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Exercise plays a key role in addiction recovery

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Move it –

Sep. 26, 2020 – Exercise became my path to restoring my self-worth, my pride and my identity. I finally felt like myself again, and I’m convinced it saved me from going down a dangerous path. So many people have turned to alcohol or substances to cope with challenging times, and that could easily have been me too.

Having seen the power of exercise bring me back from rock bottom, I’ve made it a personal mission to help others realize the healing power of exercise. Because mental health is such a critical factor in addiction recovery, exercise is becoming a top priority in the way we treat and manage both short- and long-term recovery here at Desert Hope, an American Addiction Centers facility in Las Vegas. And we’re also working to incorporate physical fitness as part of our treatment regimen across our entire network of recovery centers.

Here’s why we’re making exercise a key priority to help patients find and stay on a path of self-care and sobriety. Many of these same benefits apply to anyone struggling with anxiety, depression or other issues that have intensified due to COVID-19 isolation.

• Natural mood booster: It’s well-documented that the hormones released during exercise, including endorphins and serotonin, can enhance mood and alleviate anxiety, fear and depression. This can help to offset symptoms of withdrawal and provide a natural “fix” without the use of substances that cause harm. For this reason, exercise also addresses some of the underlying mental conditions that lead to substance use.

• Improved sleep: Getting adequate sleep can be a huge problem for people in recovery. By fatiguing the body and setting up a healthy cortisol/melatonin cycle, exercise supports the body’s natural circadian rhythm, which can help offset sleep disturbances common during detox, ongoing recovery and for those dealing with mental health issues. If you’re worn out from a great workout, it’s pretty hard to lie awake all night with worry and anxiety.

• Patterns of healthy behavior: Many individuals in recovery need to fill the gap created when they shift away from a lifestyle of substance use. Trading addictive behaviors for exercise establishes a pattern of healthy behavior that has been shown to minimize the risk of relapse and decrease compulsion and cravings.

more@LAsVegasSun

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Dax Shepard Says He Is Newly Clean Off Vicodins

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Rigorous Honesty –

Sep. 25, 2020 – “Eight years into sobriety, I had not done a single shady thing,” he said. “I hadn’t done anything gray.”

At that time in 2012, he had been traveling back and forth to visit his dad, who was undergoing cancer treatment at a hospital. It was around this time that he also suffered a motorcycle accident on his way to the “Parenthood” set. 

“I immediately called my sponsor, and I said, ‘I’m in a ton of pain and I gotta work all day. And we have friends that have Vicodin,’” Shepard recalled. “He said, ‘OK, you can take a couple Vicodin to get through the day of work, but you have to go to the doctor, and you have to get a prescription, and then you have to have Kristen [Bell] dole out the prescription.’” 

Shepard agreed and followed the guidance. However, not long after, he flew back out to see his dad and–because his wife wouldn’t be with him–traveled without the pills.

While there, he ended up giving his ailing father some Percocet. For his part, Shepard said he himself took double what his other prescription was. “You know, we had so little in common and so much f—— friction,” Shepard recalled. “But the no. 1 thing we had in common was we were both f—— addicts and we had never used anything together. And we sat there stoned and looked at the lake. And in that moment, I felt elation and I was just happy.”

Later, Bell surprised him where Shepard was with his dad to offer her support, and Shepard admitted he had relapsed. While she told him he needed to call someone from Alcoholics Anonymous, she knew he had been experiencing a lot of pain from his motorcycle accident and that he’d been dealing with the stress of his dad’s health. 

“That was eight years ago,” Shepard continued, later adding, “I’ve now had this experience where I did that, I felt bad, but there wasn’t any fallout from it. It was like, I felt bad, I said I felt bad, and then I did just move on and it was fine.”

After Shepard got hurt again, he was once again administered pills. However, because they kept him up at night, he decided to save them and take them on his own.

“That cycle happens maybe three or four more times,” he recalled. “I feel shady, but I don’t feel like this is a problem. I didn’t desire more when the thing was over.”

more@Eonline

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Timmy Solomon, a guide through the Rehab Riviera, dies of overdose at 31

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Makes ya wanna holler –  

Sep. 26, 2020 – “You are out of your mind with worry,” she had said in a phone call from her home in Boston. “And you don’t know where it ends. Well, you do. It ends with death.”

