The A-Files, Alcohol A-Z for Alcohol Awareness Month: Younger Strokes

(See the video and online article)

Twenty-six episodes of 'The A-Files' air throughout Alcohol Awareness Month on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Alcohologist.com and AddictedMinds.com, among other web and social media sites. Episode Y looks at strokes, especially those at younger ages than anticipated. Strokes, and strokes at earlier ages, have been linked to alcohol misuse in a study by the University of California at San Francisco. "When a young person has a stroke, it is probably much more likely that the cause of their stroke is something other than traditional risk factors," according to one of the lead researchers in the 2013 study reported in the journal Stroke.

The UCSF researchers identified long-term changes in the heart as a result of alcohol abuse or the disease of alcoholism may put younger users at higher-than-average risk earlier in life.

Stroke disables more people in the United States than breast cancer. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), every year close to a million people have a stroke – either ischemic or hemorrhagic. A study of 2007 data found that almost five percent of people who had a stroke that year were between ages 18 and 44.

"Substance abuse is common in young adults experiencing a stroke,” according to the research team. "Patients aged younger than 55 years who experience a stroke should be routinely screened and counseled regarding substance abuse. One in five of strokes involves drinking.”

The study does not offer evidence that patients' drug or alcohol use directly caused their strokes. It's possible, for example, that people who drink also see their doctors less often.

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. Midlife heavy drinkers were likely to have a stroke five years earlier in life, regardless of genetic and lifestyle factors. 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. When it comes to stroke risk, drinking is like walking out into the road, waiting for the truck to hit.

The entire 26 episode HD series is available on disc, along with fact sheets, for helping professions. See the preorder special at tr.im/AFiles

Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of CBS Sports' Power Up Your Health featuring Scott Stevens.  Another interview is on Alcohol Awareness.  Syndicated radio program Savvy Central Radio did this interview, too. Lucy Pireel's "All That's Written" included a feature 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 

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.

The Sobriety :60 - Stroke

Drinking, drinking often or drinking to excess is the cause of one-in-five strokes.  Here's a minute on alcohol as a stroke risk factor. Episode #4 - Stroke can be found at http://youtu.be/nfmSiLgWXUM

Visit alcohologist.com for a replay of the Bringing Inspiration To Earth show feature with Scott Stevens. 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 Scott Stevens on Health Media Now and one at 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."  

World Stroke Day: New Finnish study ties alcohol use and hangovers to stroke risk

World Stroke Day  is Oct. 29, bringing attention to how to spot a stroke and how to prevent one. On the prevention front, a new University of Eastern Finland study shows excessive alcohol consumption increases the progression of atherosclerosis and the risk of stroke in middle-aged men. The findings were reported as part of the FinnDrink Study Oct. 21 and mirror earlier data showing an increased stroke risk for drinkers of both genders regardless of age, even with only moderate consumption.

The Finnish research found that progression of atherosclerosis over an 11-year follow-up was increased among men who consumed six or more drinks on one occasion. Stroke risk also increased among men who had at least one hangover per year. Drinking large quantities of alcohol more than twice a week also increased the risk of stroke death in men.

And strokes aren't only a concern for older adults. Early in 2013, a separate study at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) concluded that one of every five strokes occurs in people between 18 and 44 years of age. That's men and women.

"When a young person has a stroke, it is probably much more likely that the cause of their stroke is something other than traditional risk factors," such as hypertension and obesity, according to one of the lead researchers in the study. (See the entire examiner.com article)

The UCSF researchers say long-term changes in the heart as a result of alcohol abuse or the disease of alcoholism may put younger users at higher-than-average risk earlier in life. "Substance abuse is common in young adults experiencing a stroke,” according to the research team. "Patients aged younger than 55 years who experience a stroke should be routinely screened and counseled regarding substance abuse.”

Neither study offers evidence that patients' drug or alcohol use directly caused the strokes. It's possible, for example, that people who abuse alcohol or have the disease of alcoholism also see their doctors less often or engage in other risky behaviors that increase the chance of stroke.

Stroke disables more people in the United States than breast cancer or the war in Afghanistan. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 800,000 people in the United States have a stroke every year. Strokes (either ischemic or hemorrhagic) are the most common causes of serious long-term disability. Ninety percent of strokes are ischemic, where a clot blocks blood flow to the brain.

