Tag: alcoholism

U.S. Diet Guidelines Sidestep Scientific Advice To Cut Sugar & Alcohol

Rejecting the advice of its scientific advisers, the federal government has released new dietary recommendations that sound a familiar nutritional refrain, advising Americans to “make every bite count” but dismissing experts’ specific recommendations to set new low targets for consumption of sugar and alcoholic beverages.

The “Dietary Guidelines for Americans” are updated every five years, and the latest iteration arrived on Tuesday, 10 months into a pandemic that has posed a historic health threat to Americans. Confined to their homes, even many of those who have dodged the coronavirus itself are drinking more and gaining weight, a phenomenon often called “quarantine 15.”

The dietary guidelines have an impact on Americans’ eating habits, influencing food stamp policies and school lunch menus and indirectly affecting how food manufacturers formulate their products.

But the latest guidelines do not address the current pandemic nor, critics said, new scientific consensus about the need to adopt dietary patterns that reduce food insecurity and chronic diseases. Climate change does not figure in the advice, which does not address sustainability or greenhouse gas emissions, both intimately tied to modern food production.

A report issued by a scientific advisory committee last summer had recommended that the guidelines encourage Americans to make drastic cuts in their consumption of sugars added to drinks and foods to 6 percent of daily calories, from the currently recommended 10 percent.

Evidence suggests that added sugars, particularly those in sweetened beverages, may contribute to obesity and weight gain, which are linked to higher rates of chronic health conditions like heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, the scientific panel noted.

More than two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese; obesity, diabetes and other related conditions also increase the risk of developing severe Covid-19 illness.

The scientific advisory group also called for limiting daily alcohol consumption to one drink a day for both men and women, citing a growing body of evidence that consuming higher amounts of alcohol is associated with an increased risk of death, compared with drinking lower amounts.

The new guidelines acknowledge that added sugars are nutritionally empty calories that can add extra pounds, and concede that emerging evidence links alcohol to certain cancers and some forms of cardiovascular disease — a retreat from the once popular notion that moderate drinking is beneficial to health.

But officials at the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services rejected explicit caps on sugar and alcohol consumption.

Although “the preponderance of evidence supports limiting intakes of added sugars and alcoholic beverages to promote health and prevent disease,” the report said, “the evidence reviewed since the 2015-2020 edition does not substantiate quantitative changes at this time.”

The new guidelines concede that scientific research “suggests that even drinking within the recommended limits may increase the overall risk of death,” and that alcohol has been found to increase the risk for some cancers even at low levels of consumption.

But the recommendation from five years ago — one drink per day for women and two for men — remains in place.

The new guidelines do clarify, for the first time, that the limits apply to those days when alcohol is consumed. The vagueness of the previous recommendations left suggested to many American men that they could binge-drink a couple of days a week, so long as they did not exceed 14 drinks over the course of a week.

Dr. Timothy Naimi, a member of the dietary guidelines advisory committee, said the guidelines “reaffirm two important but overlooked health messages”: that alcohol is “a dangerous substance” and that drinking less is better than drinking more at all levels of consumption.

“This is especially a key point in the time of Covid and holidays, in which consumption has increased and important alcohol control policies have been relaxed,” such as restrictions on home delivery, Dr. Naimi said.

The main sources of added sugars in the American diet are sweetened beverages — including sodas, as well as sweetened coffees and teas — desserts, snacks, candy, and breakfast cereals and bars. Most Americans exceed even the 10 percent benchmark; sugars make up 13 percent of daily calories, on average.

The new guidelines do say for the first time that children under 2 should avoid consuming any added sugars, which are found in many cereals and beverages.

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Critics were disappointed that the federal agencies had ignored the recommendations of the scientific advisory committee.

“I’m stunned by the whole thing,” said Marion Nestle, a professor emerita of nutrition and food studies at New York University and author of several books on the government’s dietary guidelines.

“Despite repeated claims that the guidelines are science-based, the Trump agencies ignored the recommendation of the scientific committee they had appointed, and instead reverted to the recommendation of the previous guidelines,” she said.

The composition of the dietary advisory committees drew controversy earlier this year, because many of the experts had ties to the beef and dairy industries. Yet the scientists went further in their advice than had previous committees, particularly with the recommendations to limit sugar and alcohol, Dr. Nestle said.

