Drinking none is healthier than drinking some, studies find
… and more recovery advocacy news, issues & musings
Curation with occasional commentary by Jeremiah Gardner
NOTE: This was originally published for the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation’s monthly Recovery Advocacy Update. If you’d like to receive our advocacy emails, subscribe today.
📕 READ: Just in time for Alcohol Awareness Month, a new analysis of 107 studies found that having an alcoholic drink or two per day is not healthier than abstaining. Can’t help but wonder how much money it cost for all those studies and the analysis to confirm what Bob from my recovery meeting’s been saying for years. :)
🤔 DID YOU KNOW? After catching Bob Feller’s famous Opening Day no-hitter in 1940 and driving in the winning run, Cleveland Indians star catcher “Rollicking” Rollie Hemsley announced in a Chicago hotel news conference that his past erratic behavior on and off the diamond had been due to “booze.” More importantly, he shared that he had been sober for one year “with the help of and through Alcoholics Anonymous.” The late historian Ernie Kurtz, whose treasured book Not God; A History of AA is from Hazelden Publishing, said it was one of the key factors in AA spreading so quickly thereafter.
🔊 LISTEN: Rollie Hemsley speaks in 1968 (talk begins at 7:40 mark).
📕 READ: Major League Baseball teams are extending alcohol sales into later innings. Learn why.
📕 READ: “Is It Too Soon To Start Talking about a Cure for Addiction?” See what NIDA Director Nora Volkow is excited about.
📕 READ: A new probiotic blunts the ill effects of alcohol in mice. Maybe humans too?
📕 READ: The Scottish government made alcohol more expensive — and it saved people’s lives. Could this strategy be implemented in the U.S.?
📕 READ: A new study examined a unique, brief treatment for alcohol use disorder that used imagined experiences and movements — like pretending to hurl your favorite drink away from you — to help override an individual’s urge to drink. I must say, I’ve tried actually tossing a drink in my past, and it didn’t seem to help!
📕 READ: Thousands of Russian casualties in Ukraine are “linked to alcohol consumption,” says UK Intelligence.
📕 READ: Elizabeth Vargas tells Yahoo Entertainment about being “forced” to go public about her alcohol use disorder 10 years ago — and her plans for tackling substance use and mental health topics on her new show, Elizabeth Vargas Reports on the cable startup NewsNation. “I mean: You can get better — and that’s a really powerful message,” Vargas says. “I’m grateful for the fact that I get to show it. I’ll get to show it every single night I’m on the air.”
🔊 LISTEN: Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Mary Lambert opens up about recovery in the season-opener of another Elizabeth Vargas endeavor — her Heart of the Matter podcast.
📕 READ: Here’s a fascinating nugget of history: Tennessee, the state now marketing its Whiskey Trail, once housed the country’s one and only institution of higher education centered on the banning of alcohol — American Temperance University.
📕 READ: What is bariatric transfer addiction? Amanda Wilson blames transfer addiction for the death of her sister, who soon turned to alcohol after undergoing gastric bypass surgery in 2013.
📕 READ: Almost half of all DUI offenses in Manhattan got tossed last year, five times the rate before a new “discovery” law kicked in.
🎉CELEBRATE: It’s National Collegiate Recovery Week!
📕 READ: The FDA approved the first over-the-counter Naloxone nasal spray for use without a prescription. “It’s about time, this is a blessing. This is an opportunity to save even more lives,” says the Betty Ford Center’s Dr. Olatunde Bosu, M.D. The nasal spray could be on store shelves and ready to buy without a prescription by late summer.
📕 READ: When the Rev. Erin Jean Warde first became sober, she was totally comfortable with the “private sober life.” But, she jokes, God didn’t exactly respect her boundaries. Check out this Q&A with the recovery advocate and new author from Austin, TX.
📕 READ: Twelve years into his addiction recovery, Milwaukee Bucks Assistant Coach Vin Baker announced the opening of two Vin Baker Recovery Centers in Wisconsin.
📺 WATCH: Everywhere you look, it seems, there’s a new digital health product. How do you know if it works? Our Butler Center for Research leader Dr. Quyen Ngo joined Woebot Health’s Meeting of the Minds podcast to answer 10 must-ask questions about evaluating the science behind health tech.
📕 READ: Newly available test strips can detect the lethal animal sedative xylazine, or ‘tranq,’ in the drug supply. The DEA also issued an alert about the spread of xylazine-laced fentanyl, which is now in all 50 states and most concentrated in Philadelphia, according to the U.S. Drug Czar.
📕 READ: Nice advocacy here on why it’s problematic for reporters, or anyone else, to refer to xylazine as a Zombie Drug. “Pause and think — would you help a zombie?”
📕 READ: Beautiful Boy author David Sheff writes a nice balanced piece in the New York Times about the rationale and mixed evidence for various forms of involuntary addiction treatment.
📕 READ: “People can become addicted to cannabis just as they can with other drugs, like alcohol or cocaine.” That’s the main point in this New York Times piece. It’s easy to be incredulous about the fact that a case still needs to be made for such a long-known, well-researched truth. But then I remember how misunderstood addiction is in the first place. That’s the more fundamental deficit we need to continue addressing.
📕 READ: A bipartisan task force is pushing Congress to dedicate a week this year to mental health and substance use awareness.
📕 READ: A psychedelics-as-medicine pioneer is now taking the ultimate “trip” of his own.
📕 READ: A new study reinforces what ought to be a no-brainer: incorporating addiction treatment medications into emergency care for Medicaid patients who overdose could help limit patient deaths after discharge. While this seems clearly to be the right thing to do for patients, there is also a financial incentive for emergency departments to adopt such an approach. … Another new study looks at whether buprenorphine-equipped ambulances can help link overdose survivors to addiction treatment before they even get to the emergency department.
📕 READ: Cannabis that older people take for pain, sleep or anxiety can lead to other health problems. Here’s what to watch for.
📕 READ: Expert says patients given aripiprazole to treat depression, psychosis and schizophrenia ‘should be told of gambling addiction risks.’
📕 READ: Patients who need medications like Xanax and Adderall are reportedly being denied prescriptions due to a clause in one of the major opioid settlements, which places a cap on the number of controlled substances that pharmacies are allowed to dispense, according to Bloomberg News.
📺 WATCH: In recent years, Hazelden Betty Ford has expanded care and support options for families and children. We are excited that further expansion is now on the horizon, thanks to generous supporters like the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation.
And finally, a moment of lightness …
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Jeremiah Gardner is director of communications and public affairs for the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation.
