Drug Addiction Increases Risk for Hep C

If your first thought was, “I thought I was vaccinated for Hepatitis as a kid,” you’d be partially right. There are five separate strains of Hepatitis, known as type A, B, C, D, and E (types D and E are extremely rare in the United States).

Vaccines for Hepatitis A and B are widely available in the United States and easily obtainable from almost any health care provider. In fact, on the recommendation of the World Health Organization, most children receive 2 doses of HAV and 3 doses of HBV vaccine by the time they’re two years old. There is no vaccine for the Hepatitis C virus. Infection takes hold in your liver, causing swelling, scarring, and eventual death from liver failure. Some people experience few, if any, symptoms.

Who is Most at Risk for Hepatitis C?

Hepatitis C is contagious and spreads from person to person via contaminated blood. Intravenous drug users are in the most dangerous position for infection when needles and syringes are either reused or shared with another user. Unprotected sexual encounters also create high risk for acquiring the virus, especially among homosexual males.

Because drug and alcohol use lower our inhibitions and risk assessment, drug addicts and alcoholics represent a large portion of the population with HCV.

How Can You Tell If You Have Hepatitis?

You can’t look at a person and tell whether or not they have the virus. A doctor has to extract a blood sample for evaluation, sometimes following up with an ultrasound or biopsy if there’s a suspicion that the disease has been progressing for a long time.

Symptoms can include: fever, chills, muscle aches, headaches, joint pain, abdominal discomfort, nausea, loss of appetite, vomiting, fatigue, weight loss, and even jaundice (distinctive yellow appearance of the skin and whites of the eyes). Some people experience all of these symptoms, some people experience just a few. Others may have symptoms only in the beginning, and still other people might not notice anything at all. No two people will respond the same.

How to Prevent Further Damage from Hepatitis

Obviously, the sooner you seek treatment, the better. The likelihood that we would participate in risky behaviors is much higher when under the influence. A good rehab center will discuss your drug history and run the necessary tests if infection is suspected. Treatment for the drug or alcohol addiction will give you a fighting chance at recovery and remission.

Cutting out soda, tea, and coffee from your diet and drinking water, milk, and 100% fruit and vegetable juices gives your body the hydration and nutrition it desperately needs. Eat less salty foods and more protein-rich foods to reduce inflammation and build healthy cells.

Also, be sure you are current with vaccinations for Hepatitis A and B, so infection with those strains doesn’t add further damage and scarring to the liver.

Tell Us: Were you aware of the risks regarding Hepatitis C and IV drug use before you began using needles? If not, would it have kept you from experimenting with IV drugs?

Time for Alcohol Rehab

Not to be confused with a sneezy rhinoceros, allergic rhinitis is inflammation of the nasal passages. That stuffy, itching, sneezing, burning feeling in your eyes, nose, ears, throat, and sinuses that usually happens in response to pollen, mold, or animal dander. Some people just call it allergies, or hay fever.

An estimated 40 percent of the world’s population suffers with this upper respiratory infection, with rates continuing to climb in first world, westernized nations. Usual treatments range from nasal sprays, to decongestants/antihistamines, to weekly allergy shots, which can all help clear up the infection. If the stimulus is still in your environment, however, symptoms will return after treatment ends.

What the Research Says About Alcohol Abuse and Rhinitis

So what does all this have to do with drinking too much alcohol? Plenty, according to a new study published in the Clinical and Experimental Allergy journal. Danish researchers monitored 5,870 women who were symptom-free at the start of the study. After nearly a decade, 1,354 had developed respiratory infections such as rhinitis and hayfever. They also found that the risk for developing the infections increased around 3 percent for every alcoholic drink consumed during a week.

The Significance of the Relationship Between Alcohol Abuse and Rhinitis

Individuals with eczema and asthma typically have more frequent bouts with rhinitis, and those who suffer from hives can find themselves with frequent outbreaks relating to alcohol use. While alcohol has long been recognized as a trigger for hypersensitive reactions, previous studies indicated suppressed immune responses leading to serious bacterial infections. Rhinitis, on the other hand, is thought to be a response from the body’s overactive immune system, stimulating it to act on everyday intruders as if they were life threatening.

The Symptoms of Alcohol Abuse-Related Rhinitis

Symptoms of rhinitis often include runny nose (rhinorrhea), frequent sneezing, post-nasal drip, congestion, coughing, wheezing, headache, and fatigue. While it won’t kill you, it certainly makes life miserable for a while and it’s yet another way that alcohol can mess with your life, mess up your head and just make you feel terrible in general.

Is it worth it? Are you ready to stop? Are you stopping because of the negative physical health effects? Tell us about it: what made you face your battle with alcoholism and get treatment at an alcohol rehab center and how you are staying clean and sober every day.