Patty Solomon is a special education teacher and was at school when she got the news. A doctor was on the phone telling her all the things that he had done to save her son.

She had been here before, on the phone with hospitals aiding her son, and in her mind he had been saved and she was already plotting the next step: Getting him out of the hospital and back in rehab.

And then she heard the doctor say: We did everything we could. But it didn’t work.

“I’m devastated,” she said.

more@OCRegister

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Traditional AA, Repression, Oppression, and Alienation

How’s that for a title?

A discussion of a traditional AA fellowship’s repetition of God language turned up today on Facebook. The poster was upset by the repeated references, and not only references but worshipful statements, about God, Jesus, etc. (not to be confused with the Wilco song “Jesus, Etc.”). Some of the comments struck me as dismissive – the poster was told that they needed to keep going in order to counter this discourse, and that although this is annoying, the benefits of staying in meetings is worth it. I needed a minute to understand why I felt as upset about the dismissive responses as I did. (Reading Herbert Marcuse’s essay “Repressive Tolerance” later in the day has helped me clarify it further still.)

The problem of God-discourse in AA meetings is not the personal problem of an individual non-believer. It is not merely something that individual must cope with in some way. That is because the God-discourse is part of a religious ideology that is dominant and can overtake meetings thoroughly. No matter how much it is repeated that AA is a “spiritual program, not a religious program,” this ideological discourse sets up a division in the fellowship, between those who believe in or at least comply with the ideology and those who cannot. In the dominant ideology of AA, believing or complying are called necessary for sobriety and recovery. Members are exposed in every traditional meeting to a main text, a set of steps, a set of traditions, and innumerable documents and utterances that refer to God or Higher Power. Moreover, members are called upon to follow the program. There is a coercive atmosphere surrounding the 12 Steps, the book of Alcoholics Anonymous, and the sponsor-sponsee relationship – all of which demand “strict adherence.” That is the context in which the word “God” is spoken.

It is not plausible in this situation that an individual non-believer would incur no social penalty or cost for maintaining and expressing their non-belief. A non-believer is immediately unlike the group. A non-believer who expresses their non-belief stands against the ideology; the non-believer is alienated by non-belief. That alienation is unavoidable, and has nothing to do with whether the group tolerates or suppresses the non-believer. Every truly traditional AA fellowship oppresses the non-believer, because even in their most magnanimous tolerance, the hegemonic power exerted by the fellowship oppresses the non-believer. The non-believer remains alienated simply because they do not believe.

The problem is political, not moral or personal. The non-believer faces a choice that no believer must face: of finding a way to remain in the fellowship and remaining oppressed, or leaving the fellowship, because of non-belief. Choosing to remain in the fellowship, the non-believer has more work to do, more cost to pay, every meeting and interaction with others in the fellowship. At every moment, the non-believer must choose (what the believer never has to choose) whether to acquiesce, negotiate, resist, or subvert. Each of those choices comes with further social and psychological cost to the non-believer.

Among the costs, one that is particularly hidden is a cost created by the structure of ideological belief. Ideology denies itself as ideology: to the ideological believer, it does not appear to be ideology, but reality. The believer in traditional AA believes that AA is a “big tent,” and that AA welcomes everyone, in accordance with the 3rd Tradition. Any effort by the non-believer to negotiate, resist, or subvert the dominant ideology is met with incredulity, because to the believer, the non-believer’s action is incomprehensible, since there is nothing to negotiate, nothing to resist, and no need to subvert. AA, after all, “never forces anyone to do anything.”

Personally, I have so far chosen to stay in a traditional fellowship. I am open and vocal about my non-belief, including my non-belief in the necessity of the 12 Steps. When I go to meetings, I am prepared to express my non-belief and expose myself to further alienation, and sometimes retribution. I do it because one thing I can profess to is a belief in the goodness of resistance and subversion. My alienation is what makes it clear to me how traditional AA oppresses, and so the experience of alienation is key to understanding that oppression, and the hegemony of religious belief in the fellowship. The greater my understanding, the more I know how to resist and subvert.


