The Sara Bellum Blog

According to the American Heart Association, about one in three kids and teens in the United States is overweight or obese.  Obesity can lead to chronic health problems like heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Obesity can even shorten your life.

You probably already heard this in the news. But, did you know that a diet high in saturated fats, refined sugars, corn syrup, and carbohydrates literally tricks our brains into craving more unhealthy stuff?

Brains React to Food

Most people don’t just consume food for “fuel” or energy. Most of us enjoy eating, especially our favorite foods. Science backs this up: Consuming tasty foods can satisfy the natural brain reward system, releasing the chemical dopamine in the brain to add to overall feelings of contentment and satisfaction. This is good for our survival since we have to eat to survive.

Overeating is different, but is also based in the brain. Scientists now understand that, for a growing number of people, certain foods trick the brain into wanting more. Pizza, French fries, chocolate, and colas are high on the list of foods that trigger dopamine.

In this way, food causes reactions in the brain similar to those caused by some drugs, like cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana, which also affect dopamine levels and lead to compulsive drug seeking and use.

According to NIDA Director Dr. Nora D. Volkow, “We are finding tremendous overlap between drugs in the brain and food in the brain.”

Steps You Can Take

It’s important to balance your diet with healthy choices and right-sized portions to ensure you get all the nutrition you need to be healthy.

Here are a few tips from Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Campaign:

• Try new fruits and veggies. Add variety to your meals to make eating healthier, fun, and interesting.
• Drink smart. Skip soda and other drinks flavored with sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. Choose water—make it more exciting by adding a splash of lemon or a few mint leaves.
• Move every day. Walk or bike to your destination. Turn off the TV and go outside.

Now you tell us: What do you do to eat well, keep fit, and stay healthy?

Fans of the hit TV show “Crime Scene Investigation: CSI” and would-be forensic investigators can test their skills at solving a murder mystery involving prescription drug abuse, thanks to Rice University’s popular online game series, “CSI: Web Adventures,” based on the television show.

Now, NIDA has partnered with Rice University to develop two new mysteries to address the growing problem of prescription drug abuse. The first, titled “Bitter Pill,” debuted this month. A second mystery will debut in the fall.

In “Bitter Pill,” players investigate a house fire in Las Vegas. One person is dead at the scene and a second is injured. By examining the evidence, conducting lab tests, and interviewing witnesses, players reconstruct what happened at the crime scene. “Bitter Pill” combines forensic science and neuroscience into a storyline about the dangers of prescription drug abuse while also teaching arson forensic methods.

Create Your Own Mystery

After you’ve solved the case of the Las Vegas house fire, use your new knowledge of crime scene investigation to create your own mystery around prescription drug abuse. NIDA’s PEERx Activity Guide walks you through how to create a crime scenario as a classroom assignment or youth group activity. Then, act it out, give clues, and have other teens work backward through the story to figure out which substance caused harm to the victim.

You can refer to the PEERx fact sheets for information on the side effects of different drugs to help you create the story and solve the crime.

Get more detailed instructions on how to create your own CSI. Then, leave a comment saying what scenario you created.

Doesn’t the term “medical marijuana” sound like an oxymoron? Medicine is the science and art of healing, while marijuana is an illegal drug that affects your brain and body. How can marijuana be considered medicine?

The answer is complicated—and controversial.

Risks

The potential medical uses of marijuana have been the subject of much research and heated debate. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—the Government agency that approves all medicines for use in this country—has not approved marijuana to treat any disease or condition. That’s because scientists can’t prove that smoked marijuana is safe.

Marijuana is a plant whose makeup of chemicals and potency varies from plant to plant. Studying an inconsistent plant makes it difficult for scientists to test for safety and health benefits. In addition, scientists don’t yet know the effects that some of those chemicals have on our health.

As with tobacco smoke, marijuana smoke is harmful to the lungs. Someone who smokes marijuana regularly may have many of the same health problems as someone who smokes tobacco, such as daily cough, more frequent upper respiratory illnesses, and a greater risk of lung infections like pneumonia. Despite these health concerns, several states have passed medical marijuana laws, which remove the criminal penalties for possessing and using marijuana when prescribed by a physician. You may have heard that some physicians are recommending marijuana to patients with cancer.

More Research Is Needed

Making smoked marijuana legal for medical use is not the only option for taking advantage of the medical benefits from marijuana’s active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Currently, two FDA-approved THC pills are used to treat nausea in cancer chemotherapy patients and to increase appetite in some patients with AIDS. On its own, THC can improve other symptoms, such as chronic pain and muscle spasms, with fewer risks than smoking the plant.