Alcohol Addiction

Most of the time, when we talk about the effects of alcohol, we tend to focus on the emotional and biological responses of the addict. But for every person addicted to alcohol, there are countless more who have been directly harmed by the user while under the influence.

Excuses, Excuses

When someone you love starts acting strange, it’s normal to try and find a plausible reason for their behavior. “He had a bad day.” “She really took it hard after the divorce.” “Grandpa’s just been so lonely since Grandma died.” You hope it will pass, and you try to get on with the day, not realizing that you’re actually contributing to the problem. In time, the alcoholic comes to rely on these supportive statements and may become defensive or hostile when your approval is withheld.

Men Versus Women and Alcohol Abuse

Managing emotions is a different game for different genders. The depressant effects of alcohol typically elicit physical, confrontational reactions in men, and emotional, provocative responses in women. In other words: men, because of their higher testosterone levels, tend to act out while women, because of their higher estrogen levels, tend to cry out.

Both become rooted in maladaptive patterns and relationships where men are predominantly the abusers and women are the proverbial victims, and it doesn’t seem to matter who is actually struggling with the alcohol addiction.

Startling Statistics on Alcohol Addiction

Close to half of all violent crimes are committed while the attacker is intoxicated:

* 37 percent of assaults
* 57 percent of domestic violence incidents
* 60 percent of sexual crimes
* 86 percent of murders

The law doesn’t make excuses for inebriated acts, and neither should you. Places like Al Anon can help you learn strategies for a good offense, and connect to other people who have loved ones that are either active or recovering alcoholics. Many groups now have online chat rooms and meetings if there aren’t any local services in your area. Learn how to stand up for yourself and step out of the abusive cycle with the dignity you deserve.

Does This Sound Like You?

Or someone you know? Have you found that you are more violent when you drink rather than sedated, like you may have hoped? The number of problematic scenarios that become possible when you drink to excess are too many to count. Violent behavior is just one of them. Get help at an alcohol rehab before it’s too late.

Alcohol Addiction Treatment

Naltrexone (Vivitrol) continues to make news among recovering alcoholics for its effectiveness in curbing alcohol dependence and consumption, but even bad publicity is good publicity. Since the drug was approved for use in 2006, there have been 70,000 doses shipped to medical clinics and rehab facilities around the country. While no one knows for certain how many doses have been administered, 196 reports of serious, adverse reactions at the site of injection have been submitted to the FDA.

Alcohol Addiction Treatment Drug Not Without Side Effects

The Vivitrol website advises both patients and doctors alike on the correct procedure for giving the drug. They warn:

“Once a month, a healthcare professional will inject Vivitrol into the upper outer portion of your buttocks, alternating sides each month. As with any intramuscular injection, some patients may feel pain or tenderness at, or after, the time of the injection. In addition, you might feel itching, swelling, a lump, or other discomfort at the injection site…. The most common adverse events associated with Vivitrol in clinical trials were injection site reactions, nausea, headache, fatigue, dizziness, vomiting, decreased appetite, painful joints and muscle cramps.”

If symptoms haven’t disappeared after two weeks, have grown increasingly worse, or you experience other symptoms that haven’t been listed, call your doctor for an immediate consultation. Sixteen patients have had to undergo surgical procedures as a result of abscessed tissue and necrosis. Yikes!

Take Charge of Your Alcohol Addiction Recovery

As with any drug or medication, it is vitally important that you are aware of how much, how often, and where the injections are supposed to be given. Have the nurse or doctor double check the label to make sure they are giving you the drug you are supposed to be getting. Observe any reactions. Keep tabs on yourself afterwards, or have a friend or family member keep an eye on you for a day or so. Most importantly, trust your instincts, even if your gut disagrees with what your doctor tells you.

Tell us: Have you ever been on Vivitrol? What was your experience?

What do you think of the use of medications to fight cravings during and after drug and alcohol treatment? Is it worth the risks?

drug addiction triggers

When you least expect it, the urge to use your favorite drug can sneak up on you as furiously as a tornado. You can feel it coming, and you know it will be a horrible outcome, but you feel powerless to stop it. That’s the nature of addiction. As soon as the familiar routine kicks in, all bets are off. Afterwards you might feel failure, shame, or a sense of self-loathing strong enough to jump start the cycle of abuse all over again.

The trick is to cut it off at the pass. Pay attention to the people, places, and things that activate your urge to use. The easiest way to deal with these situations is to avoid them at all costs. Sometimes, though, that’s easier said than done.

The People That Trigger Drug Addiction

The first hurdle most addicts encounter during rehab is the suggestion that they need to cut off contact with their friends who are drug users. Understandably, resistance to this idea is strong, because it means burning bridges with those who have helped you out and been loyal to you in the past. It also means you’ll be totally alone, and that can be much more frightening than the chronic effects of long-term drug addiction.

