Binge vs. daily drinking: Which is riskier?

It's common knowledge that alcohol causes damage to the liver, the organ primarily responsible for handling the toxin. The University of Missouri School of Medicine took a look at the damage caused by daily drinking versus the damage from binge drinking. Their November 2015 report published in the journal, Biomolecules, was significant considering the most common form of alcohol use or abuse in the U.S. is binge drinking. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports approximately one in six adults binge drinks about four times each month.

The researchers at Mizzou concluded that daily alcohol use and repeat binge episodes caused moderate liver damage when compared to a control group not exposed to alcohol. “This outcome came as no surprise,” say the researchers. “However, in the mice exposed to both chronic use and repeat binge episodes, liver damage increased tremendously.” Even more 'shocking' – in the researchers' own words – was the extent of fatty deposits in the livers of those exposed to chronic plus binge drinking. It was approximately 13 times higher than the control group.

The amped-up fat accumulation was in part caused by changes within the liver which not only increased fat deposits, but increased stress on the organ while decreasing the liver’s ability to fight the stress. Chronic and excessive alcohol use shouldn't be associated only with liver damage. Drinking alcohol excessively can create an inflammatory response to the liver and other organ systems in the body and when those organs work at a lower level of function, then a whole host of physiological processes can be affected including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and eight forms of cancer… all of which were covered in various prior episodes of The Sobriety :60+.

By way of background, both types of drinking on their own are going to do damage, but evidence-based studies disagree on which is worse. Long-term daily drinking, rather than weekly binge drinking, is by far the biggest risk factor in serious liver disease, according to a 2009 report from the University of Southampton. A 2011 University of Rochester study found binge drinking worse for the heart, increasing bad cholesterol and causing 60 percent more artery blockages than abstainers.

The new UM study says both produce ugly results on their own, but combining daily and weekly binge drinking is worse. If you're curious as to how long you have to drink in these patterns to do the damage or increase health risk, the answer is simple: Alcohol is a toxin and the damage begins with day one, drink one. How much damage? Less if you quit today, more if you wait until tomorrow.
Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of CBS Sports' Power Up Your Health featuring Scott Stevens.  Host Ed Forteau led a discussion on risky myths of about "healthy" drinking.  Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature on Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud called "When alcohol doesn't work for you anymore."  Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud and the first for Adding Fire to the Fuel also can be found on www.alcohologist.com. Download the FREE Alcohology app in the Google PlayStore today. Stevens also is the public relations officer with AddictedMinds.com and works with TheAddictionsAcademy as well.

Quitting alcohol for 2016 requires perspective and direction

Recovery takes vision. Vision is a combination of what you're seeing and where you're looking. Perpective and direction. First things first. Let's look at perspective. (The 68th episode looks at how vision plays a critical role in getting and staying sober. Read the transcript or share the YouTube video today)

This is one of several familiar watering holes in my neighborhood. It's not moving out of the neighborhood, and neither am I. So what I'm seeing – instead of laughter and televised sports and camaraderie with friends and people of the opposite gender who get more attractive by the ounce – is a place that's going to bring me back to severe health problems and a set of handcuffs. There isn't one time I set foot in a tavern and had just one drink, after all. Ironically, I now chair a recovery meeting right next door.

The same vision applies when I go to the grocery store. I had to walk past the liquor aisle to get to the bakery … or at least I had to until I swore off the bakery for a New Year's resolution. Walking past the liquor department, I don't get slowed down by sales signs, sights of slick ads with slicker models or that golden hue of Jack in the familiar square bottle. What I see instead, is a trip back to misery. It's what I choose to see. After all, Lynchburg isn't going stop barreling whiskey just because I stopped drinking it and the local tavern isn't going to close down and build a shrine to my sobriety instead.

That's perpective, or what you see. Where you're looking is your direction.

