Millions of people may be able to handle the effects of alcohol without becoming abusers, but the number of American adults 18 and older who are dependent on or abuse alcohol rose from 13.8 million in 1991芒鈧€?2 to 17.6 million in 2001芒鈧€?002, according to an epidemiological survey directed by NIAAA. You would expect the number to go up, because the population increased; however, the percentage of those with drinking problems in the population also increased, from 7.41 percent to 8.46 percent.
Not surprisingly, the largest percentage of drinking problems is found within young adults 18-29. Overall, more than 10 percent of those young adults in the 2002 survey were either alcoholics or abusers Ha Ha Clinton-Dix Limited Jersey , and that percentage had not changed much over the previous 10 years. However, the percentage of some young minority adults with drinking problems had increased dramatically, specifically among black males, Asian females and Hispanic males. Alcohol dependence significantly increased among young black females and Asian males.
When those findings were announced in 2004, NIAAA director Ting-Kai Li, M.D., said, "The fact that alcohol disorder rates are highest among young adults underscores the need for concerted research on drinking patterns that initiate in adolescence."
Which is exactly what is going on--among other alcohol research--at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center (WFUBMC). These studies on the effects of alcohol may lead to changes in how we diagnose and treat drinking problems early on.
Developmental disorders relating to the effects of alcohol
"NIAAA and NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) are both concluding that alcohol dependence and drug abuse are developmental disorders Aaron Rodgers Limited Jersey , so they tend to emerge early in life, in adolescence or even before," said Allyson J. Bennett, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology and the Department of Pediatrics.
"If you want to understand how adults became alcoholics, you want to begin studying them early in life," said Bennett, who is part of an NIAAA Center of Excellence grant Ha Ha Clinton-Dix Packers Jersey , first awarded in 2003.
A study of such effects of alcohol is not possible with human research subjects. Once it has been established that an adult subject is alcohol dependent, researchers cannot then turn back the hands of time to look at them as children or adolescents, to try to identify factors that might have sent them along what Bennett called the "risk pathway" toward drinking problems.
So Bennett and other researchers turn to animal models--in her case, monkeys--to study the effects of alcohol.
"There is no single gene or combination of genes and environmental influences that pull individuals along that risk pathway," she said. Only a handful of genes have been identified that tend to have been associated with drinking problems in humans, and monkeys have similar genetic risk factors relating to their reaction to the effects of alcohol. That allows researchers to control environmental variables such as parental attention and stress levels to see what will increase vulnerability to alcohol abuse, or promote what Bennett calls "resilience" from negative genetic factors.
"There could be a genetic variation or a gene that puts one at risk for changes in neurochemistry that are associated with alcoholism. But there may be early-childhood environments that promote resilience," she explained Aaron Rodgers Packers Jersey , "so that under the right conditions the individual with that genetic vulnerability does not go on to become an alcoholic.
"It goes the other way too. You might have a very bad environment, but something about your genes protects you from its adverse effects."
Genes, Bennett hastens to add, contribute only part of the risk for drug abuse or drinking problems. There are many genes that contribute to this sort of reaction to the effects of alcohol, and the vast majority of them have yet to be discovered.
Serotonin, stress and binge drinking
The genetic risk factors for drinking problems such as alcoholism and binge drinking, as well as depression and other conditions have been linked to the neurotransmitter serotonin. In their monkey models, the Medical Center researchers can follow the animals' development behaviorally and neurochemically to try to discern each twist and turn of the risk pathway and the particular reactions to the effects of alcohol.
Binge drinking is a particular problem among human adolescents just beginning to explore the effects of alcohol. The latest statistics from NIAAA indicate that more than 12 percent of 8th-graders and nearly 30 percent of 12th-graders report drinking five or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks. Bennett's research focuses on how starting to drink in adolescence might increase risk of drinking problems in adulthood and also on how binge drinking in adolescence affects physiology Women's Ha Ha Clinton-Dix Jersey , maturation and behavior.
Work by Bennett and others has already shown that kids who start drinking early and binge drink as adolescents are at greater risk for drinking problems, including alcoholism, as adults. But exactly why is that? And now that they know the early drinkers will have problems later, is iSo. Cheap Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap Jerseys From China Cheap Jerseys From China Cheap NFL Jerseys China Wholesale Jerseys China Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys China Wholesale Nike NFL Jerseys Wholesale Soccer Jerseys Free Shipping
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