The Places That Trigger Drug Addiction

Avoidance also means steering clear of the places you used to frequent to buy drugs. Nightclubs, bars, and private parties are out. The risk is just too great that you’ll encounter someone you know that has drugs available. And if it’s available, are you strong enough to resist the temptation? In the beginning, probably not, but after years of sobriety… maybe.

The Things That Trigger Drug Addiction

When you think about the lifestyle that revolves around drug use, what comes to mind? Music, clothing, pipes, bongs, needles, even trippy toys can conjure up the anticipation of getting high. What’s the point in keeping these items around when you’re trying to stop? They become painful reminders of what you are giving up and only serve to keep you tied down to your old habits.

So when you’re ready to leave rehab and face life with renewed clarity and courage, clean out the clutter when you get home and make a statement to yourself that it’s not the way you want to continue living your life. There are better hobbies out there that can bring you much needed relaxation and a boost of self-esteem while encouraging new friendships and discoveries. The old adage “there’s a whole wide world out there just waiting to be explored” has never been truer than when you complete your stay at rehab.

What are your triggers? How do you fight them?

The other day I posted about a study that said cocaine use during pregnancy actually changed the structure of DNA in the baby’s brain. That makes sense, right? The fetus is developing and when drugs are present, it’s logical that how things developed would be affected. But you’re safe once your born, right? Especially once you’ve reached adulthood?

Wrong. It turns out that alcoholism can do the same thing to an adult’s DNA, change its very structure.

Alcoholism Withdrawal and DNA

In the simplest terms, chronic alcohol use reshapes your DNA without affecting the coded sequence or what you’ll pass along to your children. What it does affect is how your genes express themselves in your brain, especially in terms of the anxiety that is so prevalent when you try and stop drinking. These changes are called “epigenetic,” minor changes that specifically affect the chemical chromatin.

Dr. Subhash C. Pandey is a professor and director of neuroscience alcoholism research at the UIC College of Medicine and the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago, the lead author of the study. She says,

“This is the first time anyone has looked for epigenetic changes related to chromatin remodeling in the brain during alcohol addiction. Our findings suggest that HDAC inhibitors may have potential as therapeutic agents in treating alcoholism. We need new strategies to treat alcoholism that are directed toward the prevention of withdrawal symptoms. Anxiety associated with withdrawal from alcohol abuse is a key factor in the maintenance of alcohol addiction.”

Treating Alcoholism

Withdrawal symptoms after a long period of alcohol addiction can be overwhelming. It’s difficult enough to change your life and give up an addictive substance, but when that change comes with painful physical withdrawal, few make it alone. The longer you have been drinking, the more important it is that you get medical help and assistance with your alcohol addiction through alcohol rehab. If you would like to treat your addiction in the Santa Monica Mountains in Malibu, California, call The Canyon.
For more information about this study and others, check out the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) website and Medical News Today.

As if alcoholism, liver failure and a wrecked home and work life weren’t enough reason to get help for issues with alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction, a new study is out saying that alcohol abuse can cause brain damage. It’s about deficiencies of thiamine and insulin and the genes required for brain cells to produce these chemicals. In fact, they compare the effects of chronic alcohol abuse with that of diabetes.

Alcohol Abuse and Insulin

Suzanne de la Monte is a professor of pathology/ neuropathology and clinical neuroscience at Rhode Island Hospital and the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University. She says,

“Insulin is one of the most important hormones in the body. It has many functions, including regulation of metabolism. Cells throughout the body depend upon insulin just to stay alive and carry out ‘ordinary daily functions.’ The best known diseases associated with abnormalities in insulin’s availability or actions are Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.”

De la Monte says that it doesn’t matter whether you drink everyday or binge every so often; the effect of alcohol is the same:

“Alcohol is a toxin that clearly can injure or kill brain cells. Fortunately, alcohol has to pass through the gastrointestinal tract and liver where enzymes detoxify alcohol, and consequently reduce the levels that reach the brain. However, in either high concentrations, or at lower levels over a longer period of time, alcohol will dissolve some of the lipid in the cell’s membrane.”

Other Problems Caused by Alcohol Abuse

It’s no secret that chemical deficiencies and subsequent brain damage isn’t the only problem caused by alcohol abuse. Short-term effects can be even more devastating and include a tendency toward violence, car accidents, and a lifting of inhibitions that can end in any number of disastrous results.

But if you’re concerned that you or someone you love is suffering from dementia caused by long-term alcohol abuse, notify your doctor immediately. It’s never too late to get help for alcoholism.

Find out more about this study and others at Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (ACER).