Markham's Behavioral Health

Do hormonal cycles influence relapse in women in recovery?

In the August, 2006 issue of Online Psychiatry there is an interesting article on how the hormonal cycle in women may influence relapse in women in recovery. It is an intriguing hypothesis and well worth considering as one of the many factors that may indicate the need for substance abuse treatment approaches to be customized for people based on sex.

Women become dependent more rapidly than men after initial cocaine, opioid, or alcohol use and may be more sensitive to drugs’ adverse health effects.¹ And although men and women relapse to substance use at similar rates, ovulating women may be particularly vulnerable to relapse at certain times of the month.

Understanding the hormonal influences that increase women’s relapse risk can help you intervene more effectively. This article describes:

• how women’s relapse patterns differ from men’s

• why psychotherapy and hormone regulation may be preferred for relapse prevention in women with substance use disorders.

Link: Current Psychiatry Online.

Quote of the day

"Social advance depends as much upon the process through which it is secured as upon the result itself."

Jane Addams

Stop Tobacco Industry Sponsorship and Promotion at the NY State Fair

Big tobacco is advertising at the New York State Fair. This is ongoing seduction of adults and youth into a practice that kills 440,000 Americans per year. Sign the petition to the New York State Fair director to discontinue tobacco advertising at the fair. Click on the link below.

Link: Stop Tobacco Industry Sponsorship and Promotion at the NY State Fair Petition.

Quote of the day

"When death knocks at your door, all your certainties will be simply riddles and foolish. Don't cling to any certainty. Life is uncertain - its very nature is uncertain. And an intelligent man always remains uncertain.

     This very readiness to remain in uncertainty is courage. This very readiness to be in uncertainty is trust. An intelligent person is one who remains alert whatsoever the situation - and responds to it with his whole heart."

Osho

Invincible, the film

Invincible is the predictable rags to riches football story, but I enjoyed it anyway.

Invincible is the story of Vince Papale, a down on his luck guy from South Philadelphia, who goes to open try outs which Dick Vermeil offered for a publicity stunt his first year coaching the Philadelphia Eagles. Papale makes the team and played three seasons on the Eagles' Special Teams unit.

If you like sappy sports movies, this movie is worth the money. I recommend it for a good time.

Link: Invincible (2006).

Christian Taliban in Florida may send one of their own to the United States Senate

Chuck Currie has an excellent article on his blog, Chuck Currie, M.Div, yesterday, August 26, 2006, about the Florida State Baptist Convention's attempt to subvert democratic values in the place of Christian Nationalism.

Here is part of the statement that U.S. Representative Kathleen Harris, running for U.S. Senate from Florida, and former Florida Secretary of State who threw the election to George W. Bush in 2000, said to the convention:

If you are not electing Christians, tried and true, under public scrutiny and pressure, if you're not electing Christians then in essence you are going to legislate sin. They can legislate sin.

This is scary stuff. It is like the Christian Taliban right here in the United States. I recommend Chuck's whole article which you can access by clicking on the link below.

Link: Chuck Currie, M.Div.: Florida Baptist State Convention Rejects Democratic Values.

Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed, the film

I was 26 years old in 1972, married with four kids, when Shirley Chisholm, congresswoman from Brooklyn ran for President of the United States along with Edmund Muskie, Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern, George Wallace, and about 8 other people. George McGovern wound up with the nomination as a peace candidate who vowed to get the United States out of Viet Nam. He lost in a landslide to Richard Nixon who was running for a second term which Nixon never completed because he resigned in shame after two years over the Watergate scandal. Vice-President Gerald Ford took over and promptly pardoned Nixon who never had to answer for his crimes. Americans had other choices in 1972 and as in 2000 and in 2004, they chose badly.

If you asked most adults today, 35 and under, whether a Black woman has ever seriously run for the President of the United States, I doubt many could give you a correct answer outside of a lucky guess. If they guessed correctly, and you asked them to name her, I doubt that more 10% could give you her name.

Shirley Chisholm is quite a woman who accomplished a lot in her life. The story of her run for President is an inspiring story and I highly recommend this documentary to all Americans so that they understand their history and can be inspired by the efforts of a person with vision.

Link: Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed (2004).

Quote of the day

"By definition, no country is free that has the army of a foreign government stationed in its territory."

Ramsey Clark, former Attorney General of the United States

"I've decided that you are going to have a democracy in your country whether you want one or not. God has told me to make you free so that what's me and the American people are going to do even if it kills us and you all."

George W. Bush in so many words.

Quote of the day

"The American Empire?

An oxymoron.

A compelling lust for political, economic and military hegemony over the rest of the world, divorced from moral considerations?

Suggesting that to Americans is akin to telling them of one's UFO abduction, except that they're more likely to believe the abduction story."

William Blum

And let me add, if the politicians who suggest military or financial conquest as "bringing freedom and democracy to the oppressed" or as a matter of "national security" alarm bells should go off that major looting and bullying in the most self serving of ways are about to appear. Next will appear yellow ribbons to "support the troops" and "love it or leave it" bumper stickers. Support for the grab of money and power will become a matter of national loyalty.

Obesity Increases Chances of Early Death

Reuters HealthDay reported on 08/23/06 on an article in the August 24, 2006 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine on the relationship of obesity and longevity. Everyone is aware, or should be aware, of the health risks associated with obesity, but a new study affirms the observation that obese people die young at significantly higher rates than people of normal weight.

Leitzmann's team found that people who were overweight when they were 50 had a 20 percent to 40 percent increased risk of dying prematurely. For those who were obese, the risk of premature death was two to three times that of normal-weight people. "That translates into a 200 to 300 percent increase in the risk of premature death," Leitzmann said.

The researchers did not look at specific causes of death, but Leitzmann said the primary causes of premature death in this group were heart disease and cancer.

The advice to reduce the risk of premature death is obvious. "People need to maintain a normal weight throughout adulthood and avoid developing excess weight," Leitzmann said. "And if you are overweight or obese, lose the excess weight."

I am obese and have been for 30 years. This morning 08/25/06 I weighed 266 down from 286 on July 14. My goal is 185. I am 60 and want to live into my 90s. So the fat has got to go.

Link: MedlinePlus: Obesity Increases Chances of Early Death.