GREED WINS – June 3, 2026 – The American Journal of Public Health focuses on ultra-processed foods, and reveals that big tobacco companies used strategies that helped them sell cigarettes to sell ultra-processed food products, including Lunchables, geared toward children. People who consume UPFs, “had a 58% higher risk of developing dementia.” The parallels between ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and cigarettes include not only how UPF products were formulated and marketed to drive excess consumption, but also the growing body of evidence linking UPFs to a variety of health risks. For UPFs, these include cardiovascular diseases, certain cancers and cognitive health…
Author: Leonard Buschel
INTO THE WOODS – June 4, 2026 – Decades of research suggests there are many positive mental and physical health effects of spending time outdoors, from boosting mood to improving blood pressure. Contact with the natural world seems to be linked to higher levels of life satisfaction. Spending time in or near nature has many potential benefits. A 2021 review found that being in nature (especially while engaging in physical activity) is linked to improved cardiovascular health, lower blood pressure and reduced risk factors for chronic diseases like Type 2 diabetes. A growing body of research suggests nature is associated…
“I have a sense of destiny that you are led to the things you are supposed to do.” – Robert Downey Jr.
HOW MANY FATHERS? – May 19, 2026 – The idea of drinking during pregnancy sounds like a generational punchline: Someone’s grandmother drank beer to fatten her fetus, another had a nightly martini to get a healthy amount of sleep — presumably unthinkable behavior in today’s America. Yet after precipitous declines in the last 50 years, rates of alcohol use in pregnancy in the U.S. started climbing upward a decade ago. More than 1 in 8 pregnant adults reported drinking in the past month, according to STAT’s analysis of 2024 government data, making alcohol use a more common national phenomenon than…
AND THE METALLIC TASTE? – May 25, 2026 – What about diet soda? Is it any better for the liver than regular soda? According to the hepatologists, diet soda doesn’t negatively impact the liver as much as regular soda does, but that doesn’t mean that it gets a free pass. Both doctors say that the relationship between diet soda and liver health is more complicated than regular soda and liver health. They explain that, unlike regular soda, there isn’t scientific evidence that drinking diet soda directly causes MASLD or other liver problems. But there are some indirect ways that it…
TRACKING THE NUMBERS – May 26, 2026 – New federal data suggests the nation’s drug overdose crisis may be easing somewhat — at least compared to the devastating peaks seen in recent years. According to the latest provisional numbers from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, the United States recorded an estimated 69,973 drug overdose deaths in 2025. That’s down from 81,313 in 2024 and marks the third straight year of declining overdose deaths nationwide. Tracking the numbers The CDC tracks these numbers through the National Vital Statistics System, which collects information from death certificates submitted across the country. …
REEL REAL SUCCESS – May 27, 2026 – The 61-year-old actor discussed how much his life changed following his role in 1988’s Stealing Home with Jodie Foster. He went on to garner some 165 film and television credits but, as he told the outlet, “I had an ongoing drug problem, and that really gets in the way.”Now 21 years sober, McNamara is focused on animal rights activism, which he threw himself into after leaving Hollywood. Of his activism, McNamara tells the Inquisitor, “It becomes the only thing in the world to you.” He was once arrested in Japan while documenting…
SMOKERS BEWARE – May 28, 2026 – Joanna Warner, 43, was taken on shoplifting trips by her alcoholic father from age seven and began drinking alcohol and smoking cannabis aged 12. Her father passed away when she was 17, causing Joanna to start using crack and heroin, eventually, turning to prostitution to fund her habit. Joanna was sent to prison nine times for shoplifting, and became suicidal whilst in jail, convinced she would never be able to get clean. She was hospitalised 10 times for overdosing, and almost lost her leg, after injecting into her groin gave her deep vein…
DOING GOD’S WORK – May 29, 2026 – After spending more than two decades trapped in drugs and incarceration, Spivey is using his past to help others find what he calls “true freedom.” Spivey is the founder and CEO of Outreach 4 Outlaws…a faith-based outreach program that works with men and women coming out of jail, prison and addiction recovery programs. Through partnerships with organizations like Life in Victory Recovery Center and Victory in Life Church, the program helps people transition back into society by connecting them with housing, jobs, recovery resources and spiritual support. Read More
INTERESTING – May 26, 2026 – Swap a glass of wine for a bottle of beer. Same evening, same amount of pure alcohol, same number of drinks by any standard measure. Public health guidance on alcohol has spent years converging on a single message: it’s the alcohol quantity that drives the risk, not the type. A decade-long study tracking more than 340,000 British adults suggests that this message is incomplete. The type of drink carried its own mortality signal – one that showed up even in people who weren’t drinking much at all. Read More