Additional statistics from the National Stroke Association reveal:

• Stroke kills almost 130,000 Americans each year—that’s 1 in every 19 deaths.
• On average, one American dies from stroke every 4 minutes.
• Fewer than 20 percent of hospitals are stroke certified.
• One fourth of strokes are recurrent strokes.
• Stroke costs the United States an estimated $38.6 billion each year.

Stroke risk is heightened by even a small amount of alcohol according to an Oct. 26 study posted on Canadian medical news website Tele-Management. Just one drink of alcohol was found to double stroke risk immediately after consuming the beverage. After two hours, the risk of stroke is increased 1.6 times when compared to the risk before having the drink.

The research was not based on any specific type of alcoholic beverage.

The World Stroke Day campaign emphasizes the importance of seeing a physician regularly and quickly recognizing the signs of a stroke. The American Stroke Association and American Heart Association use the acronym FAST, encouraging people to be on the lookout for weakness in one side of the Face or Arm weakness or Speech difficulty as signs it is Time to call 9-1-1. Some stroke treatments can only be used during a short "window of opportunity" after the stroke, just like has been commonly accepted as a window of opportunity for getting help to someone who’s had a heart attack.

-- from examiner.com (see complete article)
www.alcohologist.com



Please read the new interview with Scott Stevens at Christoph Fisher Books.  Mr. Fisher is an acclaimed international historical fiction novelist from the UK.    

Alcohol and blood pressure: Hypertension is caused by and worsened by drinking

May is Blood Pressure Education Month, emphasizing the causes and prevention of hypertension.  While many assume alcohol (especially red wine) is heart healthy, several studies in this article indicate the opposite may be the case. 


A third of adults have hypertension, or high blood pressure, but as many as one in four of them don't even know it. And it kills. High blood pressure contributes to nearly a thousand deaths every day.

May is National Blood Pressure Education Month, putting a spotlight on awareness of the $47.5 billion health condition. The statistics, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), favor those who are being treated, but half of Americans with high blood pressure do not have it under a doctor's plan of care.

Hypertension makes a heart work harder, increases the stress on the heart muscle and arteries and leads to a thickened heart muscle. High blood pressure can also lead to plaque build-up in the arteries, upping the risk for a heart attack or stroke. (See the examiner.com article on “Stroke Awareness Month, which also is May.)

Some with high blood pressure rely on observational studies that claim alcohol – red wine, specifically – reduces hypertension. This notion is based on observation and is not evidence-based, meaning that patients on the wine-is-good-for-the-heart plan may be getting sicker rather than better. (See related “Wishful Thinking” article.) According to the CDC, “Patients can achieve greater hypertension control by taking their medications as directed, measuring their own blood pressure, and eating a lower-sodium diet.”

Part of the challenge with the “healthy” wine reports is many people aren't mindful of the other health consequences of drinking. In an American Heart Association survey, 67 percent of those surveyed agreed with the statement that wine can be good for your heart, yet only 30 percent knew the association's recommended limits for daily wine consumption. “This survey shows that we need to do a better job of educating people about the heart-health risks of overconsumption of wine, especially its possible role in increasing blood pressure,” said Gerald Fletcher, M.D., American Heart Association spokesperson.

If a person drinks at all, the association recommends no more than two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women. 

Having more than three glasses of wine in one sitting temporarily increases blood pressure, but repeated binge drinking can lead to long-term hypertension. Heavy or daily use of any type of alcohol can dramatically increase blood pressure or cause heart failure and irregular heartbeats. The consequences go beyond blood pressure and the heart. There's also an increased risk of alcohol use disorders including the disease of alcoholism, suicide and accidents. And cancer: In a 2013 study, Boston University researchers concluded, “When it comes to cancer, no amount of alcohol is safe.”

Even modest alcohol consumption can cause blood pressure to increase, according to two studies conducted in Japan. Noriyuki Nakanishi, M.D., Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan and lead author of one of the studies, concluded that even very low alcohol consumption can be a health risk, especially older adults. Nakanishi and his research team observed that systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) went up 1.4 points in those between the ages of 25 and 35, but increased 5.4 points for men between the ages of 48 and 59, for just 12g-22g of alcohol per day. A glass of wine contains about 20g alcohol on average.

In the second of the two studies, researchers from Kyushu University followed more than 1,100 people over age 40 for 10 years. One hundred men and 106 women developed hypertension, with the risk of developing hypertension higher for drinkers, even those who drank less than 23 grams daily. Both Japanese studies were published in the journal Alcohol: Clinical Experience and Research.