“Those were big changes, and they got all the attention when the report came out last summer for very good reasons — and they were ignored in the final report,” Dr. Nestle said.

“The report was introduced as science-based — they used the word ‘science’ many times, and made a big point about it,” she added. “But they ignored the scientific committee which they appointed, which I thought was astounding.”

In other ways, the new guidelines are consistent with previously issued federal recommendations. Americans are encouraged to eat more healthy foods, like vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, seafood, low-fat or nonfat dairy, and lean meat and poultry.

The guidelines urge the nation to consume less saturated fat, sodium and alcohol, and to limit calorie intake.

Indeed, officials with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy organization, said they were pleased the guidelines continued to affirm a diet rich in fruits and vegetables and lower in red meat and processed meats, though they said it “misses the mark” on added sugars.

Jessi Silverman, a registered dietitian and public health advocacy fellow at C.S.P.I., called on the incoming Biden administration to take action to remove barriers to healthy eating, such as restoring nutritional standards for whole grains, sodium and milk in the national school lunch program, which were rolled back under President Trump.

For the first time, the guidelines take a “full life-span approach,” trying to sketch out broad advice for pregnant and breastfeeding adults and for children under 2.

One of the recommendations for pregnant women, those about to become pregnant and those who are breastfeeding is to eat ample seafood and fish that is rich in omega-3 fatty acids but low in methylmercury content, which can have harmful effects on a developing fetus. This dietary pattern has been linked to healthier pregnancies and better cognitive development in children.

The new guidelines emphasize the health benefits of breastfeeding, which has been linked to lower risks of obesity, Type 1 diabetes and asthma in children. Foods that are potential allergens, like eggs and peanuts, should be introduced during the first year of life — after 4 months of age — to reduce the risk of developing allergies.

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Should You Microdose to Treat Depression

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The following article is written by Ben Angel. Author of the book, Unstoppable: A 90-Day Plan to Biohack Your Mind and Body for Success. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | IndieBound. And be sure to order The Unstoppable Journal, the only journal of its kind based on neuroscience, psychology and biohacking to help you reach your goals.

If you asked 100 people about psychedelics, you’d most likely get 100 opinions based on their firsthand experience, strong condemnation or stories from their adventures at Woodstock in the ’60s. No matter what people might know or think they know about psychedelics, the 40-year moratorium that closed down related research in the ’70s is now coming to an end. Psychiatrists are beginning to realize that strategic, supervised use of these psychopharmacological drugs is helping people with mental disorders including obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, alcoholism, depression and cluster headaches. Still, are there enough scientific studies to warrant the use of these drugs in mainstream society?

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I’ll admit that talk of psychedelic therapy to treat depression makes me nervous. In researching my book, Unstoppable, I looked at other key triggers that can mimic psychological disorders like depression and anxiety, such as inflammation, nutritional deficiencies, hormonal changes, side effects from medications, gut imbalances and food sensitivities. The reality is, depression is complex. What works for one may not work for another. Any successful treatment must first identify the root cause of one’s depression successfully, which can be a complex process if not done under the right medical care. A psychedelic treatment isn’t suddenly going to fix a nutritional deficiency, for example, but it may help target other symptoms and behaviors that correspond with depression. This is why it was critical to set my own biases aside and speak to an expert.

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I was fortunate enough to interview Dr. Domenick J. Sportelli, who is board-certified by the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry for General Psychiatry and fellowship-trained and Board Certified in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He also specializes in human behavior and psychopharmacology. I wanted to get the most current information on the use of psychedelics in treatment for depression, anxiety and PTSD, so I first asked him first to clarify what psychedelics were.

“The term ‘psychedelic substance’ refers to an exogenous substance [derived outside the body] that, when taken into the body in various ways, physiologically, neurologically and psychologically manifest an internal personal experience of altered states of consciousness,” he explains. “This includes perceptual distortions, hallucinations, synesthesia [a mixing of the senses], altered sense of time and space, as well as potentially inducing what researchers call a ‘mystical experience’ — a sense of oneness, of noetic experience and an undefinable but profoundly spiritual quality.”

Is there enough evidence to support psychedelic therapy? 

Sportelli wants to make clear that the most researched psychedelics — LSD, psilocybin (mushrooms), peyote, MDMA, DMT and ketamine — have different mechanisms of action and even induce subtle, subjective experiential differences. Although each is grouped under the term “psychedelics,” they are quite disparate.

