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Abusing Pot, Booze Lowers Teens’ Chances for Success in Life

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The American dream of success is a lot harder to attain for teenagers who use pot and alcohol, especially if they become substance abusers, a new study reports. Teen pot smokers and drinkers struggle to achieve some of the hallmarks of adult success, including obtaining a college degree, getting married, holding down a full-time job and earning a good living, the researchers found. “Parents should try to delay their children’s onset of use as much as possible,” said research supervisor Victor Hesselbrock, chairman of addiction studies at the University of Connecticut. “If you can push regular use back well into adolescence, the kids do a lot better.” The researchers have been tracking the life course of 1,165 young adults from across the United States, most of whom come from a family with a history of alcoholism, Hesselbrock said. Participants’ habits were first assessed at age 12. After that, the researchers checked in on them at two-year intervals, up through age 25 to 34 for many of the subjects. Kids from families with alcohol abuse followed patterns of first substance use and frequency of use that are typical of U.S. high school kids, Hesselbrock said. But as they got older, the paths of those who used or became dependent on alcohol or pot as teens deviated from those of kids who stayed clean for the most…  read on >

What Food Gets People’s Attention? Junk Food, by Far

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If cookies, pizza and potato chips seem to pull you in, you’re not alone. A new study finds that images of junk food are, indeed, more distracting than those of healthy food. The researchers also found, though, that just a few tastes of junk food can significantly reduce its appeal. “We wanted to see if pictures of food, particularly high-fat, high-calorie food, would be a distraction for people engaged in a complicated task,” said co-author Howard Egeth, a professor in the department of psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The researchers showed the pictures to 18 participants, most of them undergraduate students. “We showed them carrots and apples, and it slowed them down,” Egeth said in a university news release. “We showed them bicycles and thumb tacks, and it slowed them down. But when we showed them chocolate cake and hot dogs, these things slowed them down about twice as much.” The researchers then repeated the experiment with 18 new participants, but first gave them two small candy bars before they began their task. This time, the study found that images of junk food were no more distracting than pictures of healthy food or nonfood items. The findings were published online Oct. 26 in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. The researchers believe the study findings highlight people’s built-in bias for…  read on >

Does Your Medication Make You a Worse Driver?

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Is that sleeping pill you took last night making it tougher for you to drive in the daytime? What about a heart medication? Or a new antidepressant? New research shows that many people taking prescription drugs aren’t aware that their meds could impair their ability to drive. “Most are aware of the potential dangerous side effects of sedatives and narcotics, but other medications — such as some antihistamines, some antidepressants, some blood pressure medications, muscle relaxants and even stimulants — may affect driving ability,” noted Dr. Alan Mensch, who reviewed the study findings. The findings have both medical and legal implications, added Mensch, who’s medical director at Plainview Hospital in New York. “Not commonly appreciated is that a DUI (driving under the influence) charge may not only involve alcohol or illegal substances. Drivers can also be charged with DUI related to prescription, as well as over-the-counter medications,” Mensch noted. The new study was led by Robin Pollini, of the Injury Control Research Center at West Virginia University. Reporting Nov. 1 in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, her team tracked 2013-2014 data from the National Roadside Survey. That survey asked more than 7,400 drivers at 60 sites across the United States about their current medication use. Nearly 20 percent of the drivers reported recent use of a prescription medication that could have affected…  read on >

Helmets Too Rarely Used in Baseball and Softball

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Despite a significant risk of head injuries in baseball and softball, helmet use in those sports is low, a new review says. “Our review demonstrates that traumatic brain injury in baseball and softball affects players of all levels and all positions,” said study lead author Dr. Michael Cusimano, a neurosurgeon at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. “Although the risk for traumatic brain injury is lower in baseball than other, high-contact sports like hockey and football, because the injuries can lead to very serious injuries like skull fractures and bleeding in the brain caused by balls or bats, it should be considered equally as serious and addressed in a way that reflects that,” he said in a hospital news release. Cusimano and his colleagues reviewed 29 studies that included nearly 243,000 traumatic brain injuries sustained by baseball and softball players between 1982 and 2015. Playing levels extended from youth leagues all the way to Major League Baseball players. While baseball and softball had the lowest rate of traumatic head injuries compared with 15 other sports, serious brain injuries occurred once in about every 2,000 games. All formal baseball and softball leagues included in the studies required players to wear helmets. Five of the studies examined the use of protective equipment and found that only 7 percent of players who suffered traumatic brain injuries that required emergency…  read on >

When It Comes to Obesity, Genes Just Partly to Blame

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If you have trouble keeping slim, don’t put all the blame on your DNA. People carrying so-called “obesity” genes tend to gain more weight if they don’t work out or don’t get enough sleep, said Timothy Frayling, a professor with the University of Exeter Medical School in England. “You can’t change your genes — but they only explain part of your weight,” Frayling said. This means that even people genetically inclined to pile on pounds can curb it by eating right and exercising. Frayling and his fellow researchers tracked physical activity and sleep patterns for about 85,000 people in England, aged 40 to 70. The participants wore accelerometers that allowed researchers to estimate their amount of exercise and quality of sleep. The team also computed a genetic risk score for each person based on 76 common variants known to be associated with increased risk for obesity. Genetics accounted for some, but not all, of a person’s obesity risk, the researchers concluded. For example, a person of average height who had 10 genetic risk factors for obesity gained an average of 8 pounds during the course of their life if they tended to be couch potatoes, but only about 6 pounds if they were more physically active, the study authors said. The results were similar regarding sleeplessness. People with some genetic risk for obesity tended to…  read on >