Drug is a central nervous system depressant that gradually inhibits the functions of the brain, affecting self-control and producing euphoria and disinhibition, as can be confused with a stimulant.

Alcohol in excess can cause short-term effects such as alcohol poisoning, coma and even cause death, also contributes to risk behaviors, and alcohol inhibitions and causes a false sense security is therefore related to accidents Traffic and labor. In the long term as well as causing social and family conflicts, the health of an alcoholic is deteriorating rapidly, may have hypertension, gastritis, liver cirrhosis, heart disease, cancer, aggression and psychosis and other illnesses.

Addiction to alcohol, cannabis, cocaine and synthetic drugs is a problem facing society, understand their effects and help in preventing damage.

Drug use affects consumers, families, friends, coworkers. It is a problem that concerns the whole society. Although there are civil associations and NGOs to prevent and detect the problem, emphasis should be placed on the information to the public about the types of drugs, their myths, effects, and above all, how to prevent consumption.

Currently there are assistance programs that focus on prevention and awareness of society in the use of drugs, besides that it has sought to improve the system to diagnose and treat the problem in its infancy. As he advanced at the same time society is changing and what was for criminals and outcasts, as the drug, now linked with the culture of leisure and fun.

It has also sought to lower the damage on people who drink or are in the process of rehabilitation and to reintegrate into society and the workplace. However, although there are control and prevention measures, the society must not lower our guard.

It is known in advance that the drug problem will not be eradicated entirely, but with help and good information anyone may face situations that directly affect him or his family and even friends.

The Ministry of Health of the Government of Spain published the guide entitled, Drug. A compendium of facts, myths, effects, types, risks, abuse, abuse and dependence to such substances to provide relevant information to society on consumption, the effects and consequences. In this way parents can detect early drug use by their children, what are the warning signs and what to do if you suspect substance abuse.

Excessive alcohol consumption is defined as more than two drinks a day for men and more than one drink a day for women. Drinking party is considered more than five drinks in a single occasion for men and more than four drinks for women. Approximately five percent of adults drink too much and 15 percent of the drinking party. It is not known exactly how many underage drinkers are also alcohol abuse.

Alcohol is produced by the formation of sugar, yeast and starch. It is found in products such as beer, wine, and liquor. Alcohol has different effects on the body, depending on the type and amount consumed. Standard drink consists of about.6 ounces of alcohol. Reactions to alcohol also varies based on many other factors such as age, gender, race, physical condition, amount of food consumed before drinking, how fast the alcohol is consumed, the use of drugs and prescription drugs and family history of abuse.

Alcohol is a depressant of the central nervous system that is quickly absorbed by the stomach and small intestine and metabolized by the liver. Liver can only metabolize a small amount of alcohol that leave the rest to circulate in the bloodstream affects every organ in the body. The intensity will affect directly connected to the amount of alcohol consumed.

Excessive alcohol consumption can cause problems with relationships, school, work and self-esteem. It is also associated with diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver, pancreatic, various cancers, high blood pressure and physiological disorders. This can lead to injury due to accidents such as falls, burns, firearm injuries, and car accidents. This can harm the fetus of a pregnant woman.

Violence is often associated with excessive drinking. Too much consumption can also lead to abuse and dependence. Studies show that the risk of developing this problem is even greater for youth and young adults. Youth who drink alcohol before the age of 15 years have proved five times more likely to become alcoholics than those who begin drinking at age 21 law.

Researchers found that nicotine, the addictive component in cigarettes, “fool” the brain and memory to create associations between environmental cues and smoking behavior. This may explain why former smokers miss when lighting a cigarette in a bar or after eating.

The findings of researchers from Baylor College of Medicine published in the September 10 edition of the journal Neuron.

“Our brain normally establishes these associations between things that give support to our existence and environmental signals so that we have behaviors that lead us to have successful lives. The brain sends a signal of reward when we act in a way that contributes to our welfare “said co-author, Dr. John A. Dani, professor of neuroscience at BCM, in a press release from the university. “However, nicotine usurps this subconscious learning process in the brain, so we started to behave as if smoking was a positive action.”

Dani said that environmental events associated with smoking can be converted into tracks that stimulate craving. This information could include alcohol, a meal with friends or even the way home from work.

Dani and Dr. Jianrong Tang, instructor of neuroscience at BCM and co-author of the report, recorded the brain activity of rats during exposure to nicotine.

The rats were allowed to wander through a device that had two compartments. In a magazine, receiving nicotine. And on the other, obtained a saline solution. The researchers recorded the amount of time that mice spent in each compartment and brain activity in the hippocampus, a brain area that creates the reports.

“The change in brain activity was amazing,” said Dani. “Compared with injections of saline, nicotine strengthened neural connections, sometimes up to 200 percent. The strengthening of these connections emphasizes the formation of new memories.”

Dani said that understanding the mechanisms that create memory could have implications for future research and treatment of memory disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and in disorders of dopamine signaling, such as Parkinson’s disease.

This is the conclusion of the team of Dr. Jennifer O’Loughlin, who published the results of their study in American Journal of Epidemiology.

O’Loughlin, of the University of Montreal, Quebec, suggests that efforts to prevent smoking should take into account “the individual factors such as age, self-esteem, alcohol use and school performance.”

They should also be considered “contextual factors such as parental smoking and friends, and school smoking policies,” the expert told Reuters Health.

The team investigated how these factors modify the onset smoking in 877 students (half male) who had 13 years at baseline.