Dr. Sportelli is cautiously optimistic about the multitudes of large-scale, university-based testing and prior research compiled decades ago, but worries about the abiliity to circumvent bureaucracy and conduct safe, credible and substantial testing today. He does add that recent testing of psilocybin, LSD, ketamine and MDMA in particular has generated cause for optimism, and that they will likely have a place not only in continued, diverse research design and protocol, but eventually in therapeutic use.

What types of depression can psychedelics treat?

If we were to look at the onset of most mental illnesses, the majority start to become evident between the ages of 11 and 24, according to the National Institute of Health. With only 42 percent of people getting treatment, most typically do not seek out assistance until a secondary mental illness occurs several years later.

When asked how broadly psychedelics might be able to help treat people with depression, Sportelli concedes that, “Unfortunately, research hasn’t determined the level of scientific data to specify the type of depression or mood disorder that psychedelic therapy will benefit.” But he does add that research and data are beginning to show statistically significant improvements in mood, reduced anxiety, change in positive personality traits over time, the possibility of reducing addictive behaviors, reduction in suicidal tendencies and increased personal insight.

Do psychedelics treat the symptoms or the cause?

According to Dr. Sportelli, depression stems from a mix of genetic, biological, neurological, psychological and sociological factors. Recent research has demonstrated how the chemical breakdown of psilocybins closely resembles that of serotonin, and indicated the promising interplay of select hormone transmission. Dr. Sportelli stresses the critical role that these drugs might offer in mood disorders is at the forefront of the pharmaceutical quest for treatment.

“We have never seen substances like these that can potentially change the way that we look at our life and change perspective with lasting results,” he says, noting that they might be able to help “supercharge psychotherapy.”

Is this ultimately a recommend treatment, and where does one turn for it?

“At this time, in the U.S., I would only recommend this treatment be a part of, and under the close supervision of, a university-based IRB [Institutional Review Board]-monitored clinical trial,” Sportelli emphasizes. Before any psychiatric treatment, Dr. Sportelli also recommends a full medical and neurological evaluation to rule out any of the multitudes of medical circumstances that can manifest as a primary mood disorder, and reiterates that significant and often profoundly adverse outcomes associated with such powerful, mind-altering chemicals need to be weighed further as well. That’s why, as part of any regulated trial, all the necessary medical workups would be completed before participation.

Is the stigma around psychedelic therapy warranted? 

Sportelli acknowledges that there is a safety concern associated with psychedelics, and does not condone their recreational or illict use. But he does believe that regulated clinical trials, judicious and ethical research methodology and the progression for therapeutic intervention should not be overlook based on previous stigma and possible misclassification.

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I’ve never been one to throw the baby out with the bathwater. After interviewing Dr. Sportelli, I hold hope for the future, but also a concern for those who may seek out this kind of treatment without an accurate medical diagnosis. My number-one hesitation remains — that is we simply do not have the studies to show which types of depression psychedelic therapy successfully treats, which may result in people attempting to use a hammer when in fact they need a nail.

Either way, if you are to venture into this arena, find someone who specializes in it. The risk of going it alone could come at too a high price.

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What Is Alcohol Addiction & Why Makes Us Drunk?

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As Homer once said, this infamous molecule is both “the cause of, and the solution to, all of life’s problems”.

OK, it was Homer Simpson who said that rather than the classical bard, but it’s no less true or profound for that. Sometimes, the rubbish you come out with when you’re drunk really is quite clever, or funny, or both, so long as you can remember it properly the next morning.

Our ambiguous relationship with alcohol is older than civilisation – in fact there’s a strong argument that it was the cause of civilisation itself. We’ve been drinking it since our dawn as a species, and it probably helped us evolve into humans in the first place. It may even have played a role in the very creation of life on earth. No, I’m not drunk. This is proper science.

For all that time, alcohol has been, as Simpson said so beautifully, both a cause of great pleasure and, for a minority, colossal pain. Our relationship as a society with alcohol swings on a pendulum over time between celebrating the positives and deploring the negatives, and right now we’re over on the temperance side. Between 1785 and 1985, The Times used the term “binge drinking” a total of 49 times. The same paper ran over 300 stories about binge drinking in 2004 alone. Which is odd, because people were drinking much less in 2004 than their ancestors had been at pretty much any point in the preceding two centuries.

