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Funko Pop Captain Kirk from Star Trek: The Original SeriesDom Talbot on Unsplash. A U.S. Surgeon General report issued in 2016 estimated that 21 million Americans have a drug or alcohol addiction. Addiction to drugs or alcohol is more common than cancer.

(Denver, Colo.) Caring for Denver has made great strides in combatting substance abuse and mental health problems for Denverites, according to its 2021 annual report. Created by a city ordinance, Caring for Denver launched in 2019. Sales tax dollars fund the foundation.

I’ve been sober from alcohol for over six years. When I quit drinking, I made the decision after some complicated healing work during a retreat. Before the retreat, I rented a house for five months in a rural Mexican town. I had friends around, but I was on my own when it came to the detox process.

May 10th, 2022 is the first ever National Fentanyl Awareness Day, a day advocates, families, the DEA along with over 150 other partners will join together to raise awareness on the rapidly growing fentanyl crisis happening across our nation. People are dying at an alarming rate due to illicit Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid. The nation hit a record in overdose deaths in a single year, from 2020-2021 over 100,000 people died from an overdose. Overdose numbers have tripled amongst teenagers in the last 2 years. Fentanyl has been the culprit in more deaths of people ages 13-45 then any other cause of death, including heart disease, cancer and all other accidents. Our young teens are being targeted, and they don't even know it. 35% of Americas teen haven't had any education on fentanyl or any other type of illicit drugs. They are experimenting with death as drug dealers are flooding our streets with fake pills laced with fentanyl.

There are many signs of alcoholic liver damage, especially towards the end-stage of the disease. However, most people don't recognize the early signs. That's because they are vague and confusing and overlap with many other illnesses.

Many alcoholic families let their young people drink and place it under the mask of “well they’re going to drink anyway, may as well do it at home where we can monitor it.” Unfortunately my drinking was never monitored by anyone, and as I got older, I started using it in increasingly dangerous and addictive ways.

I engaged in heavy alcohol use between the ages of 14 and 41. I quit drinking six and a half years ago, and one of the biggest reasons I got sober was that my mental health was at an all-time low. My physical health was also declining, but my mental health symptoms were the most painful to endure.

(Christopher Furlong/Getty Images) (PORTLAND, Ore.) Hello Portlanders! It's Monday, May 9 - Here's your daily round up of all the news happening in the City of Roses. 1. Portland mothers hold rally, demand the state do more for those struggling with addiction.

As a former nurse and recovering alcoholic, I have a lot to say about alcohol, heavy drinking, and health. I write about it because I know firsthand the damages that alcohol can inflict and I want other people to know too. Most people appreciate this knowledge, but occasionally I have people write to me feeling upset that I’ve rained on their parade. They tell me things like, “YOLO! We’re all going to die someday, so let’s eat, drink and be merry.”

I lost my father to alcoholic liver disease (ALD) in 2016. The diagnosis came on June 24th, and he died only three weeks later. As a former nurse and recovering alcoholic, his diagnosis and death lit a fire in me to understand more about this sneaky and deadly condition. I was in a unique position of being his daughter yet also knowing a lot about health issues and the inner workings of the healthcare system.

Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock, left, talks about the fentanyl crisis as county commissioners Abe Laydon and George Teal listen. |Douglas County. [DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLO.] The battle to fight the fentanyl crisis in Douglas County will take work at the local, state and federal levels was one of the messages at a Tuesday night town hall meeting in Castle Rock. The county also needs more addiction counseling and treatment programs.

Abstaining from alcohol has health benefits.(Alena Butor/iStock) Yes! The body is capable of repairing itself once it is completely clear of alcohol in its systems, but it depends entirely on how much a person drinks, how often they drink, and other health conditions a person may have.

After I quit drinking, I embarked on a long journey to heal my physical and mental health. As a former nurse and recovering alcoholic, I understand how alcohol affects our bodies and minds. As a nurse, I wanted to understand the deeper physiological aspects of why alcohol seems to make us so sick in all facets of our life. It’s one thing to realize that alcohol is toxic, but it’s another to understand the exact mechanisms for how this toxin destroys our ability to function and heal.

I’m a former nurse and recovering alcoholic and I write about alcohol and our health. My goal is to educate people about the health risks of alcohol use because most of us don’t fully understand the effect that alcohol has on our bodies. I recently got a question asking whether our bodies can repair themselves once we quit drinking.

Many people are confused about the diagnosis and prevention of alcoholic liver disease (ALD). As with other conditions, people believe that blood tests can detect an abnormality that can help doctors and patients understand the development of the disease. In the case of alcoholic liver disease, blood tests can be very confusing. Even though people may ask for blood tests to understand their liver functioning, these tests may not be that helpful. As a former nurse and recovering alcoholic who lost her father to ALD, I’d like to explain more about this as most people think that these blood tests are definitive when they’re not.

This may not be good news for some moderate drinkers, but new research shows that any amount of alcohol damages the brain and heart. A new UK study from the University of Oxford employed brain imaging techniques on 25,378 study participants who all drank moderately. The study took place between 2014 and 2020. What they found was that alcohol affected the grey matter in negative ways despite the fact that participants only drank alcohol at lower doses.

It’s true that alcohol initially seems to bring a calm state to our otherwise chaotic world, both inside ourselves and outside. If it didn’t bring a sense of calm, few people would want to drink it. However, we are kidding ourselves to think that alcohol can continue to make us calm because it absolutely won’t.

In the past, some research has shown that alcohol may be healthy for the heart. However, current research now says that any amount of alcohol is damaging to the brain, heart, immune system, and other organs. Recent research in 2016 and 2018 shows that low-dose alcohol is still dangerous for heart and brain health and can be deadly when combined with other illnesses.

Recently I had a chat with Heather, who struggles with her alcohol use but was open enough to reach out and talk to me. Heather is currently contemplating a move towards sobriety as her health issues are increasing, and she’s tired of feeling crappy all the time. Of course, sobriety is no easy feat, and I told her how amazing it is that she’s even reaching out and being honest about her drinking. That, in and of itself, will likely save her life.

We often hear people discussing their addictions to food, exercise, and the internet. Addiction affects millions of people in the United States. Addiction can be defined as a chronic brain disorder marked by obsessive alcohol/drug-seeking behaviors and prolonged use in the face of adverse effects. It is not a decision, and it has nothing to do with a person’s character flaws or the amount of love a person has for someone. It is a complex disease influenced by genetics, brain chemistry, family history of alcoholism, substance misuse, trauma, and a person’s surroundings. Addiction is comparable to other chronic illnesses in that it impairs healthy functioning, has major effects, is avoidable or treatable, and, if left untreated, progresses to death.