This article was originally posted on September 14, 2020 on the website The Anonymous Philosopher.

 

 

The post Traditional AA, Repression, Oppression, and Alienation first appeared on AA Agnostica.

New addiction program launched as emergency room visits rise

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – Expanding Series and Hope –  

Sep. 23, 2020 – “We’ve come a long way in Georgia since I stepped out of the crack house October 12, 1994 in terms of resources,” he said. “We’ve come a long way as far as stigma and public understanding, but we’ve got a long way to go.”  

Emory Psychiatrist, Dr. Justine Welsh, said now, it’s more important than ever to have the Alliance during this pandemic.

“I’m seeing an escalation in alcohol use, and cannabis, and opioids, and stimulants like methamphetamine and cocaine,” Welsh listed Overdoses are up, too, experts said. Emergency room visits from overdoses from December of 2019 to April of 2020 were up 17 percent – and that just tracks the first few months of the pandemic. 

“And we expect those numbers to continue to go up,” Welsh added. 

Welsh said the Addiction Alliance of Georgia aims to fill in the gaps to support as many Georgians as they can.

“Addiction is an illness that doesn’t discriminate and recovery shouldn’t discriminate either,” Moyers agreed.

The Alliance has a goal of increasing clinical services, research and education, and even developing programs for school-aged children to teach them about addiction and decrease the stigma of getting help.

“Not just to people with insurance, not just to people with jobs, but for all people who need help and healing,” Moyers said. 

more@11Alive

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FDA Concerned Over the Quality of Surgical Gowns in the US

FDA has informed customers about the possible quality concerns associated with specific surgical gowns. Last week, Cardinal Health, a company that manufactures medical devices, released a statement notifying the public regarding the quality concerns related to its Level 3 surgical gowns and the packs used to keep these gowns.

Cardinal Health provides no guarantee regarding the sterility of these surgical gowns and PreSource surgical packs used for them. The company and the Food and Drug Authority have suggested that customers should stop the use of these affected products instantly.

Cardinal Health has collaborated with the FDA for analyzing the origin and effects of these quality concerns. In any health care facility, surgical gowns are found to be beneficial in providing barrier protection and preventing moderate to high risk of contamination.

On the basis of the functioning of their liquid barrier, surgical gowns have been divided into four categories, providing barrier protection of different intensities. Among these, Level 3 surgical gowns are being used in knee replacement or open-heart surgeries, offering moderate risk protection.

Also Read:  New Diagnostic Test to Detect the Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Gets FDA’s Approval

Wearing surgical gowns prevents transmission of particulate matter, body fluids, and microbes, providing protection to not only patients but also health care professionals. FDA and Cardinal Health are working together to deal with quality health concerns related to these products.

They will make an effort to understand the possible impact of these surgical gowns and packs on the users and patients. The team will also identify the particular lots that are affected and their affect on the supply chain.

Right now, FDA is majorly concerned about the potential contamination of Cardinal Health’s medical products and has suggested customers avoid their use. FDA’s spokesperson said that the company would also inform the public about the specific products affected and issue a recall.

The disruption in the supply chain of these products can also affect patient care. In health care facilities like hospitals, this matter may even lead to the cancellation of non-elective surgical treatments. FDA is dedicated to alleviating any harmful effects in the patients as a result of this concern. But currently, there isn’t any evidence regarding the harm caused by this concern.

Also Read: FDA Warns About the Possible Cancer Risk Associated with Weight-Loss Drug Lorcaserin

Many FDA-approved alternatives for these level 3 surgical gowns are also available in the market that provides protection at the same level. The Food and Drug Administration will proceed with its collaboration with Cardinal Health and warn customers about the impact of these concerns on the supply chain of these medical products and the possible shortages.

FDA motivates healthcare facilities to provide them with data regarding possible or actual supply concerns. The authority’s device shortages mailbox ([email protected]) permits patient, user, organization, or manufacturer to notify FDA of any delay in the product distribution or anticipated shortage.

