Alcohol Consumption

August 8, 2014

Alcohol Consumption – How does alcohol make you feel

Alcohol consumption is legally allowed in all societies even though it is affecting our lives negatively. The sooner you get help the better.

I was sharing with someone struggling with alcoholism and it amazes me how he down played the real issues surrounding this substance. His comments were centered around what to him are the benefits he gets when he is drinking alone or with his friends. He was very happy with the short time feelings attributed to alcohol stating them one after the other like being calmer, relaxed, being talkative occasionally, less shy and less co-ordinated and even being warm due to the flushing of the skin occasionally. It is true that these feelings are realistic with alcohol consumption but burying one’s mind of the less effective happenings and leaving the most health risks is not being faire to yourself and to the society. Alcohol is not all about what has been shared the reasons why we are sharing every now and again about this substance is because alcohol may slow your reflexes, movement and thinking. It can make some people aggressive. For others, drinking can depress them or make them more depressed. When people are intoxicated (drunk), they may:

Have blackouts that is to say that they are losing their memory
Slur their speech or have trouble walking
Feeling sleepy or lose consciousness
Be more likely to have falls and other minor or fatal accidents
Get alcohol poisoning or even die in the process
Have slower reflexes and thinking
Take more risks and make bad decisions that could be life threatening.

It is true that you’re being persuaded to consider stopping your drinking habit for the benefit of your family and to the society as a whole which is in fact the right thing to do however do we have any consequences of stopping drinking or cut back instantly? The answer is a big yes. The truth is that those who have been into heavy drinking needs to pull out gradually and not instantly. The gradual pull out helps in reducing bad feelings and other serious physical effects and some of those feelings may include the following:

Feeling nervous and jumpy
Have sleep problems
Have tremors (the shakes)
Have seizures
Have hallucinations i.e. thinking that they are hearing or seeing things that aren’t really there.

These feelings are called withdrawal symptoms. Therefore;

Alcohol Consumption – How long do the effects of alcohol last?

We do not have specific time for everybody since different people responds differently to alcohol, it will certainly depend on how fast you get drunk, and how long it will take you to get sober, the variance will depend on the following:

How much you drink meaning what quantity you consume.
How quickly you drink. The speed with which you swallow your drinks.
Your sex, gender counts the way men and women get affected is not the same.
How tired you are
Whether or not you have eaten before drinking, it is always bad drinking on an empty stomach this affects negatively.
What drugs are in your body, when you’re taking alcohol alongside other drugs, you’re bringing in more complications to your life
Your body type, the effects of alcohol in your body may be different from that person struggling with his or her weight.

I want to draw to your attention that when we are talking about alcohol abuse it is important for you to know that your problems with alcohol consumption depend on the quantity of alcohol you consume. You will not be affected by the type of drink you take, this will be of no use, whether you drink beer, coolers, vodka, coolers, wine or liquor it is the quantity you take cumulatively.

Alcohol Consumption – The dangers and the law

You remember my friend I was talking to, when he was listing his reasons why he takes alcohol his list appeared to be positive all through which begs the question is alcohol dangerous? Of cause the answer is a big YES, alcohol can be dangerous in many ways like excess consumption will cause hangover – headache, feeling sick generally, vomiting and shakiness. Let us also consider the following conditions where alcohol consumption may be causing danger.

Alcohol Consumption – Pregnancy

It is advisable that any woman who is planning to get pregnant or pregnant already should talk to her doctor about alcohol and other drugs promptly. This discussion with your health provider will help you do the right things and prepare for the baby well. One fact that we should register in our minds about alcohol consumption is that there is no known safe level of drinking for a pregnant. A woman who drinks during pregnancy is more likely to have:

A miscarriage
To have the baby born prematurely
To have the baby born dead
To have other problems.

Alcohol consumption during pregnancy may cause the baby to be born with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) which means the baby may have physical abnormalities, behavior problems and other difficulties.

Alcohol Consumption – Breastfeeding

If a woman is breastfeeding, alcohol can be passed to her baby through the mammary gland milk which may have adverse effect on the baby’s feeding, its sleep and the general development of the baby. Pregnant mothers needs to take this seriously and consult with their doctors preferably a gynecologist or pediatric for the best medical advice that will help both the mother and the born or unborn child.

