Wood County Prevention Coalition
Uniting For A Drug-Free Community Since 2004
Newsletter February 1, 2019 Vol. #5 Issue #2
Despite drop in drug deaths, DeWine says Ohio still faces addiction crisis
The Columbus Dispatch
Updated Jan 30, 2019 at 6:30 AM
Drug-overdose deaths have declined in many parts of Ohio, but Gov. Mike DeWine cautions that an addiction crisis persists in Ohio.
Still, “We’re certainly encouraged by seeing the number of deaths down,” DeWine said Tuesday.
“The only reason deaths have remained high the last several years is because of fentanyl. Fentanyl is now, in some areas, it’s less. That’s the good news. The bad news is you’re moving into meth and other substances. You’ve got to look at this as addiction — you can’t look at it as an opioid problem.”
Speaking to members of the Ohio Association of Behavioral Health Authorities at the Statehouse, DeWine credited those on the front lines for the drop in drug deaths and pledged continued state support of their efforts, calling assistance to the mentally ill and addicted one of his administration’s top priorities.
Deaths are down “because we have so many good things going on at the local level, so much naloxone being used, so (many) new programs, law enforcement getting people into treatment, a lot of good things are going on,” DeWine said.
“But as drug epidemics always do, they morph into something else.”
The Dispatch reported Sunday that Ohio appears to have turned the corner on drug deaths.
Overdose deaths dropped 21.4 percent — the biggest decline in the nation — from July 2017 through June 2018, according to preliminary data released last week by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
State and county data show the same trend. Ohio Department of Health preliminary data show a 34 percent decline from January to June 2018, from the same six months in 2017, down to 1,812 overdose deaths statewide. And records for all of 2018 from several large counties show decreases approaching 50 percent — although Franklin County overdose deaths through August were unchanged from 2017.
If the trend holds, drug-overdose deaths across Ohio will drop for the first time since 2009.
DeWine’s meeting with local behavioral-health officials was part of his RecoveryOhio Initiative to improve mental-health and addiction services. The 16-member advisory council will make recommendations to the governor by March 8, a week before DeWine must submit his first state budget proposal to lawmakers.
Vaping Tied to Rise in Stroke, Heart Attack Risk
By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 30, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- People who vape might increase their odds of suffering a stroke, heart attack or heart disease, a new study suggests.
Federal survey data revealed that compared with nonusers, people who use e-cigarettes have a:
- 71 percent higher risk of stroke.
- 59 percent higher risk of heart attack or angina.
- 40 percent higher risk of heart disease.
E-cigarette users also have a doubled rate of smoking traditional tobaccocigarettes, the researchers noted.
"Even as we consider electronic cigarettes as a means of aiding in smoking cessation, we need to be careful about the impact this may have on the health of folks," said lead researcher Dr. Paul Ndunda. He is an assistant professor with the University of Kansas School of Medicine, in Wichita.
The increased health risks linked to e-cigarette use held strong even after Ndunda and his colleagues accounted for other potential risk factors, such as age, excess weight, diabetes and smoking.
Dr. Larry Goldstein is chairman of neurology and co-director of the Kentucky Neuroscience Institute in Lexington. He said, "This is the first real data that we're seeing associating e-cigarette use with hard cardiovascular events."
Goldstein added that "it's quite a concern, especially since nationwide now we've seen a leveling off in and, in many instances, an increase in the risk of stroke-related mortality in the country. It's hard to know what contribution this has to that, but it doesn't appear to be safer, or safe right now, from the data that's available."
About 3 percent of adults and 11 percent of high school students reported using e-cigarettes within the previous month in 2016, the study authors noted. In addition, vaping among young people increased by 900 percent between 2011 and 2015.
For the new study, researchers gathered data on over 400,000 participants in the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a survey regularly conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The researchers included nearly 66,800 people who said they had ever regularly used e-cigarettes, comparing them with about 344,000 people who'd never tried the devices.
ALCOHOL TRIGGERS DNA CHANGES THAT INCREASE CRAVINGS
Binge and heavy drinking may trigger a long-lasting genetic change, resulting in an even greater craving for alcohol, according to a new study.
“We found that people who drink heavily may be changing their DNA in a way that makes them crave alcohol even more,” says senior author Dipak K. Sarkar, a professor in and the director of the endocrine program in the animal sciences department at Rutgers University–New Brunswick.
“This may help explain why alcoholism is such a powerful addiction, and may one day contribute to new ways to treat alcoholism or help prevent at-risk people from becoming addicted.”
In 2016, more than 3 million people died from the harmful use of alcohol, according a World Health Organization report. That’s 5 percent of all global deaths. More than three-quarters of alcohol-caused deaths were among men.
The harmful use of alcohol also caused 5.1 percent of the worldwide toll of disease and injuries.
Researchers focused on two genes implicated in the control of drinking behavior: PER2, which influences the body’s biological clock, and POMC, which regulates our stress-response system.
By comparing groups of moderate, binge, and heavy drinkers, the researchers found that an alcohol-influenced gene modification process called methylation changed the two genes in the binge and heavy drinkers. The binge and heavy drinkers also showed reductions in gene expression, or the rate at which these genes create proteins. These changes increased with greater alcohol intake.
Additionally, in an experiment, the drinkers viewed stress-related, neutral, or alcohol-related images. Researchers also showed them containers of beer and subsequently tasted beer, and their motivation to drink was evaluated. The result: alcohol-fueled changes in the genes of binge and heavy drinkers were associated with a greater desire for alcohol.
The findings may eventually help researchers identify biomarkers—measurable indicators such as proteins or modified genes—that could predict an individual’s risk for binge or heavy drinking, says Sarkar.
The research appears in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
Source: Rutgers University
It's Never too early to start talking about underage drinking. TALK: they hear you
Wood County Prevention Coalition Community Meeting
Friday, Mar 22, 2019, 08:30 AM
Wood County Educational Services, Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH, USA
RSVPs are enabled for this event.
About Us
Our Vision: Helping youth be drug-free, productive and responsible citizens.
Our Mission: We are a coalition of compassionate community members working together to coordinate high quality programs for the prevention of youth substance abuse in Wood County.
Email: mkarna@wcesc.org
Website: wcprevention.org
Location: 1867 Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH, United States
Phone: (419)-354-9010
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WCPCoalition
Twitter: @woodpccoalition