The rearview mirror is a handy tool when you're backing up. If you are driving forward, you're going to have a devil of a time keeping the car between the poles if you're staring into the rearview. If you are rebuilding your life in the first months or years of sobriety, you're better off using the windshield and looking forward, than you are using the rearview and staring at what's behind you. Never diminish what you've been through, what you've survived. Even the most skilled drivers check their mirrors. Just remember this thing is the past and you don't live there anymore.
Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of CBS Sports' Power Up Your Health featuring Scott Stevens.  Host Ed Forteau led a discussion on risky myths of about "healthy" drinking.  Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature on Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud called "When alcohol doesn't work for you anymore."  Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud and the first for Adding Fire to the Fuel also can be found on www.alcohologist.com. Download the FREE Alcohology app in the Google PlayStore today. Stevens also is the public relations officer with AddictedMinds.com and works with TheAddictionsAcademy as well.

Six sobriety-saving holiday season tips

Here are six field-tested tactics for handling the holidays sober, and it doesn't matter if it is the first or your 10th alcohol-free holiday. (Read the transcript or share the YouTube video today)

1) Find sober celebrations. Not as rare as you might think. If you're timid, take someone along with you who might be even newer to sobriety. If there aren't celebrations, it could be time for a diversion like a museum or pick a dry theater and watch Star Wars. All the older kids are doing it.

2) Bail out. There is nothing wrong with the word no. We were all pretty creative with excuses for our drinking this drug. If you are even slightly apprehensive about an event, put the same creativity to use for why you can't go. And if you're busted telling a little white one… isn't it better than possibly challenging your sobriety? Real friends understand.

3) If you can't bail, bring candy. Seriously. Satisfying an oral fixation can make a difference. The taste on your palate will make alcohol flavorings less inviting, too. If you ever had a beer on top of a candy cane, you know.

4) Never stay late if you do go. Our reputations as the last soldiers standing – gone. Be the first leaving. Everyone has seen a dreaded morning after or the photos of the night before and uttered the words, 'I shoulda left way earlier.' The more tired you get, the weaker your defenses become anyway. My grandmother's rule was that nothing good ever happens after 10 pm.

5) Go help another alcoholic who might be struggling. The twelve-steppers founded their fellowship on this simple act. Even if you're not a twelve-stepper or vow to never be one, give this a try. It works.

6) Breathe. The holidays are loaded with financial stress, family stress, traffic stress, cold-and-flu stress, and end-of-year work stress in addition to the normal everyday stress of life. Alcoholics and non-alcoholics alike drink to relieve stress. There isn't a single stressor that is cured by drinking: There isn't one that got worse because you chose to just breathe rather than drinking it off the calendar.

By the way, these six aren't just for the end of the year and the start of a new one. They work anytime.

Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of CBS Sports' Power Up Your Health featuring Scott Stevens.  Host Ed Forteau led a discussion on risky myths of about "healthy" drinking.  Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature on Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud called "When alcohol doesn't work for you anymore."  Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud and the first for Adding Fire to the Fuel also can be found on www.alcohologist.com. Download the FREE Alcohology app in the Google PlayStore today. Stevens also is the public relations officer with AddictedMinds.com and works with TheAddictionsAcademy as well.

Alcohol use can be a Parkinson's disease contributing factor, hampers treatment

Chronic use of alcohol often creates brain chemistry imbalances. It's a chicken and egg thing: The alcohol use also can stem from brain chemistry imbalances. Regardless of which comes first, one problem related to the alcohol use and brain chemistry could be Parkinson's disease. (The Sobriety :60+ #63 on alcohol and Parkinson's disease

 transcript

 or share the YouTube video)

Parkinson's research has come a long way – thanks in part to actor Michael J. Fox and boxer Muhammed Ali. The central nervous system disorder is characterized by symptoms – like tremors, rigid limbs and slow movement – stemming from the death of cells that produce dopamine, a chemical in the brain. After following up with patients who had been to the hospital due to alcohol use, Swedish researchers investigated whether alcohol use disorders -- including the disease of alcoholism -- are linked to Parkinson's disease and found a relationship between the two.