Finally alcohol is a very dangerous substance and being addicted to it even compounds the dangers. If you or anybody you know id struggling with alcohol you can seek for help from Dr. Dalal Akoury who is an addiction expert of many decades and also the founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center. Doctor Akoury founded this facility to give her contributions towards eradicating drug addiction in our societies. You need to be free from this alcohol problem and doctor Akoury is all you need to be free again. She will together with her team of experts offer you an all exclusive NER Recovery Treatment which will help you get out of your addiction condition and have your life back living it to the fullest.

Alcohol Consumption – How does alcohol make you feel

Alcohol Abuse Kills

August 4, 2014

Alcohol Abuse Kills — Let’s Discuss the Magnitude

Alcohol is a killer drug it is very addictive and destructive to its users irrespective of the age and genda

If we say that alcohol is friendly and does not kill we are cheating ourselves and the society we live in. it is true that alcohol is legally allowed for human consumption and if you consume it moderately you may not find yourself in the wrong side of the law and still live a happy life. However this is not just a drug but a lethal one not just to the direct consumer but even to the people around the direct user. According to the World Health organization, alcohol is killing more than 3 million people globally each year translating to one person every 10 seconds. Does that one scare you? The picture illustrated by these statistics is that more than the population of people losing their lives due to AIDS, tuberculosis, and violence put together die as a result of alcohol. It must be made clear that these statistics includes alcohol-related driving fatalities, violence, and health issues arising from excessive alcohol consumption.

Because alcohol is legal in most countries, and because especially in the US and western culture in general it is promoted in advertising and glamorized in film, its dangers are often minimized or disregarded by young people, and the warnings about problem-drinking and its consequences are viewed as the admonitions of uptight grownups. Unfortunately, the facts support the admonitions.

So, how can alcohol kill you? Here are a few ways it can and does end lives:

Drunk driving accounted for ten thousand deaths in 2010 that was over thirty percent of all traffic fatalities. For how long will we be losing lives because somebody is sitting on their jobs, the authority, the drivers, passengers and the other general public must work and pool together to reduce deaths on our roads.
It is estimated that an acute alcohol poisoning kills over one thousand people each year.
The available findings from a study done about some years ago indicated that sixteen thousand people died in 2010 from alcohol-induced liver disease.
Over fifty percent of people who die in fires have high blood-alcohol levels.
One quarter of all emergency room admissions, one-third of all suicides and more than half of all homicides and incidents of domestic violence are alcohol related.
Unintentional injuries related to alcohol consumption cause over eighteen hundred deaths each year among college students.
Health problems, including increased likelihood of stroke, diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver, esophageal cancer, and compromised immune system can lead, if untreated, to premature death.
Alcohol in combination with other drugs, especially pain medications, tranquilizers, and sleep medications, can cause death by slowing down respiration as well as by causing the aspiration of vomit.

The simple fact among many risks involved to those taking alcohol in large quantities is that alcohol impairs judgment, cognition, inhibitions regarding excessive risk-taking and acting out of aggressive tendencies, and other faculties that reduce the likelihood of accident or death. If alcohol consumption becomes regular, increases over time, or increases in amount, or if consequences of drinking are accumulating, treatment is indicated, because yes, alcohol can kill you.

If you are an addict to alcohol you may not be able to completely understand what we are discussing in this article because to you alcohol is all you know as the solutions to your problems however much as we may agree with you that for a while alcohol may make you forget your problem or stressing issues the truth of the matter is that as soon as the alcohol content is brought down to a manageable level and sobriety sets in you will get back to your frustrating condition which you were trying to escape from.

Alcohol Abuse Kills — The liver

The liver is the organ that takes toxins out of our blood and converts
them to a non-toxic substance that the body can easily dispose of. The liver takes alcohol, and using the liver cell enzymes, will convert it into
acetaldehyde, then to acetate, and then to CO2 and water.

Some who over-consumes alcohol in a very short period of time doesn’t
give the liver cells a chance to make enough enzymes needed to convert it and when left unconverted completely, it can cause it to become Toxic to the liver cells.

People who consume alcohol over long time periods can develop fat inside
the liver which causes pressure there and can damage the liver cells.