FDA added that it will keep on monitoring the situation and will keep the public informed of the evolving situation.

About Cardinal Health

Cardinal Health, Inc. is a company that provides healthcare products and services at a global level. It supplies its clinically-proven medical devices and solutions to physician offices, pharmacies, hospitals, clinical laboratories, health systems, and ambulatory surgery centers.

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No Need Of Medicines To Get Rid Of Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes or adult-onset diabetes is a form of diabetes that causes a high level of glucose in the blood and less sensitivity to insulin (the hormone that draws glucose from the blood to get energy). Weight loss increased thirst, and frequent urination is some common symptoms of Type 2 diabetes.

Current research regarding health reveals that people above the age of sixty-five facing health issues should exercise at least for a minute per. This short span of exercise is sufficient to give health benefits.

In Dundee, researchers from Abertay University observed many people who participated in workout sessions. People of sixty-five to seventy-five years old participated in groups for eight weeks. Each individual of all the groups had been enjoying an idle and settled life without any physical activity.

None of them had been doing workout consistently. Every individual was given a stationary bike and was guided to wheel the bike for about 60 seconds by putting full energy and without taking any break.

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If any of them failed to cycle the bike for a minute would perform the process of SIT (Sprint Interval Training) again.

Researchers found that a weekly workout session was sufficient to control the glucose level in the blood and improve the mobility of the participants. Insulin resistance increases in individuals as they get older and fail to draw glucose out of the blood.

This failure causes many complications like liver and heart problems and may direct to Type 2 diabetes. Physical activity is the best thing to treat type 2 diabetes. Along with exercise, a healthy meal is required to maintain blood glucose levels. Diabetes may lead to kidney problems and nerve pain so physical fitness and activity are required to reduce the chances of diabetes.

Dr. John Babraj found that SIT plays an important role in improving health. SIT enhances the capacity to draw glucose out of blood if completed once or twice a week. Muscles get the required glucose produced from exercise and in turn, a lower glucose level of blood. It not only lowers blood sugar level but also cope with heart complications, lowers blood pressure, reduces cholesterol level, and increases the sensitivity to insulin.

The study revealed that individuals performing SIT twice a week showed a better performance than those who didn’t. Progress was also observed in individuals participating in SIT once a week.

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Many improvements in the general activity to do daily work were observed in the individual participating in STI and differences were assessed in a common occupation like the effectiveness to walk up and downstairs, to open the door, and to do the daily chores.

For people with old age have huge complications because of the loss in the physical functioning of the body, social isolation and it affects the standard of life. Social isolation intentionally declines life standards.

The current researches find that older adults need to participate in the workout. Older people should go for an exercise of moderate intensity every week but it is very hard for older people to complete this task. Dr. Babraj wills to introduce SIT (sprint interval training) in the Government’s physical activity guidelines.

Better acclimatization was observed from both groups participating in STI once and twice a week than the minor changes expected by the researches.

 

The post No Need Of Medicines To Get Rid Of Type 2 Diabetes appeared first on Spark Health MD.

What are the Effects of CBD on Menopause Symptoms?

The internet is full of the benefits and dangers of CBD that are often presented side by side. But in between all this, no one should forget the medicinal effects of CBD, especially on women’s health. There is a whole new debate on the safety levels of CBD products for menopausal women. The experts are still working on it but there are so many CBD infused products such as bath salts, lubricants, and vagina suppositories for dryness that people are buying.

Menopause is a difficult stage of every women’s life where her body shows many uncomfortable symptoms and eventually it changes their mood. There are so many products available to ease the symptoms of menopause. Some women take supplements, some go for hormone replacement therapy while a large number of the population relies on conventional remedies, and using CBD for menopause is one of them.

But it is hard to determine if these CBD infused products are safe or not; whether they would ease the menopausal symptoms or not.

Dr. JoAnn V. Pinkerton teaches at the University of Virginia, he says that using CBD for menopause is still an unproven remedy because despite these products being available so easily, there are no clinical trials and safety tests conducted for them. So everyone who is buying these products must know that these CBD infused products are not the first line of treatment for menopause symptoms.