Patients who abused alcohol were 1.4 times more likely to develop Parkinson's disease than patients who did not abuse alcohol. The risk was heightened among patients who had been to the hospital for an alcohol use disorder before they were 44 years old. Alcohol can cause a flux in the dopamine levels, but also damages brain tissue at the cellular level, as covered in a previous episode of The Sobriety :60+. More research lies ahead for the alcohol/Parkinson's connection, but enough connection has been revealed in the Swedish research and related animal studies to debunk old-school thinking that alcohol had a protective effect when it came to Parkinson's.

If the evidence-based science isn't enough, consider this: alcohol is a central nervous system depressant and can cause many symptoms that mimic, exacerbate, or mask Parkinson's. And another point of fact is that anti-Parkinson’s meds and the alcohol are a harmful combination and the mix can even overwhelm the liver's ability to metabolize either drug. The 10 percent of your body mass between your ears operates best within the delicate balance of the brain chemicals with which we're all born and specifically the dopamine and serotonin. Tossing a known toxin into the balance isn't likely to yield changes for the good, and may cause permanent change for the worse.

Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of CBS Sports' Power Up Your Health featuring Scott Stevens.  Host Ed Forteau led a discussion on risky myths of about "healthy" drinking.  Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature on Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud called "When alcohol doesn't work for you anymore."  Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud and the first for Adding Fire to the Fuel also can be found on www.alcohologist.com, plus the NEW book, Adding Fire to the Fuel, is now available. Download the FREE Alcohology app in the Google PlayStore today

Beer drinking doubles gout risk

Gout is an extremely painful form of arthritis. Episodes of gout strike suddenly without warning. Severe cases of gout may lead to major disability and even kidney failure. More men experience the condition than women, although the difference is less dramatic among the elderly. What can cause gout? Alcohol use… especially beer drinking. (Share the YouTube video or read the transcript) 

In a research study performed by the medical journal Lancet, more than 47,000 male medical professionals with no history of gout were followed for up to 12 years. In that period, men who drank the most alcohol daily had twice the risk of developing the disorder as men who did not drink. Beer drinkers increased their risk by 50 percent for every daily beer, while those who drank hard liquor increased their risk by 15 percent for each drink.

The alcohol decreases water in the body. That's part of the problem. What makes the difference is yeast. Beer is made with yeast, yeast is a purine, purines cause an increase in uric acid which is produced by the kidneys. (Think urine… which is the way the body gets rid of uric acid.) Too much uric acid in the blood causes gout and triggers attacks, which are felt in the joints. The uric acid is actually crystalized in the joint, which causes the pain. The big toe is a common gout target.

It's not a life threatening condition except when you consider it signals a problem with the kidneys. Sure you have two of them… but you only have two of them and the uric acid problem impacts both.

Hereditary factors lead to gout, but environmental causes, such as regular alcohol consumption, are behind the increase in cases of gout in the past thirty years. It's a quality of life kind of thing: Is the temporary relaxation from a beer worth the discomfort of recurrent, tender, hot, joint pain long after the buzz is gone? Not to mention the increased risk for more than 60 other diseases brought on by alcohol use.

Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of CBS Sports' Power Up Your Health featuring Scott Stevens.  Host Ed Forteau led a discussion on risky myths of about "healthy" drinking.  Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature on Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud called "When alcohol doesn't work for you anymore."  Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud and the first for Adding Fire to the Fuel also can be found on www.alcohologist.com, plus the NEW book, Adding Fire to the Fuel, is now available. Download the FREE Alcohology app in the Google PlayStore today

Alcohol withdrawal and detox 9-1-1: Ask for help, expect care

Dying from a treatable disease or starting a new life is a critical decision point around which every alcoholic dances, usually more than once. Asking for help is not easy. In fact, for me, it wasn't just completely out of character, it was downright scary.