BEING OF SERVICE – May 29, 2026 – Points of Light is proud to share the following uplifting and inspiring story. However, we acknowledge that portions of this story may be difficult for some readers. We encourage you to please care for your own well-being above all. The transition from a quiet life running a construction business to the front lines of a public health crisis wasn’t a choice Micah Sawyer ever expected to make. It was born from the silence left behind after losing his 22-year-old son to a fentanyl overdose. In the wake of that devastating grief, Micah…
MUSCLES IN SOBRIETY – May 2, 2026 – Time ticks down to the end of the minute-long session as the class works out through eight different stations during their Cardio Crew class at ROCovery Fitness on Dewey Ave. Class instructor Brian Beckler, Senior Outreach & Engagement Specialist at ROCovery, shares a laugh with his class as they warm up at the start of their hour long Cardio Crew class at ROCovery Fitness… Read More
GOOD OR BAD? – May 29, 2026 – Conclusions: Ketamine represents a promising but still experimental intervention for both refractory depression and selected SUDs. Its clinical use depends on careful patient selection, structured delivery, and integration with psychotherapy. Although ketamine may redefine treatment paradigms for TRD and addiction, larger-scale trials and long-term safety data are essential to define its role within psychiatric and addiction treatment frameworks. Read More
THEY ARE WHAT THEY EAT – May 23, 2026 – “What we eat early in life really matters.” said Dr. Cristina Cuesta-Martí, the study’s lead author. “Early dietary exposure may leave hidden, long-term effects on feeding behavior that are not immediately visible through weight alone.” A childhood junk-food diet can have a lifelong effect on how the brain regulates appetite … There is, however, some good news. Scientists at APC Microbiome, a leading research center based at UCC, also discovered that the digestive system, with a little help, can reduce the long-term effects of the brain’s cravings. Modifying the gut…
DIER BEWARE – April 2026 – “Our study shows that the current doses of naloxone may not be sufficient to reverse overdoses caused by newer synthetic opioids,” said study lead author Maarten A. van Lemmen, Ph.D., of the Department of Anesthesiology and Anesthesia and Pain Research Unit at Leiden University Medical Center in Leiden, the Netherlands. “We hope these findings encourage institutions to update guidelines and reinforce the importance of fast emergency intervention.”The study, that included 30 participants, found that while naloxone can be lifesaving, a single dose may not always completely reverse respiratory depression caused by powerful synthetic opioids.…
FILM RUN DOWN – May 29, 2026 – Charles Jackson’s most famous novel, The Lost Weekend (1944), is emblematic of this changing landscape of alcohol-forward literature. Billy Wilder’s film adaptation in (1945) scrutinizes and sympathizes with people suffering from alcoholism. Ray Milland is phenomenal as the alcoholic. He speaks eloquently of his own depravity…describing the water underneath glass cups as “vicious circles,” and characterizing his alcoholism as having “no end, no beginning.” Milland glides through the film with a magnetizing force, something like a proto-1970s Al Pacino; his mannerisms have a kitchen sink realism that makes one think, “I know…
VIDEO – SONG OF THE WEEK – 2,642,982 views – It’s coming to America first – The cradle of the best and of the worst – It’s here they got the range – And the machinery for change – And it’s here they got the spiritual thirst -It’s here the family’s broken – And it’s here the lonely say – That the heart has got to open – In a fundamental way – Democracy is coming (back) to the U.S.A. WATCH
STICK WITH THE WINNERS! – May 19, 2026 – Renee Baribeau is an Award Winning Hay House author of Winds of Spirit: Ancient Wisdom Tools for Navigating Relationships, Health, and the Divine. She is a wind whistler, soul coach, inspirational speaker, and workshop leader, known and respected for her down-to-earth approach. During her life, the wind gods have steered Renee’s recovery journey in many directions. A former chef, in 1987 she opened the first farm-to-table restaurant in Central New York, Brown Bagger’s, in Syracuse. In 2005, Renee established the Desert Holistic Network in Palm Desert, California, an online regional resource directory.…
VIDEO – NOT CAUSE AND EFFECT – May 29, 2026 – Cara Delevingne sits down for Variety’s Up Next ahead of her debut album release. She talks about coming out as a lesbian, three years of sobriety, and what it took to finally let herself make music — including crying in the shower. She also opens up about her girlfriend, sending Taylor Swift her music video, already writing a second album, and the very long names she has for her cats. WATCH
MAGIC to TRAGIC – May 27, 2026 – The 2 1/2-year investigation and prosecution that followed came to a close Wednesday with the sentencing of his personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, who bought him the drugs, gave him injections, and found him dead in the hot tub. The 54-year-old “Friends” star had told Iwamasa to shoot him up “with a big one.” Sept. 30, 2023 — Told by a patient that he knew a prominent person willing to pay big money for ketamine, Dr. Salvador Plasencia meets with Perry and Iwamasa at their home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los…
