IS IT A NECTAR? – Sept. 23, 2024 – It’s not a mere coincidence that some of the world’s longest-lived people enjoy a daily cup of joe. Besides helping enhance energy and focus, coffee has been tied to a lower risk of premature death1 by heart disease and cancer. In one study on nearly drinking up…
Author: Leonard Buschel
VIDEO – LIVE AND LEARN – Sept. 19, 2024 – In this insightful discussion, Ross Rosenberg and Karen McMahon delve into the challenges of high-conflict divorces, especially with narcissistic partners. Karen, founder of Journey Beyond Divorce, shares her expertise in guiding individuals through the emotional and legal hurdles of divorce, focusing on those affected by self-love…
VIDEO – ALL TOGETHER NOW – Sept. 27, 2024 – Over the past 24 years, Jennifer Capannelli has used multiple substances, but was mostly addicted to cocaine. An increasingly toxic drug supply has also meant that all-too-often, her drug tests have revealed a cocktail of substances coursing through her body. Earlier this month, Capannelli completed a five-week live-in addiction treatment program … It’s the fourth time she’s tried to get sober through a residential recovery program and she’s hoping it’s her last. “I was going to die in [this recent] relapse, so I had to remove myself,” said the 45-year-old…
A GRAVE ISSUE – Sept. 18, 2024 – Adults under age 50 have been developing breast cancer and colorectal cancer at increasingly higher rates over the last few decades, and alcohol use may be one factor driving the trend. Even as cancer death rates have declined, the overall incidence of several cancers has been rising inexplicably, with an especially alarming increase among younger adults in cancers of the gastrointestinal system, like colorectal cancer. The report estimates that 40 percent of all cancer cases are associated with modifiable risk factors. It recommends reducing alcohol consumption, along with making lifestyle changes such…
WHEN IN DOUBT – TAKE MORE! – Sept. 27, 2024 – Daily doses of the drug buprenorphine is a standard treatment for opioid use disorder, and the findings suggest that higher doses may be a better way to manage it. Researchers say this could be an important way to improve treatment for people who use fentanyl,…
HE LOST THE BATTLE – Sept. 24, 2024 – “Seth struggled with addiction throughout his life. He did so on a very public platform, which was particularly challenging,” the family said at the time. “God knows he tried so hard to beat his demons but sadly he lost his battle. “Our hearts are shattered by his loss. Seth’s larger-than-life presence touched so many. Seth was a troubled soul, but he was a beautiful one and he had a heart of gold.” Shellshock got candid about his struggles with sobriety when he appeared on the first season of VH1’s “Celebrity Rehab”…
100% WRONG – Sept. 24, 2024 -A new look into addiction treatment availability in the U.S. criminal justice system reveals that fewer than half (43.8%) of 1,028 jails surveyed across the nation offered any form of medication for opioid use disorder, and only 12.8% made these available to anyone with the disorder. With two0-thirds of people…
EUPHORIC RECALL RECALL – Sept. 23, 2024 – I quit drinking two years ago because it got inexcusably bad. What I’ve struggled with is the pressure to deny the intellectual, social, and aesthetic pleasure I got from alcohol. Dear Drinker, I’ve had the same thoughts about my own drinking career—do all my good ol’ days become bad ones from here on out? Does the fact that I needed to stop drinking, due to how much it began to pollute my life, mean that I must only think about alcohol as something I enjoyed because of the self-destruction it offered? The…
POSITIVELY FALSE? – Sept. 27, 2024 – You may have heard that poppy seeds in your salad dressing or on your bagel can mess up a drug test–triggering a positive result for opiates in your system. Though there are some caveats to this (washing and proper seed processing can remove contaminants and cooking tends to significantly decrease poppy seeds’ opiate content), it’s true that poppy seeds can be a problem. Poppy seeds themselves don’t actually contain opiate compounds, but they’re often adulterated with opiate-containing flower sap during processing. The most frequently used type of rapid drug tests are called immunoassays.…
