Addiction
Not Seeing Clearly
Jun 30th
Warped Perception
What are the contributing factors of an eating disorder? Even the slimmest women have, on occasion, stood in front of the mirror and asked: “Does this dress make me look fat?” No matter who you are at some point you have been your own worst critic. Why do we do this to ourselves and what drives body dysmorphia? Scientists have discovered that the body image a person projects in their own brain is “massively distorted” and can be up to two thirds wider than it is in reality. The brain’s own “body model” is also around a third shorter than the body actually is, according to the study at University College London. Researchers believe the findings could explain why slim women look in the mirror and see themselves as fat. They may also help explain the cause of some eating disorders.
Dr Michael Longo, a neuroscientist is a leader in brain research, said: “These findings may well be relevant to psychiatric conditions involving body image such as anorexia, as there may be a general bias towards perceiving the body to be wider than it is.” He also says,“Some people look in the mirror and receive information which tells them they are not fat, but they still can’t use that to over-ride their distorted body model and make themselves believe it.”
The scientists had subjects place their hands under a board and relay where specific landmarks such as knuckles and fingertips were. In doing so people were warped in their sense of size. Scientists believe the distortion stems from the number of sensory signals being sent to the brain from different parts of the skin. The brain’s warped “model” of the hand could be conveyed to the rest of the body, therefore adding to the beginnings or bolstering feelings of negative body image. For instance, if I am walking around feeling shorter and fatter than I really am these findings are saying that I am way off in my judgement. Surprisingly, researchers found that subjects could pick their accurate hand size from other templates. Therefore, researchers believe this shows that people have an accurate visual image of their own body but are still unable to use that information to over-ride the “brain model” which tells them they are larger.
Running Away From Unhealthy Behaviors
Jun 25th
Drug abuse changes all aspects of an individual’s life. There are so many detrimental behaviors that become ingrained throughout active addiction, one of which is inactivity. Moreover whatever healthy aspects of an addict’s life are overshadowed by the atrocious amounts of toxins in their system. Therefore it is crucial in sobriety to be active and healthy, in fact, it may be able to reverse or at least improve some of the damage done. Scientists have known for some time that exercise sparks growth of new brain cells in mice, particularly in the hippocampus, the area related to memory and learning. They recently also found that it boosts the production of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which stimulates the rate at which nerve cells bind to create new pathways, increasing the brain’s storage capacity. Getting your body in motion gets your mind moving—both enhancing mental agility in the short term and protecting against cognitive decline in the long term.
Running for A Healthy Mind
The best brain-boosting results come from heart-rate-raising exertion—specifically, running. In a study conducted by Charles Hillman, PhD, and published in the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, when subjects were given memory tests both before and after 30-minute bouts of running on a treadmill, lifting weights, or sitting quietly, those who ran were significantly quicker and more accurate on the second round of tests, while the others demonstrated no change at all.
“Other types of exercise, such as yoga, might have a stress-reducing meditative component,” Baker says, “but it’s aerobic exercise that seems to make the most difference to the brain.”
There are a few theories as to why this might be: One is that dramatic changes in blood flow could bring more growth factors to the brain from other parts of the body, helping to limber up connection-forming neurons, whereas with an activity such as weight-lifting, those growth factors are likely to remain in the muscles. Another is that it improves energy metabolism, ensuring that the noggin receives sufficient glucose and fuel. And a third is that it literally clears out the gunk that makes us dullwitted. Evidently, our brains, similar to our hearts, teeth, and lifestyle can suffer from a buildup of bad stuff. Getting regular exercise over time can increase both gray and white matter in the brain and make a huge difference in how well you process and track information, stay on task, and allocate your mental resources. Considering that addicts and alcoholics have had time depleting those resources it’s about time to put all that new found energy in sobriety to good use.
Wide Awake….
Jun 24th
Drug addiction exacts a variety of ill effects on a user’s health. Among other things, drug addicts often experience disrupted sleep. The mechanism behind how the substances may change a user’s circadian rhythms remains unknown but new research on mice is providing some insight. Sleep is extremely important and our R.E.M. cycles are important, circadian rhythm genes help to regulate the brain’s reward system and could influence the addictive properties of drugs such as cocaine. Circadian gene deficient animals exhibited increased activity in the dopamine neurotransmitter system in the brain, which is heavily stimulated by cocaine use. The next step is to ascertain the affects of this gene in humans and perhaps find a link between those with low levels and the connection to habitual drug use.
Wide Awake
For example, in one study, human patients addicted to cocaine took much longer to fall asleep. Also, EEG measures of their brain activity showed that they experienced much less deep sleep than did people who did not use the drug. When the subjects were sleep deprived, their immune system had a reduced ability to fight infection. In another study, heroin patients with less than one year of methadone treatment had poor sleep, the possible cause of which could be measured at the molecular level, Gordon says. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy imaging of these patients showed some energy-indicating molecules in their brain had failed to recover properly after sleep deprivation. Scientists also have determined that cognitive deficits characteristic of people who regularly use the street drug ecstasy may be based on drug-induced changes in sleep neurobiology. Their altered sleep patterns, cognitive deficits, and impulsivity may be worsened by high levels of catecholamines, brain chemicals that the body produces in response to stress.