Quitting drinking has the expected benefit of reducing blood pressure. In one study reported in the journal Hypertension, researchers concluded that a reduction in alcohol intake among drinkers significantly reduced their blood pressure. They found that when alcohol consumption fell by 16 to 100 percent, there were significant drops in systolic blood pressure. Diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) also dropped significantly in eight clinical trials. The greatest drop in blood pressure was seen in patients with the highest blood pressure before treatment and those who cut back on alcohol the most. However, the Mayo Clinic warns, “Heavy drinkers who want to lower blood pressure should slowly reduce how much they drink over one to two weeks. Heavy drinkers who stop suddenly risk developing severe high blood pressure for several days.”

Like all alcoholic drinks, wine contains calories and may contribute to unwanted weight gain — another risk factor for high blood pressure. For the wine drinker, dry wine contains fewer calories than sweet: 106 calories for five ounces of dry wine and champagnes… double it for five ounces of sweeter wines. A glass of wine before dinner, another glass with dinner and a sweet wine for dessert, that’s more than 400 calories in addition to the meal.

Another problem arising from drinking with hypertension: Alcohol can interfere with the effectiveness, or increase the side effects, of some blood pressure medications.
-- from examiner.com


The media portrayal of drinking being good for the heart might not consider all the other health consequences of drinking... and the portrayal isn't widely encouraged by the medical community.  The key to the debate over alcohol and its purported heart benefit stems from the 1976-1992 Copenhagen City Heart Study, in which 13,285 men and women were observed. The results from this study suggested that patients who drank wine had half the risk of dying from coronary heart disease or stroke as those who never drank wine. Other research since the Danish study failed to show a beneficial effect for drinking alcohol, wine included.  The more recent reports suggest the lifestyle profile of the wine drinker's OTHER activities -- being more prone to exercise regularly and eat healthier than beer drinkers, for example -- has more to do with their longevity than the wine.
www.alcohologist.com

Scroll down to listen to the replay of the Feb. 10, 2014 interview about Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud.

SATURDAY REWIND: Alcohol and stroke risk

With the BMJ (formerly British Medical Journal) yesterday recommending more potassium and less salt to cut stroke risk, I retrieved this article from my archive on another stroke risk factor: Alcohol consumption. (The link to all archived examiner alcohol articles is here.)

Not “old enough” for a stroke? If you’re a drinker, guess again. It might be the booze. The University of California at San Francisco has now linked stroke among younger adults to alcohol use disorders. "When a young person has a stroke, it is probably much more likely that the cause of their stroke is something other than traditional risk factors," according to one of the lead researchers in the study reported this week in the journal Stroke.
 
When you think of stroke, you think of older people in walkers, but researchers said long-term changes in the heart as a result of alcohol abuse or the disease of alcoholism may put younger users at higher-than-average risk earlier in life.

Stroke disables more people in the United States than breast cancer or the war in Afghanistan. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 800,000 people in the United States have a stroke every year. Strokes (either ischemic or hemorrhagic) are the most common causes of serious long-term disability. One study of 2007 data found that almost five percent of people who had a stroke that year were between ages 18 and 44.

"Substance abuse is common in young adults experiencing a stroke,” according to the research team. "Patients aged younger than 55 years who experience a stroke should be routinely screened and counseled regarding substance abuse. One in five of strokes last year involved drinking.”

The study can't prove that patients' drug or alcohol use directly contributed to their strokes. It's possible, for example, that people who abuse alcohol also see their doctors less often or engage in other risky behaviors that increase the chance of strokes. 

Researchers emphasize the importance of seeing a physician regularly and quickly recognizing the signs of a stroke - such as weakness on one side of the body and dizziness - even for young people. Some treatments can only be used during a short "window of opportunity" after the stroke, just like has been commonly accepted as a window of opportunity for getting help to someone who’s had a heart attack.

-- from examiner.com


When initially researching this story on strokes and alcohol, I pulled the following facts from the CDC and the National Stroke Association.

• Stroke kills almost 130,000 Americans each year—that’s 1 in every 19 deaths.
• On average, one American dies from stroke every 4 minutes.
• Fewer than 20 percent of hospitals are stroke certified.
• Every year, more than 795,000 people in the United States have a stroke. About 610,000 of these are first or new strokes. One fourth are recurrent strokes.
• Nearly 90 percent of strokes are ischemic strokes, when a blood clot blocks the blood vessels to the brain.
• Stroke costs the United States an estimated $38.6 billion each year.