Taking alcohol with medications can cause an interaction to occur between
then that can instantly damage the liver cells. {Example: Alcohol taken
with acetaminophen]

Some people are more sensitive to alcohol and some are even allergic to it.
Just like someone taking any kind of drug…it can cause a serious problem
to occur in people immediately or over a long period of time or not at all.
Each person is different.

The real sign that the liver is not able to handle the amount of alcohol is
becoming drunk. The alcohol is one of the substances that can go pass
the blood brain barrier (that protects the brain) and cause mental changes
to take place. In simple understanding alcohol kills and you must run away from alcohol as you can by seeking help from the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under Doctor Akoury’s care. At this facility you will walk in with your alcohol problem heavy on your shoulder and leave that burden with them as the experts. Doctor Akoury together with her team of experts will focus on Neuroendocrine Restoration (NER) to reinstate normality through realization of the oneness of Spirit, Mind, and Body, Unifying the threesome into ONE

Alcohol Abuse Kills — Let’s Discuss the Magnitude

Overcoming Sugar Addiction

August 2, 2014

Overcoming Sugar Addiction – The Recommendations

Overcoming sugar addiction. Sugar is the only legal poison we are allowed to take freely at the expense of our health

Even though addiction to sugar is much stronger for some people than others, the truth is sugar is highly addictive in many ways. For instance when you’ve overeaten junk foods like cookies, candy, cake, or ice cream in relation to who hasn’t, at some point you’ll know its seductive pull. Food processors bank on it when they load sugar into soft drinks, breakfast cereal, soups, salad dressings, spaghetti sauce, energy bars, and even catsup. As a result, most of us develop a strong craving for sweets, without even realizing how much sugar we consume on a daily basis

The prevalence of sugar addiction is doubtless more common than you may think and in American for example the average consumption of sugar is about 20 to 30 teaspoons (about ½ cup!) which has been linked to a variety of health problems, including obesity, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), attention and memory problems, hyperactivity, anxiety, and depression. Every month a new study comes out adding to the list of risks posed by consuming sugar and its cousins, high-fructose corn syrup, maltose, and dextrose. Despite the risks, we continue to eat sugar because it is so addictive. In fact, sugar meets all the criteria for an addictive substance:

It stimulates release of neurotransmitters in the brain, such as dopamine and serotonin, in a manner similar to alcohol, cocaine, and other drugs of abuse.

People eat it compulsively, despite negative consequences and the intention to stop.
With continued use, people develop a tolerance to its effects.
Heavy sugar consumers have trouble functioning without it.
When consumption ceases, withdrawal symptoms occur.

Overcoming Sugar Addiction – Getting Sugar problem under control

It is not very easy to free yourself from any kind of addiction and sugar addiction is not left out in this respect. The basic reasons why this may be difficult is because sugar addiction is both rooted in the physical and psychological and it will take the effort of both approaches put together when attempting to eliminate this kind of addiction. It important noting that the few times you take the lesser times you will crave for it and when you feel any withdrawal symptoms you must not be discouraged by this as it will only last for a while and then you will feel more balanced and energetic than ever and the following will help you make it easier to get your sugar problem under control.

Keep sugar and sugar products out of your house – this should include all the white and brown sugar, corn syrup, and maple syrup.

Eat enough healthy food to satisfy your hunger – only consume healthy, whole food snacks like fruit, carrots, red pepper, cherry tomatoes, dates, and dried fruit to satisfy your sweet tooth and drink plenty of water too. Add a little fruit juice to sweeten iced tea, carbonated water, and other sugar-free drinks. Frozen fruit, whole or pureed, makes a delicious alternative to ice cream. Once you have cleared sugar from your system, your taste buds will become more sensitive, and these whole natural foods will taste sweeter and more satisfying. If you slow down and eat mindfully, you’ll enjoy these foods even more.

Eat three regular meals each day – combining complex carbohydrates (vegetables, whole grains, and fruits), lean protein (poultry, fish, meat, dairy, tofu) and healthy fats (milk, cheese, omega-3’s, olive oil and other cold-pressed oils). This will help you maintain a steady blood sugar level throughout the day and reduce your sugar cravings. Eating a diet high in fiber also helps to reduce sugar cravings.