VIDEO – MUSICAL INTERLUDE – ETERNAL – It’s a shame the crowd could not comprehend the immense talent of this 19 year old. Loved her so very much. So underrated. Probably the MOST UNDERRATED singer of the 20th century. She’s remarkable, holy. We are blessed to have her recordings. Lyrics Last call for the poverty train Last call for the poverty train It looks good and dirty on shiny light strip And if you don’t get beat you got yourself a trip You can see the walls roar, see your brains on the floor Become God, become cripple, become funky…
YOU KNOW IT EASY – Sept. 27, 2024 – “I have a daughter who I love with all of my heart and would die for,” he added. ”And I have a beautiful family and a beautiful group of friends and a beautiful life to live for. And I’m not in a haze anymore to not realize…
BROADWAY STAR PASSES – Sept. 30, 2024 – Tony-winning stage actor Gavin Creel has died at the age of 48. His death was confirmed by his partner Alex Temple Ward on Monday. The Broadway star’s cause of death was cancer after being diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of sarcoma in July. CONTINUE@The Wrap
VIDEO – CHARLIE HUSTLE – Sept. 30, 2024 -Pete Rose, baseball’s career hits leader and fallen idol who undermined his historic achievements and Hall of Fame dreams by GAMBLING on the game he loved and once embodied, has died. He was 83. CONTINUE@ESPN
NO DEAD ANIMALS – Sept. 25, 2024 – In addition to managing her diet, Demi also avoids alcohol. “I had almost 20 years of sobriety. I had a detour. And now I have over 12 years.” Demi said that it was tough to become sober again after she stopped in 2012. “When you have that much time and you open the door, it’s difficult, because there’s a part of you that feels like you want to prove that you can manage it,” she said. Now, Demi also feels “emotionally sober,” she told the Times. “To be emotionally sober means how…
VIDEO – WILL HE GET LIFE? – Sept. 28, 2024 – A 78-year-old doctor with a clinic in Taylor is accused of allegedly overprescribing painkillers, and medication, as well as committing insurance fraud. The doctor is now also under scrutiny for possible sexual misconduct with his patients, which may have occurred in a bizarre bedroom at his clinic. Dew was referred to the doctor in 2018 after experiencing an episode similar to a fainting spell. She says he diagnosed her with seizures after one test and prescribed medication. She immediately began to suffer severe side effects from the medication. “I…
VIDEO – WHY? – Sept. 18, 2024 – People in the U.S. die the youngest. The U.S. ranks as the worst performer among 10 developed nations in critical areas of health care, including preventing deaths, access (mainly because of high cost) and guaranteeing quality treatment for everyone, regardless of gender, income or geographic location. “No other country in the world expects patients and families to pay as much out of pocket for essential health care as they do in the U.S.,” Dr. Joseph Betancourt, the president of The Commonwealth Fund, said on a call Wednesday discussing the new findings. Ironically,…
By Joe Considine, Marchman Act Attorney – Oct. 1, 2024 – “We had no idea…,” is a common lament among the devastated families who find their way to our law firm. Far too many are unaware that help for addiction exists in the form of a confidential civil court order for involuntary commitment to treatment. After exhausting all avenues of pleading, begging, or waiting for a loved one to hit bottom, many of our clients have been surprised to learn that Florida’s Marchman Act is often an effective form of intervention. For Marchman Act cases, neither the family (petitioners) nor their…
ONE PIVOTAL DAY AT A TIME – Sept. 23, 2024 – Through the unwashed, smoke-stained windows of the gin mill, I watched commuters strolling down the hill, headed for Journal Square and the PATH trains to Manhattan. The sun was bright, the vista was “sparkling,” to use your word, and the commuters were stepping along briskly, chatting and smiling. I was overwhelmed by the comparison between what I saw and what I was. On that “sparkling September morning,” I finally surrendered to an honest admission of my addiction and asked for help without reservation. CONTINUE@NationalReview
ALL TOGETHER NOW – Sept. 27, 2024 – “I am a person in long-term recovery. It is important for me to speak openly about that because it helps to reduce the stigma. I am very passionate about educating young people,” she said. “I started using drugs and alcohol when I was a sophomore in high school and I developed a pretty severe Substance Abuse Disorder (SAD) in my 20s.” “I am trying do my small part to bring awareness to the dangers of it and the importance of finding other choices. We can discover more ways to find fun and…