Although the neurobiology underlying the sleep disturbance can be directly related to the disease process itself, it is often impossible to determine cause and effect. Therefore, it is important to study both sleep and the disease simultaneously to get a full understanding. Researchers also are trying to identify the neurobiological factors that help explain a recovering addict’s vulnerability to relapse.
“Drug addiction is characterized by compulsive drug taking, which occurs even though addicts understand that the behavior is harmful to them. It is also a chronic disorder. Addicts find it extremely difficult to suppress drug taking and often relapse, even after years of abstinence,” says Laura Peoples, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School.
The compulsive nature of the behavior and the ever present vulnerability to relapse suggests that drug addiction is accompanied by long-lasting changes in those parts of the brain that control motivation and behavioral choice. Recent findings have led to a new hypothesis, that experience- and activity-dependent adaptations cause a progressive and persistent increase in the response of specific neurons to specific signals that promote drug-seeking relative to the signals that facilitate other motivated behaviors.
Addicted to Fat
Jun 18th
Eating The Pain Away
Like many pleasurable behaviors—including sex and drug use—eating can trigger the release of dopamine, a feel-good chemical in the brain. This chemical reward, in turn, increases the likelihood that the action will eventually become habitual through positive reinforcement conditioning. If this reward is activated by overeating, these neurochemical patterns can make the behavior tough to shake—a result seen in many human cases.
Paul Kenny, an associate professor in the Department of Molecular Therapeutics at The Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Fla., says, “Most people who are overweight would say, ‘I would like to control my weight and my eating,’ but they find it very hard to control their feeding behavior.”
Many studies have drawn the connection between excessive food intake and addiction in both animal models and humans. Many scientists have observed a similar map of dopamine receptors in the brains of many obese people as in those hooked on cocaine or alcohol. This new type research adds a more accepted understanding of just how food can modify the brain—and shows that differences in the brain from the outset can predispose an individual for overeating. It is widely accepted that after someone dependent on a substance stops using it, however, it often takes time for depleted dopamine receptors to return to baseline levels. For example, in mice addicted to cocaine, it can take two days to regain normalized levels however, obese rats in the overeating studies took two weeks to regain their baseline density of receptors. This research goes to show that overeating is a very difficult addiction to break because the withdrawl timeline is far longer and more ingrained than even that of a drug addict.
The sticky part about studying food addiction is that, unlike cocaine or alcohol, humans can’t exactly drop it—cold turkey or not. You can’t really quit food . And humans are hardwired, thanks to eons of evolutionary selection, to seek high-calorie foods to keep us going through lean times. But with subsistence hunting, gathering and farming now little more than a niche lifestyle choice in wealthy nations, a brain set up to reward super-rich calorie snacks is more of a hazard than a help. It is not easy to eat healthy in modern times. ”Real food” is more expensive than processed sadly. It is almost as though our society has set up drug dealers on every corner and asks those predisposed to have a food addiction to stay away. It is not hopeless though, if you have an overeating disorder there is help.
The Dark Side of Sex…
Jun 15th
Can't Stop?
Sexual addiction is best described as a progressive intimacy disorder characterized by compulsive sexual thoughts and acts.
Like all addictions, its negative impact on the addict and on family members increases as the disorder progresses. Over time, the addict usually has to intensify the addictive behavior to achieve the same results. Contrary to popular belief, sex addicts are not all sex offenders, and vice-versa. The National Council on Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity has defined sexual addiction as “engaging in persistent and escalating patterns of sexual behavior acted out despite increasing negative consequences to self and others.” In other words, a sex addict will continue to engage in certain sexual behaviors despite facing potential health risks, financial problems, shattered relationships or even arrest.
The same compulsive behavior that characterizes other addictions also is typical of sex addiction. But these other addictions, including drug, alcohol and gambling dependency, involve substances or activities with no necessary relationship to our survival. For example, we can live normal and happy lives without ever gambling, taking illicit drugs or drinking alcohol. Even the most genetically vulnerable person will function well without ever being exposed to, or provoked by, these addictive activities. Sexual activity is different. Like eating, having sex is necessary for human survival.
There are many co-occurring disorders that go hand in hand with sex addiction. For example, Alcohol and drugs are used to cover the guilt and shame of the inability to stop the “sexual behaviors” which in turn lead to the same demoralizing behavior which begins a vicious cycle. Drugs alter libido, enhancing it early in drug addiction and inhibiting it later. There is a pattern in cocaine addiction of selling sexual favors for cocaine. As the cost of drug addiction increases, the drug addict usually can’t afford the drug from ordinary job income, and must resort to (either/or) stealing, drug dealing or prostitution to support their habit. Many drugs cause blackouts or amnesia during the drug using experience, and if sex is coupled with that drug using experience then the details of the sexual experience may not be remembered.
Sex addiction is very real and there is help for this disease. It is not hopeless. More and more the public is coming forward with their issues and seeking a better life and a permanent solution.