Take a multivitamin and mineral supplement. – Chromium picolinate and l-glutamine help to reduce cravings for some people.

When out ensure you are not greedily hungry – especially if sugary sweets will be the only food available. Bring your own healthy snacks with you, or eat before going out.

Get regular exercise – plenty of sunlight, and adequate sleep to reduce sugar cravings.

Identify and manage cravings that are not a result of physical hunger – but instead are rooted in stress or anxiety. Develop alternative ways of managing stress like take a walk, call a friend, read a book, play with your pet, watch a movie. Breathe, meditate, listen to music, or take a hot bath to activate your body’s relaxation response. Relaxation helps to balance your blood sugar and reduce cravings.

If you have turned to sugar to deal with uncomfortable feelings – try to identify the specific feelings and respond appropriately to them. If you are tired, take a break or rest, rather than trying to persevere in the face of fatigue. If you are bored, find something stimulating to do. If you are lonely, reach out to a friend. Overcoming your sugar addiction involves really paying attention to what you are feeling, and giving yourself what you really need instead of using sugar as a substitute.

If you do overindulge in sugar – acknowledge that you slipped, and get back on track as soon as possible. Let go of the guilt and shame. Eating sugar is unhealthy, but it’s not a sin. As with other addictions, it doesn’t matter if you need multiple attempts to quit, just that you keep trying until it sticks.

Be kind to yourself – To end the struggle with sugar, learn to nourish your body well and respond compassionately to your own feelings. The best sugar substitute is genuine self-acceptance.

In conclusion dear reader it is true that sugar is sweet and no one cannot deny that but as it is said not all that glitters is gold you must be careful not to fall prey of this white poison. Just in case you’re already addicted there is help at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under Doctor Akoury who is also the chief executive of the facility. She is an experienced medical doctor of several decades of practice and together with her team of experts they will focus on Neuroendocrine Restoration (NER) to reinstate normality through realization of the oneness of Spirit, Mind, and Body, Unifying the threesome into ONE.

Overcoming Sugar Addiction – The Recommendations

Sleep deprivation and Addiction

July 31, 2014

Sleep deprivation and Addiction – Why it is important to sleep well

Sleep deprivation is not healthy at all. It becomes complicated if you are addicted to certain substances. Ensure you get enough sleep for good health.

After a long day of work you retire home and after taking a cold or warm bath and c nice healthy meal all you would want is to fall asleep. It is actually a routine that we retire to bed every night. What many may not know is that sleep is not just for relaxation of your body after work, it also has great benefits other than relaxing like good memory, health, looks, ability to lose weight and even positives on your sex life. It is therefore necessary that we have not just good but adequate sleep. The following are some of the consequences of not having enough sleep:

Sleep deprivation and Addiction – Accidents

Majority of fatal accidents on our transport sector especially road transport is as a result of sleep deprivation. Drowsiness can slow reaction time as much as driving drunk will. The problem is not just on the road poor-quality sleep also leads to accidents and injuries at the workstations. In one study, workers who complained about excessive daytime sleepiness had significantly more work accidents, particularly repeated work accidents. They also had more sick days per accident.

Sleep deprivation and Addiction – Sleep Loss Dumbs You Down

Sleep plays a major role in thinking and learning. Lack of sleep injures these cognitive processes in many ways. It impairs attention, alertness, concentration, reasoning, and problem solving. This makes it more difficult to learn efficiently. Besides these during the night, various sleep cycles play a role in combining memories in the mind and if you are deprived of sleep, you may not be able to remember what you learned and experienced during the day.

Sleep Deprivation Can Lead to Serious Health Problems

Sleep disorders and chronic sleep loss can put you at risk for:

Heart disease
Heart attack
Heart failure
Irregular heartbeat
High blood pressure
Stroke
Diabetes

Lack of Sleep Kills Sex Drive

The experts are reporting that sleep-deprived people may report lower libidos and less interest in sex. Depleted energy, sleepiness, and increased tension may be largely to blame.

For men with sleep apnea, a respiratory problem that interrupts sleep, there may be another factor in the sexual slump. A study published in 2002 suggests that many men with sleep apnea also have low testosterone levels. In the study, nearly half of the men who suffered from severe sleep apnea also secreted abnormally low levels of testosterone during the night.