It's even more frightening when you're experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Earlier episodes of The Sobriety :60+ covered both the physical (see episode #29) and psychological withdrawal symptoms (see episode #30). In a nutshell, the physical ones can include heart rate changes, sweats and the shakes. None of these are pleasant, and depending upon the amount and duration of the drinking, withdrawal can be a medical crisis. Here are six must-haves when calling 9-1-1 or heading to the E.R.

1) Be more honest than you've ever been. The staff needs to know in order to treat you. Be brutally honest about being alcohol dependent and maybe other drugs you've taken, even if only to self-medicate your withdrawal symptoms.

2) Take someone sober with you. We have an uncanny knack for talking ourselves out of decisions that could save our hides when it comes down to the realization that, 'hey, I can't drink anymore.'

3) Be prepared to participate in the decisions. An E.R. tech or nurse may ask what you want: You want medically supervised alcohol detox. Despite the known fact that alcohol is one of only two drug withdrawals that can be fatal, not everyone who is responsible for triage in an emergency department has that background or knowledge about quitting alcohol. A person who has never lived a day in his or her life challenged by alcohol might simply recommend you suck it up and get some willpower, and send you home with something to help you sleep. Well intentioned, but dangerous, because…

4) Often what is prescribed to a panicky shaky person in an emergency is a benzodiazepine, which just happens to be highly addictive, highly reactive with alcohol, and is the other drug that has a withdrawal that can be fatal. Benzodiazepines include ativan, klonopin, xanax and valium. Mixed with alcohol – and thisis a relapsing disease – they can lead to respiratory failure. They may be suitable for supervised medical detox… but a questionable prescription for an unsupervised alcoholic trying to pull off an outpatient detox.

5) Know what your body is doing. Those sharp stomach pains are called gastritis. Feel pukey, that's nausea. Shakes are tremors. Seizures aren't limited to just wildly jerking convulsions, although that's most common. Other seizure types are less dramatic. Shaking movements may be isolated to one arm or part of the face. Alternatively, the person may suddenly stop responding and stare for a few seconds, sometimes with chewing motions or smacking the lips. Seizures may also cause "sensations" that only the patient feels. As an example, one type of seizure can cause stomach discomfort, fear, or an unpleasant smell. Make sure you and your detox escort both can explain what you're experiencing.

6) Know that nobody is going to build a shrine for you – especially in an E.R. – because you decided to get help, but do it anyway. Alcoholism is primary, chronic, progressive and fatal. But its treatable... More so the earlier you reach out for help.

Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of CBS Sports' Power Up Your Health featuring Scott Stevens.  Host Ed Forteau led a discussion on risky myths of about "healthy" drinking.  Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature on Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud called "When alcohol doesn't work for you anymore."  Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud also can be found on www.alcohologist.com, plus the NEW book, Adding Fire to the Fuel, is now available. Download the FREE Alcohology app in the Google PlayStore today.

Unexpected alcohol lapse traps in the medicine cabinet

The usual cast of characters that can escort a sober person down the trail toward a lapse goes by the initials PPT: People, Places and Things. For example, you hang out with the same 'ol crew of drinking buddies, what would you expect to happen? They'd just leave you alone? Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud encapsules PPT in a layer of four emotional stressors: Guilt, Shame, Grief and Forgiveness. There could be a relapse lurking in the medicine chest, as well. (Watch the YouTube vid or read the article)

Of course there are cough suppressants that contain alcohol, that's the easy one to figure out. When you're early in sobriety, feeling that familiar burn down the throat could bring on memories of the good old days – which really weren't that good, or you wouldn't be catching Sobriety :60 videos. Alcohol is alcohol, whether it comes in a shotglass or cough syrup.