VIDEO – GOING WARM TURKEY – Sept. 2024 – CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta examines the rising popularity of mocktails and the “intermittent sobriety” trend. CONTINUE@CNN
VIDEO – A SLIPPERY SLOPE – Sept. 24, 2024 – Doug Eisiminger says “Life was good. I was a bartender downtown, making great money, living my best life. Then I tore my MCL skiing,” said Eisiminger. He was prescribed opioids for pain control, and he quickly became addicted. “The opiates started becoming very popular because they…
VIDEO – PICK SOME UP TODAY – Sept. 23, 2024 – Narcan, also known as Naloxone, is a critical tool to fight overdoses. It rapidly reverses the potentially fatal effects of opioids in the body, but how does it do that? In over 30 years as an emergency physician, I’ve probably given thousands of doses of Narcan — and if you’ve ever seen how effectively it reverses the effect of an opioid overdose it might seem almost like magic. That’s how effective it can be. We have receptors throughout our bodies that opiates — like morphine or heroin — lock…
READ ’EM WEEP – Sept. 26, 2024 – Professor Emerita Patricia Roos didn’t hesitate to include addiction as a cause of death in the obituary for her 25-year-old son, Alex Clarke. Though devastated by his heroin overdose, Roos felt compelled to take a stand. “Writing the obituary was my first act of activism,” Roos said. “I…
VIDEO – WHAT TOOK THEM SO LONG? – Sept. 26, 2024 – “This drug takes the first new approach to schizophrenia treatment in decades,” Farchione continued. “This approval offers a new alternative to the antipsychotic medications people with schizophrenia have previously been prescribed.” Cobenfy offers new hope for people with schizophrenia … providing an innovative treatment option that could change how this condition is managed, according to Jelena Kunovac, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist and adjunct assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in the Department of Psychiatry. “We are overdue for a medication that targets schizophrenia with a…
“I like the ephemeral thing about theatre, every performance is like a ghost – I’m there and then I’m gone.” — Dame Maggie Smith, 12/28/1934 – 9/27/2024
AUDIO – UNBELIEVABLE – Sept. 23, 2024 – Seven current and former employees are suing a California rehab center, as they were forced to work with “Nazi sympathizers” who were promoted to management, made racist comments and regularly discriminated against them. Employees who are Black, Latino, Jewish and gay, quit after Executive Recovery Group Inc. CONTINUE@SACBEE
GREAT COUNTRY – Sept. 18, 2024 – “September 16th, 2021 was a pretty big day for me,” Owen says in a video. “Three years ago, I decided that was the day. And that was three years ago, today. 1,096 days ago. 36 months ago. It might honestly be one of the things that I’m most proud…
AUDIO – PLUMMETS? – Sept. 18, 2024 – For the first time in decades, public health data shows a sudden and hopeful drop in drug overdose deaths across the U.S. “This is exciting,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, head of the National Institute On Drug Abuse [NIDA], the federal laboratory charged with studying addiction. “This looks real. This looks very, very real.” Some researchers believe the data will show an even larger decline in drug deaths when federal surveys are updated to reflect improvements being seen at the state level, especially in the eastern U.S. “In the states that have the…
AUDIO – PATIENCE AND COMPASSION – Sept. 12, 2024 – “My parents, my sister, my kids — they didn’t want anything to do with me,” she remembered. As her family withdrew, Hernandez-Coleman’s life unraveled. At 59, she found herself unhoused and losing hope. “I was just begging God just let me die out here … Then, one day, while in San Francisco, out of booze and shaking from withdrawal, she saw the city’s red crisis van. A member of the street overdose response team, Britt Rubin, leaned out the window, waving her tattoo-covered arms at Hernandez-Coleman. “She was looking really…
VIDEO – NEVER TOO LATE – Sept. 13, 2024 – “Yeah, this is cool because I missed all those other ones because I was either high or on probation or drunk,” Mykel told MTN Sports. “So this is definitely cool and something that I enjoy. I started experimenting with alcohol and drugs and then spiraled into…