Sleep deprivation and Addiction – Depression

Over time, lack of sleep and sleep disorders can contribute to the symptoms of depression. The most common sleep disorder, insomnia, has the strongest link to depression. In a 2007 study of 10,000 people, those with insomnia were five times as likely to develop depression as those without. In fact, insomnia is often one of the first symptoms of depression.

Insomnia and depression feed on each other. Sleep loss often aggravates the symptoms of depression, and depression can make it more difficult to fall asleep. On the positive side, treating sleep problems can help depression and its symptoms, and vice versa.

Lack of Sleep Ages Your Skin

Most people have experienced sallow skin and puffy eyes after a few nights of missed sleep. But it turns out that chronic sleep loss can lead to lackluster skin, fine lines, and dark circles under the eyes.

When you don’t get enough sleep, your body releases more of the stress hormone cortisol. In excess amounts, cortisol can break down skin collagen, the protein that keeps skin smooth and elastic.

Sleep loss also causes the body to release too little human growth hormone. When we’re young, human growth hormone promotes growth. As we age, it helps increase muscle mass, thicken skin, and strengthen bones.

Sleep deprivation and Addiction – Forgetfulness

If you want to keep your memory sharp then get good and adequate sleep. Researchers have established that the brain events called sharp wave ripples are responsible for consolidating memory. The ripples also transfer learned information from the hippocampus to the neocortex of the brain, where long-term memories are stored. Sharp wave ripples occur mostly during the deepest levels of sleep.

Losing Sleep Can Make You Gain Weight

When it comes to body weight, it may be that if you snooze, you lose. Lack of sleep seems to be related to an increase in hunger and appetite, and possibly to obesity. People who sleep for under six hours a day are almost 30 percent more likely to become obese than those who slept seven to nine hours.

Recent research has focused on the link between sleep and the peptides that regulate appetite. Ghrelin stimulates hunger and leptin signals satiety to the brain and suppresses appetite and sleep deprivation is associated with decreases in leptin and elevations in ghrelin. Not only does sleep loss appear to stimulate appetite. It also stimulates cravings for high-fat, high-carbohydrate foods. Ongoing studies are considering whether adequate sleep should be a standard part of weight loss programs.

Sleep Loss Impairs Judgment

Lack of sleep can affect our interpretation of events. This hurts our ability to make sound judgments because we may not assess situations accurately and act on them wisely.

Sleep-deprived people seem to be especially prone to poor judgment when it comes to evaluating the effects of lack of sleep in their lives. In our increasingly fast-paced world, functioning on less sleep has become a kind of badge of honor. But sleep experts say if you think you’re doing fine on less sleep, then you’re very wrong for example if you work in a profession where it’s important to be able to judge your level of functioning then this can be a big problem.

Studies show that over time, people who are getting six hours of sleep, instead of seven or eight, begin to feel that they’ve adapted to that sleep deprivation they’ve gotten used to it. However if you look at how they actually do on tests of mental alertness and performance, they continue to go downhill. So there’s a point in sleep deprivation when we lose touch with how impaired we are. In conclusion take time and sleep well because failing will not just be disastrous to you but even to others. In case of any problem of addiction or weight gain due to your action of sleeping less then you may want to visit AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under Doctor Akoury’s care for professional help. Doctor Dalal Akoury will focus on Neuroendocrine Restoration (NER) to reinstate normality through realization of the oneness of Spirit, Mind, and Body, Unifying the threesome into ONE and you will have your life back completely.

Sleep deprivation and Addiction – Why it is important to sleep well

Alcoholism and Obesity

July 30, 2014

Alcoholism and Obesity – Their Relationship

Alcoholism and Obesity are two health conditions you must not allow to affect you all at the same time.

From the definitions of the two terminologies you may not see clearly the absolute similarities however these two conditions (alcoholism and obesity) may be much more correlated that you have ever imagined. If you look at the two conditions, you will realize that both are provoked by an episode of loss of control. It may not matter how the loss of control took place whether it was genetically instigated, propelled by environmental factors or it was just a moment of one’s weak moments does not count, the common denominator is there is a loss of control.