Sleep aids aren't quite as obvious as relapse traps. Alcohol is a depressant. Sleep aids are depressants. The brain doesn't make such an exact distinction between the two, and historically, drinkers have used alcohol as a sleep aid – or excused their drinking by saying it helps them sleep. It isn't just the prescription sleep aid like abilify. It's also the over-the-counter one, and especially concoctions like Motrin PM or Tylenol PM. I'm guilty as hell on this one, it's in my night stand, too, until this segment is over.

What happens is this...You start using it... Then you “need” it a couple nights in a row. Then one pill isn't doing it, so we take three, because that's the way the alcoholic mind works. You may be developing a dependency, not so much on the actual chemical, but on the feeling of sedation. When the sleep aids don't work for you anymore, where does that leave a person? Back to alcohol. It's a slippery slope. There's another famous relapse acronym to go with PPT, it's HALT: Hungry, Angry, Lonely and Tired.

Here's the very alcoholic reason why I still have the Ibuprofen PM in my nightstand: Because it won't happen to me, the warning is only for those other guys. Right.

Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of CBS Sports' Power Up Your Health featuring Scott Stevens.  Host Ed Forteau led a discussion on risky myths of about "healthy" drinking.  Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature on Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud called "When alcohol doesn't work for you anymore."  Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud also can be found on www.alcohologist.com, plus the NEW book, Adding Fire to the Fuel, is now available. Download the FREE Alcohology app in the Google PlayStore today.

Immediate and long-term stroke risk connected to alcohol use

Stroke disables more people in the United States than breast cancer and is a leading cause of long-term disability. Evidence-based studies prove a connection between alcohol use, stroke onset and slower recovery from a stroke. (View the whole article and share the YouTube video)

Ninety percent of strokes are ischemic, where a blood clot halts the flow of blood to the brain. The University of California San Francisco notes the one in five strokes may be alcohol-related. That's 160,000 alcohol-related strokes every year, and 26,000 alcohol-related stroke deaths annually. That toll is more than two times the number of people killed each year in alcohol-involved traffic crashes.

Alcohol use is a risk factor for stroke because booze increases the progression of atherosclerosis, which is doctorspeak for a hardening of the arteries. The risk sharpens for those who have one binge weekly, or at least one hangover a year. That's from the UCSF study.

A separate study in the journal Stroke in Jan. 2015 found that people who average more than two drinks a day have a 34 percent higher risk of stroke compared to those whose daily average amounts to less than half a drink. By age 75, high blood pressure and diabetes are the leading stroke risk factors, but for men and women younger than 75, how they use alcohol increases stroke risk just as much as those other two conditions. In fact, Midlife heavy drinkers were likely to have a stroke five years earlier in life, regardless of genetic and lifestyle factors. Not coincidentally, either: Earlier Sobriety :60+ episodes point out prediabetes and type 2 diabetes (see episode 6) and high blood pressure (see episode) also are caused by alcohol use.

The stroke risk in those two studies, of course, is long term, but there's immediate danger as well. According to a 2010 Canadian study, one drink instantly doubles stroke risk. Two hours following that drink, the stroke risk remains 1.6 times higher than someone who isn't drinking. The stroke danger alone is reason enough to consider that sobriety is a better thing to have than to lack.

Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of CBS Sports' Power Up Your Health featuring Scott Stevens.  Host Ed Forteau led a discussion on risky myths of about "healthy" drinking.  Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature on Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud called "When alcohol doesn't work for you anymore."  Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud also can be found on www.alcohologist.com, plus the NEW book, Adding Fire to the Fuel, is now available. Download the FREE Alcohology app in the Google PlayStore today.

Recovery Month: Explaining the differences between abstinence, sobriety and recovery

Abstinence, sobriety and recovery aren't interchangeable words. Abstinence is simply (or sometimes not so simply) compliance with not putting alcohol into the body. Sobriety is when it works and you begin to put it into play in your life. Recovery is when you reap the rewards of living a life contently with the fact that sobriety is a better thing to have than to lack. (Watch the episode on YouTube or read the entire article)

Think of sobriety being the first tee of the first hole on a golf course. It leads down a long fairway, sometimes you hit terrible shots, but you keep moving toward the first hole. The first hole is reaching recovery. You've snatched a victory from the bottle for now. Keep in mind that the round isn't over with the first hole… similar to the way you're not finished with recovery regardless of how great you played your sobriety. You can throw the whole round if you get cocky or start getting lazy after just one hole.