This means we live in an age of alarmist misinformation about the perils of booze, with a growing belief that any level of consumption of this “poison” is potentially harmful. If there were any truth to this claim, given the quantities we used to drink in the past, the human race would have been extinct long ago.

So what does alcohol really do to us? And how does it do it? The truth is, neuroscientists are still in the process of figuring this out. To a significant degree, it depends on who you are, what your relationship with alcohol is, what and how you’re drinking, and also, ultimately, what you mean by “drunk”.

Let’s look at the physiological effects first. The active component in booze is ethanol, which as molecules go, has all the sly charm of one of those beery lads who can worm his way past the velvet ropes of any bar in the world. Water soluble and small enough to pass through and between cell walls, ethanol is drawn first to the liver, which immediately begins to break it down. But the liver only works so fast, so surplus ethanol shoots on through to every part of the body and ends up in the brain within minutes. It does all sorts of stuff to our digestive system, our motor functions, our need to pee and much more, but it’s the feeling of drunkenness that fascinates us.

Information and instructions are carried around the brain by neurons – excitable cells that carry data. Neurons don’t touch, but communicate across tiny gaps known as synapses, using chemicals known as neurotransmitters. Simplistically, these fall into two types: “excitatory impulses”, which tell us to do stuff and are carried by glutamate, and “inhibitory signals” which tell us to do less, and travel via gamma-aminobutyric acid, or Gaba. Trillions of these signals are happening all the time, and their net effect is the mind itself, and our sense (some would say illusion) of consciousness.

Ethanol gleefully speeds into the synapses, cascading into the gaps between the neurons, and then sidles up to them, puts its arms around their shoulders and assures them it’s their best mate in the whole world. You might be suspicious if a stranger did this to you in a pub unless you were already gattered, but your neurons totally believe the ethanol molecules, and scientists still don’t really know why.

When it binds to glutamate, ethanol slows it down and stops it from acting, like the pub bore who pins you in the corner and gives you an episode-by-episode recap of Game of Thrones even though you keep saying yes, you’ve seen it, and you really have to go because you just remembered you left the babysitter in the oven. But it behaves quite differently with the depressive Gaba, basically convincing it to switch to shots, grab a kebab and then go on to a club and do Jägerbombs.

A reveller stops to help her friend after leaving a bar in Bristol City Centre on October 15, 2005 in Bristol, England
‘Loss of motor function, memory loss, nausea and so on often only kick in at high blood alcohol concentrations.’ Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

This double-bind effect – dulling the active signals and amplifying the sedative ones – is what we really mean when we say alcohol is a depressant: it doesn’t make you depressed – at least not at low levels – but it slows down and depresses your active functions, making the brain slower and more sedate and, given enough time and reinforcements, can accelerate the process until you pass out, or in very extreme cases, forget to breathe. But at the same time, ethanol also jacks up the release of dopamine, exciting the part of the brain that perceives reward. Your brain tells you this reward is related to the ethanol you consumed, so you consume more, depressing your brain function while increasing your sense of euphoria.

Loss of motor function, memory loss, nausea and so on often only kick in at high blood alcohol concentrations. The vast majority of drinking is more moderate, and here, perceptions of tipsiness are not as straightforward as simple brain chemistry. From the 1970s onwards, psychologist Alan Marlatt developed a series of experiments where the taste of a placebo was indistinguishable from that of an alcoholic drink. He gave the placebo to half the subjects and alcohol to the other half. But then he cut the group in half the other way too, telling half they were drinking alcohol and half they were not. So, you had people expecting alcohol and getting it, people expecting alcohol and not getting it, and vice versa with those not expecting alcohol.

Consistently, those who believed they were drinking alcohol – whether they actually were or not – showed signs of intoxication including flushed faces, more animated behaviour and slurring of speech. Those who thought they were not drinking alcohol – even alcoholics, in some of the experiments – did not. Marlatt also showed that the perceived effects of intoxication were far more pronounced in social situations than when subjects were drinking alone.

Why does alcohol make us drunk? When you look at the history of our relationship with it in light of Marlatt’s research, the smart-ass, know-it-all-on-the-bar-stool answer has to be: “Because we want it to.”

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