Many people suffering from these conditions normally invest heavily in the management of their addiction occasioned by various factors like struggling to maintaining control, feeling guilty or just juggling with when they will access their addictive elements that is alcohol or food. With this both conditions can grow progressively worse and when taken to the extreme can be life threatening.

The powerful ingredients making alcoholism and obesity to be similar are the contents of what causes their being addictive which are ethanol and food and how they work on the brain. For instance ethanol stimulates reward centers in the brain exactly the way sugar, salt and fat also do. It is because of this that people with a tendency of over-drinking may also have the same tendency to overeating.

Alcoholism and Obesity – Alcohol and Weight loss

Ignorantly people often say that alcohol consumption increases appetite and therefore alcohol consumers are motivated to eat more thereby gaining weight. This is not true since ethanol which is the key addictive ingredient in alcoholic drinks and fat from foods have approximately the same amount of calories however those people suffering from alcoholism have a tendency not to be affected by obesity primarily because they are often malnourished due to poor feeding habits having replaced a portion of their food calories with calories from alcohol

According to a study conducted in 2005 sampling regular alcohol consumers it was established that those who drank the smallest amount (i.e. one drink per day) with the extreme frequency (i.e. three to seven days per week) had a lower body mass index (BMI) than those who drank more occasionally, but in larger units. Even though we may not rely heavily on these findings they may indicate some relationship between over-drinking and overeating.

Connection between Alcoholism and Obesity

Early 2010 researchers from Washington University School of medicine released one of the most important findings regarding the connection between obesity and alcoholism. The study was based on two large alcoholism surveys previously done where 80,000 people participated in both. They then put proper control on all the factors of the study and the ultimate finding was that in quite recent survey those with a family history of alcoholism had a greater chance of being affected by obesity. For women, who had a 49 percent greater chance, this was especially true. One possible reason is that in trying to avoid the alcoholic behaviors observed in their families, people replace alcohol with a different addiction.

Surprisingly enough researchers did not find any connection or association between obesity and family history of alcoholism in the first survey. The fact that the link strengthened as much as it did in the relatively short amount of time between the two surveys suggests that environmental factors (the increase in sedentary times; the increased prevalence of fatty, sugary and salty foods in grocery stores and restaurants; and the reduced access to opportunities for activity) are involved. In brief a genetic risk might be submissive in a world that makes maintaining one’s weight a relatively straightforward task. But, change the environment to make unhealthy eating easier and being active harder, and the problem will become apparent.

Finally in their (researchers’) comments in their publication they focused on changes to our food environment, suggesting that obesity may be rising in “individuals vulnerable to addiction. This may be specifically the result of a changing food environment and the increased availability of highly palatable foods.”

Alcoholism and Obesity – Overlapping Brain Pathways

More and more, neuroscientists are finding similarities in the pathways that lead to excessive eating and dependence on alcohol and other drugs. Both obesity and alcohol addiction have been linked to the brain’s reward system. Overconsumption can trigger a gradual increase in the reward threshold, requiring more and more palatable high-fat food or strengthening alcohol to satisfy cravings. It is no secret that addiction and obesity the two major and most challenging health problems in U.S and many other nations across the globe today. It is therefore important that we learn from these research findings to not just keep talking but to put into practice some of the knowledge we have gathered about addiction to the study of overeating and obesity.

Every day possess an opportunity to learn something new and we are privileged to be learning more about how eating and drinking are indistinguishably connected at the physiologic level. These physiologic commonalities help to explain why the behaviors of excessive food intake and excessive alcohol consumption share so many similarities. Nonetheless, in appreciation of possible link between obesity and alcoholism we all have a duty to unlock the link and use the findings to understand, treat and most importantly prevent these two diseases from further damaging our societies and families.

It will finally take a collective approach for all of us to win this race. On your part you can contribute by talking to the experts like Dr. Dalal Akoury, Founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center concerning all that may be bothering you concerning these these health conditions. Doctor Akoury and her team of experts are there for you and your friends to ensure you are not just educated but well treated by offering exclusive NER Recovery Treatment to you, your friends, other physicians and health care professionals through training, clinical apprenticeships, webinars and seminars. Remember together we will win and celebrate having chosen to be a part of this truly successful and fast addiction recovery treatment.

Tag Archives: Addiction