Abstinence… that's just the driving range. Some of us hit a few more balls on the range than others. Each one, though, could lead up to the first tee.

National Recovery Month celebrates the new life that begins with reaching that first green. Personally, I try to make every month a recovery month celebration. Beats going back to the driving range.

Two things to remember about sobriety and recovery. First, neither word is a synonym for boring or miserable. Second, they don't mean life is going to be perfect. It wasn't before, either. You know why they just write numbers on the golf score card? Because if you drew pictures, par sometimes wouldn't look so pretty and nobody would play on. Doesn't matter how you reach recovery, just that you take your swings at it. It works out fine. Don't need to take my word for it: Give sobriety a try and if it isn't better, I'm certain the liquor store – or the 19th hole – will still take your money and gladly allow you to return to the misery. If that's the case, hope to see you back on the driving range... and the first tee.

Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of CBS Sports' Power Up Your Health featuring Scott Stevens.  Host Ed Forteau led a discussion on risky myths of about "healthy" drinking.  Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature on Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud called "When alcohol doesn't work for you anymore."  Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud also can be found on www.alcohologist.com, plus the NEW book, Adding Fire to the Fuel, is now available. Download the FREE Alcohology app in the Google PlayStore today.

Vitamin A disruption documented with alcohol use

Several of The Sobriety :60+ video segments have mentioned how even moderate alcohol use plays havoc with vitamins. It raids the body of B-vitamins, covered in the episodes on the heart and brain. Alcohol also has a dramatic impact on the way vitamin A is handled. Part of that was alluded to in the episodes on the eyes, immune system and the liver. A new study published in the Sept. 2, 2015 Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Journal gives a little more detail. (Read the full article or share the YouTube video.)

The study suggests long-term alcohol use lowers vitamin A levels in the liver, which is the main site of both, alcohol metabolism and vitamin A storage, while bumping up vitamin A levels in many other tissues. Initially 15 percent of the body's vitamin A migrates out of the liver to other tissues. Ultimately, around 60 percent of the vitamin is lost with chronic drinking. “We hope this study will lead to a broader understanding and appreciation of the fact that excessive consumption of alcohol has a negative effect on vitamin A function in the body," said researcher, Robin Clugston, from Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

So it's a wash if liver vitamin A is low and vitamin A in other tissues is elevated, right? Not exactly. The liver needs the vitamin A to stave off liver disease. And the other tissues don't feed the A into the bloodstream the way the liver does. You'll know you're deficient in the vitamin if you get night blindness or blotchy rashes or both.

If it builds up in other tissues, it can become toxic. Self medicating with vitamin A supplements would worsen it, even if the liver stores are low. Vitamin A toxicity usually reveals itself with headaches, nausea, drowsiness, vomiting… which could be confused with the alcohol itself. In recovery, addiction care from professionals will focus on diets that contain vitamin-rich food, not simply pill supplements, for this reason.

One of the best things about recovery is feeling “well” again… sometimes for what feels like the first time ever. Part of where that feeling comes from is not dumping a toxin into the body, and part comes from a healthy diet. The rest? That comes from knowing you don't have to live the old way anymore.

Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of CBS Sports' Power Up Your Health featuring Scott Stevens.  Host Ed Forteau led a discussion on risky myths of about "healthy" drinking.  Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature on Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud called "When alcohol doesn't work for you anymore."  Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud also can be found on www.alcohologist.com, plus the NEW book, Adding Fire to the Fuel, is now available. Download the FREE Alcohology app in the Google PlayStore today.