VIDEO – MY NEW ADDICTION – May 30, 2026 – Why is social media so addictive? It’s not an accident, and it’s not just you overusing it. In this video, we break down how the world’s biggest social media platforms use hyper-targeted algorithms, data tracking, and behavioral psychology to map your vulnerabilities and keep you scrolling. We dive deep into the recent historic lawsuit where a 20-year-old was awarded $6 million after proving these apps are explicitly designed to be addictive. From the 2016 Cambridge Analytica Facebook data scandal to Meta generating over $196 billion in ad revenue in 2025,…
NOT SHY ABOUT ANYTHING – May 30, 2026 – Kathryn Burgum is the White House’s senior adviser for addiction recovery — and for her, it’s a searingly personal issue. She is the wife of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, has been recovering from alcohol addiction for 24 years. She led the Office of Recovery Reinvented, which sought to erase the stigma around getting help. She told a group of women hosted by CPAC’s Women Warriors Summit that she first blacked out from drinking in high school. She turned to alcohol at the time after being overwhelmed by abuse at home and…
BUSINESS IS BUSINESS – May 29, 2026 – Worldwide, at least 40 million children aged 13–15 use tobacco products, and young people’s use of e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches continues to rise. World No Tobacco Day is May 31.– WHO warns that tobacco and nicotine companies are deliberately engineering their products to make them more appealing, easier to use and harder to quit, particularly for adolescents and young people. “Even as tobacco continues to kill millions of people, major tobacco companies are reinventing their business model, continuing to profit from deadly cigarettes while aggressively pushing flavoured e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches and other…
WHOSE WORLD IS IT NOW? – May 26, 2026 – The definitive story of how Claude Code and OpenClaw kicked off computing’s biggest transformation possibly ever. Countless coders spent the holidays in basements and dens, madly trying out this new toy that let them build software as if they’d unleashed a hundred clones. Or unlocked superpowers. “It feels like becoming Spider-Man,” one told me. It was August 2025 and Peter Steinberger was addressing a meetup in London called Claude Code Anonymous. Steinberger and some fellow addicts had arranged the event to network with people like themselves—techies swept up by coding…
CITY / SUBURB – May 30, 2026 – Finding ways to give kids meaningful attention and guidance when it’s missing in the family setting is sorely needed and applies of course to all families whether single or two parent. Getting serious involves setting up a government agency focussing on youth addiction. Your piece on Thursday about a youth outreach program called “It’s A Trap” funded by the Ontario Government is a step in right direction. Read More
AUDIO – EASY DOES IT – May 26, 2026 – That story is in her new book, Drink Your Way Sober: The Science-Based Method to Break Free from Alcohol. And she joins us from On Point station Blue Ridge Public Radio in Asheville, North Carolina. Katie Herzog is a journalist and creator and co-host of the podcast Blocked and Reported, which calls itself a podcast that, quote: “Scours the internet for its craziest, silliest, most sociopathic content. Part of an obsessive and ill-conceived attempt to extract kernels of meaning and humanity from a landscape of endless raging dumpster fires.” So…
ALIVE AND WELL – May 30, 2026 – Paris, who is the daughter of late pop star Michael Jackson, spoke about the “ugly behavior” she typically engaged in when she hit the bottle. The behavior is really ugly. It’s really ugly behavior in a moral way, because I was raised to be kind — and not nice,” Paris, 28, said during a appearance on Jack Osbourne’s podcast. Paris added, “What happens when I drink is that goes away. That goes right out the window and I become a very vindictive person.” The Heroes alum praised Paris for her comments as…
CHEERS! – June 1, 2026 – Tom Holland is paying tribute to two very important women in his life: his mother, and longtime love Zendaya. The 30-year-old Spider-Man actor debuted a new line of shandy style drinks under his non-alcohol beer brand Bero, inspired by both of them. Read More
NEVER MISSED A NOTE – May 29, 2026 – How is it that the “Saxophone Colossus” Sonny Rollins lived to 95? Aren’t jazz musicians supposed to die at tragically early ages? Actually, that’s a myth that Rollins and others proved flawed. Bix Beiderbecke, king of the cornet, was gone at 28, Charlie Parker at 34, Dinah Washington at 39, John Coltrane at 40. Billie Holiday made it to 44 – not young, but an age that should have been before her time. Some musicians, classical and rock, as well as jazz, reach especially advanced ages. The music stimulates their mind,…
HOW SWEET IT IS – May 29, 2026 – Highly sweetened, flavored alcoholic drinks, often marketed in brightly colored portable containers, may deserve greater attention from hepatologists because they combine concentrated alcohol exposure with substantial metabolic stress, experts warned. “What hepatologists are telling us is that more and more patients are coming into clinic where the problem is no longer alcohol or sugar, it’s both together. It’s an engineered exposure, where alcohol and sugar are being delivered into the body at the same time,” said Catherine Paradis, PhD, technical officer and sociologist at World Health Organization (WHO) Europe, speaking with…