will be negatively affected. A cannabis user cannot maintain good relationship with the clients since his/her attention may be impaired. This causes clients/ customer decline in numbers over time and hence losses to the firm.

If you need help with cannabis addiction or know of a friend suffering from this addiction, call in live or email us and we will help you get trusted treatment and advice. We are true professionals with proven track records and are very reliable in treatment.

Effects Of Chronic, Heavy Cannabis Use On The Executive Brain Function

 

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