Alcohol's pricetag? Enough for every citizen to get a free 48 in. HDTV each year

Drinking alcohol is a cultural norm in this country and most of the planet. Has been for a long time. And that isn't likely to change much in my lifetime. The Sobriety :60+ episodes look at the various health consequences for the drinker, and some of safety concerns for anyone around the drinker. (Watch and share this new episode.) The monetary consequences are something everyone shares: Drinkers and non-drinkers alike. The numbers get complicated, because the drug Americans enjoy and defend so vigorously, also costs the most in health and hard dollars. But there are a few ways to simplify the discussion.

Each drink consumed has a median cost of $1.91 in economic harm (lost productivity, health care costs, property damage and criminal justice system expenses). That's according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). So the drinker pays for that in alcohol tax, right? No. Not even drinking the way overpriced hotel room mini-bar beverages does anyone pony up $1.91 in taxes per drink. The median paid in tax per drink is less than a quarter. To put it another way, how much I drink is everyone's business, because what the government has to pay, we all pay anyway.

Even if drinkers bore the full $1.91, everyone else still pays. Look at lost productivity. Showing up late, never, hungover or just without your A-game. Someone has to step in or step up, but it doesn't always happen that way. That costs the company, so the company has to charge more for its goods or services. Lost productivity, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is more than 70 percent of the $224 billion annual costs of alcohol use in the United States. We all pay… no matter if we shop Walmart or Macy's.

The all-in number is staggering at $224 billion a year. Not a single penny of this whopping total reflects pain and suffering of everyone around the drinker, or the drinker himself. $224 billion is enough to give everyone – drinker or non-drinker – every man, woman and child in the U.S., a nice, new, 48-inch LED HDTV every year. Of course, when you quit drinking, you could just buy yourself one with the money you're not spending at the liquor store.

View the whole article or share the YouTube video.

Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of CBS Sports' Power Up Your Health featuring Scott Stevens.  Host Ed Forteau led a discussion on risky myths of about "healthy" drinking.  Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature on Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud called "When alcohol doesn't work for you anymore."  Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud also can be found on www.alcohologist.com, plus the NEW book, Adding Fire to the Fuel, is now available. Download the FREE Alcohology app in the Google PlayStore today.

Keys to early sobriety success

A common error made by those who've never lived a day in their lives challenged by alcohol is that all someone who has a drinking problem needs to do is just stop drinking. There's some sort of finish line in their minds. Those of us who've quit or struggled to stay sober know with certainty there is no finish line.

It is a progressive, disease without a cure. The quit date is just a start.

If you quit as a New Year's resolution, by the Fourth of Dry July, biologically, your body has begun to repair some damage. Insomnia, headaches, dizziness, fogginess, trouble with balance, problems with hand/eye coordination and reflexes are in the rear-view mirror or at least a whole lot better for most recoverers in that six months. But a lot rides on four factors:

1) Diet and exercise

2) Stress management

3) Depression care

and of course 4) the severity of the drinking prior to the quit date.

Nothing can be done about that last one: Nobody has the luxury of rewriting history. But the first three require attention in those first six months and beyond. Diet and exercise are crucial: Neither got more attention while drinking. If you do nothing else, eat veggies and fruit and take a daily walk. Doing so will help with stress management and depression care.

On the stress side, alcoholics have a higher level of the stress hormone cortisol, as detailed in Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud. Non-alcoholics and alcoholics alike drink for the same reason, to alleviate stress. You have a hole in your routine now that you've taken alcohol out of it. Plug something into that hole, whether it is exercise, spirituality, self-help meetings like 12-step groups or Women for Sobriety, etc.

Depression is a chicken and egg thing for alcoholics: How much was there before the alcohol and how much was caused by the alcohol? Let a professional help. Talking is cathartic, especially in recovery. And so is a balanced brain chemistry. Hard-line 12-steppers say you cannot take an anti-depressant and call yourself sober. (Archaic thinking… based on more bullcrap than you'd find at a rodeo.) Trust me, those dinosaurs are hard to come by and none of them know the first thing about the neurochemicals dopamine and serotonin. Just find a different meeting and follow a doctor's orders, including anti-depressants as prescribed. Most of the older recipes are available as generics for $4 these days.

