By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter Hard-hat jobs are tough and demanding, often entailing intense physical labor performed in dangerous situations.But a new study finds construction work also comes with another danger: An increased risk of drug abuse. Construction workers and miners are much more likely than people in other professions to misuse opioids, cocaine and marijuana, the research showed Construction and extraction workers use prescription opioids more often than all other professions combined — 3.4% vs. 2%, analysis of U.S. fed ..read more

Drugs that instantly relieve anxiety can feel like a godsend, but using the pills long-term may come with serious consequences. When Rachel Ziegler was 22, her doctor prescribed 0.5 mg of Xanax once a day to treat generalized anxiety and panic attacks. “I don’t recall ever discussing a potential stopping point,” says Ziegler, who works as a chemistry-lab technician at the University of Illinois, “but I do remember asking her if I would become addicted.” Ziegler says her doctor minimized the risk, telling her, “Oh, you’ll be okay. You’d have ..read more

Presented by the World Federation of Mental Health, World Mental Health Day will be on October 10, 2019. The goal is to help raise mental health awareness. Each of us can make a contribution to ensure that people dealing with problems concerning mental health can live better lives with dignity. The Dilemma Every year one adult in four, along with one child in ten, will have a mental health issue. These conditions can profoundly affect literally millions of lives, affecting the capability of these individuals to make it through the day, to sustain relationships, and to maintain work. The stigma ..read more

Fifty-eight people have been charged with engaging in healthcare fraud schemes that centered on the illegal distribution of more than 6 million opioid pills across Texas, U.S. prosecutors said on Wednesday. Some 16 medical professionals, including six doctors and seven pharmacists, were charged in the schemes, which featured one pharmacy in Houston that illegally dispensed more than 760,000 pills from March 2018 to September 2019, Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski told a news briefing in Dallas. “The data in our possession shines an inescapable light on those dirty doctors, clinic o ..read more

The north wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a vast, airy enclosure featuring a banked wall of glass and the Temple of Dendur, a sandstone monument that was constructed beside the Nile two millennia ago and transported to the Met, brick by brick, as a gift from the Egyptian government. The space, which opened in 1978 and is known as the Sackler Wing, is also itself a monument, to one of America’s great philanthropic dynasties. The Brooklyn-born brothers Arthur, Mortimer, and Raymond Sackler, all physicians, donated lavishly during their lifetimes to an astounding range of institutions ..read more

Medical examiners say a Northern Arizona University offensive lineman died of an opioid overdose. Authorities found Malik Noshi unresponsive in his Flagstaff home on July 7. An autopsy report released Tuesday listed the cause of death as acute fentanyl intoxication and the manner as accidental. It also said Noshi had recently used cocaine and had been drinking alcohol. “Opioids are commonly referred to as a national crisis,” Northern Arizona athletic director Mike Marlow said in a statement. “No community or family is immune from the dangers they represent. The statistics are alarming but we w ..read more

Oklahoma’s $572 million judgment against Johnson & Johnson will likely be followed by more trials and legal settlements seeking to hold a drug company accountable for a U.S. opioid crisis that has ripped apart lives and communities. Monday’s ruling could help shape negotiations over roughly 1,500 similar lawsuits filed by state, local and tribal governments consolidated before a federal judge in Ohio. And as the legal cases against the opioid industry accelerate, so do concerns about how the money from verdicts or settlements will be spent. Following are questions and answers about the opi ..read more

Binge drinking among Americans over 50 jumped 19% between 2005 and 2014. Binge drinking is booming — among boomers. In fact, more than one in 10 Americans ages 65 and older are binge drinkers, according to a New York University study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society on Wednesday, which is defined as having five or more drinks during one occasion in the past month for men, and four or more for women. This is sobering news, considering that the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) recommends that adults over 65 consume three alcoholic drinks or f ..read more

There was a point where I didn’t want to live.’ Social media sensation and viral video star Tiffany Jenkins has long been up front about the struggles of parenting. She’s also spoken candidly about her battles with addiction. During her recovery, she met her future husband — and found out that she was pregnant after just two months of dating. “That was not part of my plan,” Jenkins told TODAY. “I was like ‘I can’t do this.’ And I went and told him about it, and he was, like, stoked! And I was like, ‘I’m in a halfway house, why are you so excited? What are we going to give this baby? What are y ..read more

Individuals can really shock their systems if they try to stop taking Xanax altogether without weaning off it. When a person is abusing this drug, the body becomes accustomed to the effects it causes, and without the drug, the body doesn’t know how to respond. As a result, it goes into overdrive trying to compensate for the loss of GABA activity, and it tries to reset the brain’s normal neurotransmitter production levels. When people are addicted, they cannot escape Xanax without enduring withdrawal. The Washington Post reports 10-20 percent of individuals who use benzodiazepines like Xanax fo ..read more