Over the next five years, the team interviewed every three months to students on the consumption of snuff and other factors potentially associated with smoking initiation. During this period, 421 (48 percent) began smoking, 87 of them (21 percent), daily.

Living in a single parent and poor school performance has increased the risk of starting to smoke. Drinking alcohol tripled the risk.

Having brothers and friends who smoke increased two to three times the risk of teens smoking. If the parent, teachers and school staff smoked, the risk of starting smoking was multiplied by 50 percent or more.

Feeling the urge to smoke a cigarette rose six times the risk. Adolescents who felt stressed, acting impulsively and were susceptible to snuff advertising were also more likely to start smoking.

In contrast, gender, parental education, the feeling of depression, concerns about weight or overweight, the pursuit of new sensations, exercise and sports, and watching TV were among the factors that were not associated with increased risk of starting to smoke.

Prevention programs and smoking cessation-oriented social snuff consumption in the home and school, as well as advertising on snuff would have a positive effect on adolescent cigarette smoking, summarizes O’Loughlin.

The authors suggest that more research is needed on factors associated with alcohol consumption and smoking, and genetic variables associated with the risk of starting to smoke.

The British researchers surveyed middle-aged women with breast cancer in the clinics, about their health habits and followed up for seven years.

A quarter of women reported no alcohol use and most of the remainder reported that the average consumption was one drink per day.

The researchers compared to light drinkers of two or fewer drinks a week, with people who drank more.

Each extra drink per day increased the risk of breast cancer, rectum and liver, from the University of Oxford, researchers report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The type of alcoholic beverages such as, wine, beer or spirits did not matter, defined earlier research that alcohol consumption was associated with esophageal and oral cancer, only when the drinkers were smokers.

Furthermore, moderate drinkers actually had a lower risk of thyroid cancer, Hodgkin lymphoma and renal cell cancer.

For a woman the risk is manifested by a small total alcohol in developed countries, about 118 of every 1,000 women develop any of these types of cancer and every extra daily drink added 11 breast cancers, plus four other types.

But in the whole population, 13 percent of cancer cases in Britain may be attributable to alcohol, this being the conclusion of the study.

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The stages of rehabilitation

There are some aspects that need attention at the time of rehabilitating addicted to drugs or alcohol. In the first instance, it is important to note that the individual realizes his situation and his need to leave the consumer, and be ready and willing to recovery.

The support of family and friends is very important to maintain the intention of recovery. The detoxification phase, when the addict stops where consumption and withdrawal symptoms appear, should be supervised by physicians.

Throughout the period of rehabilitation, therapy is recommended. This can be personal therapy, group therapy or in any case, the individual, along with professional, together must seek the causes and reasons that led to consumption is not an easy job, but it is important to work sobe the factors determining the addiction.

Similarly, the detoxification process, not necessarily must be given by a hospital in one of these cynical. Especially if there is good support from family and friends of the addict, treatment can be given outside their premises.

Treatments in detoxification centers

One of the possibilities of treatments in detoxification clinics, is a prescription drug that can recover the damaged brain areas. The purpose of these centers is to decrease the amount of substance used.

On the other hand, a fundamental basis in rehabilitation clinics consists of supportive care by professionals facing the patient. The forms of therapy can be both individual and group. One of the centers where it develops an Alcoholics Anonymous group therapy, where they stay together for sobriety.

In his search to find therapy through a doctor and the patient, the causes that led to alcohol abuse, the moods that influenced the unit and the individual’s personal reasons. And, thus, are trying to reach the appropriate conclusions from both, especially the patient.

1. Do you drink alone?

2. Do you feel obsessed by the desire to drink at certain times of day?

3. Would you like a drink in the morning?

4. Have you suffered amnesia because of drinking?

5. Have you had financial difficulties because of drinking?

6. Commits “drink to your position or business?

7. Is it the drink because of absence from his job?

8. Do you drink to reaffirm its confidence in itself?

9. Do you drink to forget worries or trouble?

10. Receive your family you’re drinking?

11. “Make disgrace to his family whether to drink?

If you answered YES:

1 question: you may be alcoholic

2 questions: there is a substantial likelihood that you are an alcoholic

3 or more questions you undoubtedly a sick alcoholic

Views: Researchers have reported in a recent article in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society that people who drink wine in moderation are less likely to develop Macala degeneration related to age.

Colds: Experts from five universities found that people who drank two glasses of red wine a day were 44% less likely to get colds than abstainers.

Heart disease: Several studies have confirmed the positive link between moderate wine consumption and reduced risk of coronary heart disease. A recent study published in the American Journal of Physiology indicates that resveratrol, the antioxidant component in wine, inhibits a protein that produces a condition called cardiofibrosis, which reduces the efficiency of cardiac pumping.

Ulcers: A study published in January 2003 by the American Journal of Gastroenterology, showed that moderate and regular consumption of wine reduces the risk of peptic ulcers and may help the body get rid of bacteria suspected to be causing them.

Diabetes: The Faculty of Public Health at Harvard found that women who drink moderately are 58% less likely to develop diabetes.

Gallstones and kidney: An Italian survey which involved 15 910 men and 13 674 women found that moderate daily consumption of alcohol protects against gallstones. Japanese and French studies have reached the same conclusion. Drinking the right kind of alcohol can also help with kidney stones. A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology indicated that the risk of kidney stone formation was reduced 39% among wine drinkers.

Food Poisoning: The University of Virginia This led to research which suggests that drinking 1 or 2 glasses of wine with meals can help prevent food poisoning, dysentery and diarrhea in travelers calls