Post-acute withdrawal can last a while – six to sixty months – but not everyone goes through it, and it beats the alternative of going to your own funeral. Quit in Dry July and imagine where you'll be by Christmas.

See the entire transcript with video or share the YouTube video. 

Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of CBS Sports' Power Up Your Health featuring Scott Stevens.  Host Ed Forteau led a discussion on risky myths of about "healthy" drinking.  Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature on Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud called "When alcohol doesn't work for you anymore."  Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud also can be found on www.alcohologist.com, plus the NEW book, Adding Fire to the Fuel, is now available. Download the FREE Alcohology app in the Google PlayStore today.

Alcohol damages white matter, disrupting brain activity, which can be permanent

Your drink of choice will reduce the brain mass and efficiency, but a recent study says quitting by age 50 may avoid permanent brain damage.  Read the transcript  or share the YouTube video.

Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of CBS Sports' Power Up Your Health featuring Scott Stevens.  Host Ed Forteau led a discussion on the health risks and myths of health benefits of drinking.  Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature on Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud called "When alcohol doesn't work for you anymore."  Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud also can be found on www.alcohologist.com, plus an interview with Christoph Fisher Books.  Mr. Fisher is an acclaimed international author from the UK, among his works is the Alzheimer's book "Time to Let Go."  Download the FREE Alcohology app in the Google PlayStore today.

The Sobriety :60+ on enabling the drinker vs. disabling the drinking

We're all over enablers like a hobo on a ham sandwich. How to disable the drinking and not enable the drinker. Watch the YouTube video  and read the transcript.

Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of CBS Sports' Power Up Your Health featuring Scott Stevens.  Host Ed Forteau led a discussion on the health risks and myths of health benefits of drinking.  Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature on Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud called "When alcohol doesn't work for you anymore."  Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud also can be found on www.alcohologist.com, plus an interview with Christoph Fisher Books.  Mr. Fisher is an acclaimed international author from the UK, among his works is the Alzheimer's book "Time to Let Go."  Download the FREE Alcohology app in the Google PlayStore today.

Psychological withdrawal from alcohol in The Sobriety :60+ #30

Physical withdrawal can be gone within days or weeks, however the psychological withdrawal symptoms can last several months.  Or longer.  Learn more at YouTube or read the transcript.

Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of CBS Sports' Power Up Your Health featuring Scott Stevens.  Host Ed Forteau led a discussion on the health risks and myths of health benefits of drinking.  Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature on Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud called "When alcohol doesn't work for you anymore."  Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud also can be found on www.alcohologist.com, plus an interview with Christoph Fisher Books.  Mr. Fisher is an acclaimed international author from the UK, among his works is the Alzheimer's book "Time to Let Go."  Download the FREE Alcohology app in the Google PlayStore today.

Listen to the Life Changing Insights with Dr. Alan Simberg segment on alcoholism

Life Changing Insights with Dr. Alan Simberg featured Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud and author Scott Stevens during a 12/2 segment.  Dr. Simberg led a discussion on the health risks and myths of health benefits of drinking.  A replay is available on the homepage of www.alcohologist.com and also at BlogTalkRadio.

Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of CBS Sports' Power Up Your Health featuring Scott Stevens.  Host Ed Forteau led a discussion on the health risks and myths of health benefits of drinking.  Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature on Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud called "When alcohol doesn't work for you anymore."  Details on the third literary award for Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud also can be found on www.alcohologist.com, plus an interview with Christoph Fisher Books.  Mr. Fisher is an acclaimed international author from the UK, among his works is the Alzheimer's book "Time to Let Go."  Download the FREE Alcohology app in the Google PlayStore today.