Scientists continue to investigate the benefits and negatives of THC and other marijuana compounds. The most promising research to date has been on cannabinoids—compounds that bind to the same receptors in the brain as THC. NIDA supports multiple studies investigating the role of cannabinoids in a healthy brain and body. Ultimately, this research may help uncover potential therapies to treat medical conditions, with low risk of abuse.

There’s no question that the debate and research about medical marijuana is going to continue for a long time, but NIDA remains committed to focusing on the science of drug abuse, and will share its research to inform future medical marijuana laws.

What do you think? Should marijuana be legalized for helping to treat diseases like cancer? If it were legalized for medical purposes, how would you prevent people without a prescription from obtaining it and using it nonmedically?

March 18–24, 2012, marks the 20th observance of National Inhalants and Poisons Awareness Week. The good news is that fewer teens are inhaling poisons and chemicals to get high, according to NIDA’s 2011 Monitoring the Future study. Use has been declining since about the mid-2000s, especially among 8th and 11th graders.

Still, even one person using an inhalant is too many. Here are some facts about inhalant use that you might not know.

Helium isn’t harmless. You may have seen people inhale helium out of a balloon at a party to make their voices sound funny. But doing so can be dangerous, and in rare cases it can even cause sudden death. This happened recently to a 14-year-old in Oregon who inhaled helium out of a tank.

Inhalants can affect speech. Inhalants rob cells of oxygen, which can harm your brain. Using inhalants repeatedly can affect the hippocampus—a brain area that helps control memory—so that a person may lose the ability to learn new things or have a hard time carrying on a simple conversation.

Even if a person stops using, the damage may already be done. Some effects of inhalant use may never go away. These include hearing loss, limb spasms, and damage to the bone marrow and to the central nervous system (or brain).

Inhalants can be addictive. Although not very common, some people may become addicted to inhalants after long-term use.

And never forget about sudden sniffing death, which can result from irregular and rapid heart rhythms caused by sniffing inhalants. It can occur the first time or 100th time a person uses inhalants.

Read other SBB posts that address inhalants.

When you hear that something comes in strawberry, ice cream, chocolate, peach, or grape flavors, your first thoughts may be: ice cream, candy, or something made for kids. After all, manufacturers of kids’ toothpastes, medicines, and vitamins add fun flavors to make their products more appealing. You may also think that flavored products are harmless, like candy.

But if you think flavored mini cigars are harmless, you’re mistaken.

Cigars of any kind, including flavored mini cigars, contain the same addictive and cancer-causing qualities as regular cigarettes. In fact, cigar tobacco has a high concentration of nitrogen compounds, some of the strongest cancer-causing substances known. Cigar smoking also is linked to gum disease and tooth loss.

Although the Food and Drug Administration has banned similar flavored cigarettes, there’s no such ban (yet) on mini cigars.

Unfortunately, more and more teens across the country are smoking mini cigars. In some states, like Maryland, statistics show that 14% of teens smoke cigars—this mirrors the rate of cigarette smoking among teens.

But Maryland isn’t ignoring the issue. Recently, the state launched a new campaign called The Cigar Trap to let teens discover the truth about these flavored brown sticks that you might see behind the checkout counter, near the candy bars and gum.

Find out more about mini cigars, including how you can tell your friends the facts behind the flavors.

St. Patrick’s Day, once a religious holiday that celebrated the patron saint of Ireland, has become a day for revelry and partying. In fact, it has become one of the biggest drinking days of the year.

Binge drinking—sucking down 4 or 5 drinks within about 2 hours—seems to be encouraged, with many bars hosting day-long parties and serving green beer and Irish whiskey.

Binge Drinking: What’s the Harm?

While downing pints of green beer may be a St. Patrick’s Day tradition for some, it’s really not a good one for your brain. Research shows that binge drinking damages the brain, even if you do it only once in a while. Young people are at special risk, since their brains are still developing—growing and making new connections until their mid-20s.

Binge drinking can lead to alcohol poisoning and also affects the frontal cortex, an area involved with judgment, thinking, memory, and feeling.

Drinking and Driving Is Never Okay

Binge drinking also can have serious consequences after the party’s over. If you’re driving under the influence, or riding with someone who’s drunk, you’ll need a ton of “Irish luck” to get home safely.

St. Patrick’s Day is one of the deadliest on the road. More than 1 in 3 drivers involved in fatal crashes have a blood alcohol concentration over the legal limit—and of course, no amount of alcohol is legal for those under age 21.

In 2011, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration started a program with the slogan, “Kiss Me, I’m Sober,” to keep “buzzed” drivers off the road on St. Patrick’s Day. The first and most important step is to choose a designated driver who will not drink alcohol during the festivities.

Be Green!

St. Patrick’s Day is meant for light-hearted fun, and you don’t have to drink alcohol to enjoy it. What are some ideas for celebrating the greenest holiday without drinking?