Many medical experts acknowledge the medicinal benefits of CBD but still, it is hard to say that it is completely safe to use. Cannabis or marijuana is a common plant that has certain phytochemicals inside that are well-known for their psychoactive effects. These phytochemicals include tetrahydrocannabinol THC and Cannabidiol (CBD).

THC gives the cannabis plant its traditional “high” effects while CBD is not as psychoactive and doesn’t cause intoxication. This is why CBD-infused products do not make their users high or intoxicated.

There is so much research on CBD oil to show benefits on a number of medical conditions such as epilepsy, pain relief, and addiction treatment. But the information on the benefits of CBD in menopause symptoms is limited.

But there is research-based evidence that suggests the effects of CBD on inflammation and pain. while many women have used these CBD infused products to relieve menopausal symptoms and they are quite happy with their results.

The researchers from the University at Albany collected data on menopausal and postmenopausal women that have used these CBD products to relieve their symptoms within the previous year. The results indicated that a majority of women were satisfied with their experience but these CBD products didn’t relieve “all” symptoms of menopause.

Women shared their most uncomfortable symptoms as muscle pain, irritability, sleeping irregularities, stress, vaginal dryness, bladder problems, etc. using CBD products has relieved many of these problems so CBD does have physiological and psychological benefits on the women.

THC and CBD both are natural anti-inflammatory agents. They ease muscular pain and relieve stress-related disorders. This way they improve the mood and prevents agitation and behavioral changes. Due to its calming effect, the user feels more relaxed and it even regulates the sleeping cycle.

Also read: The Truth Behind Keto Candy for Weight Loss 

But even after all these proven benefits, there is not much to predict if CBD infused products are 100% safe for women. Despite the benefits of CBD for menopause, there remain some risks associated with them.

For example, a study on investigating the effects of CBD on epilepsy revealed that many patients experienced worse side effects of it in the form of reduced appetite, abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, and insomnia. Some of them also showed liver problems.

Also, there is a high chance of CBD interacting with other medicines that a user might be taking; for example anti-depressants and sleeping pills. This gap in the regularity of the CBD-infused products would always remain a big safety concern and could only be solved with safety tests of these products.

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3 ways sobriety made me a better advisor

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Traditions – 

Sep. 17, 2020 – People rarely, if ever, get sober alone. In sobriety and in business, being part of a group allows you to benefit from the experience, strength and the hope of those around you.

2. What other people think of you is none of your business

As a young advisor, I focused on what I should do and was consumed with what others might think of me. Older people made suggestions about where I should live, how I should dress and where I should go to be seen.

I took their advice but ended up feeling incredibly inauthentic and unhappy.

As I continued in my sobriety, letting go of what others might think reinforced the importance of my job as a planner — to help clients discern and live their dreams rather than living out some idea influenced by what their parents did or what their friends planned to do.

more@Financial-Planning

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‘The Centers’ CEO resigns in Ocala

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Intriguing –

Sept. 13, 2020 – “Along the way, through each and every one of those mergers and acquisitions, the organization has gotten stronger, has provided a better level of care and we’re able to respond to community needs in a better way,” he said. “We’re able to do more with scale than we would otherwise be able to do.”

Organizations like The Centers and SMA rely largely on funding from the state. Private insurance, Medicaid and Medicare only cover a small portion of services, Norman said.

“Florida, in the nation, sits at 49th in mental health and substance abuse funding. It should be an embarrassment. The only reason we can’t get to 50 is that there is a state out there that gives nothing,” Norman said.

Baracskay took over the agency soon after an aborted attempt to transform itself into a combined mental and primary healthcare organization. The CEO then, Tim Cowart, wanted to offer primary healthcare services to increase the agency’s revenue.

The Centers’ board, in moving away from the effort, felt it distracted from the founding goal of providing mental health and substance abuse programs.

Founded in 1972 as Marion-Citrus Mental Health Center, mental health treatment remains central to the organization’s mission.

more@Ocala

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