'Risk Begins with Any Use' - Research Indicates that Drinking Alcohol Poses Serious Risks as Early as First Trimester of Pregnancy

Study: No alcohol intake safe during pregnancy

By Maureen Salamon, HealthDay

It's known that drinking during pregnancy leaves babies vulnerable to a spectrum of abnormalities called fetal alcohol syndrome. Now, a new study pinpoints the latter half of the first trimester as a critical time in the development of some of the syndrome's most telling physical characteristics.

Study authors also stressed that their research illustrates there is no safe amount of drinking during pregnancy, since the amount of drinking that produced these features in infants varied from woman to woman.

"The fact that we didn't find a safe threshold is important," said study author Christina Chambers, an associate professor of pediatrics and family and preventive medicine at the University of California, San Diego. "Not every child of women who drink even very heavily has all the features, so there are certain susceptibility factors that we don't know."

The study appears online Jan. 16 ahead of print publication in the April issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. The authors say it is one of the first to examine the impact of quantity, frequency and timing of alcohol exposure on the condition.

Thought to affect about 1 percent of the American population, fetal alcohol syndrome can result in physical, behavioral and learning problems. People with the syndrome may have abnormal facial features, such as a smooth ridge between the nose and upper lip, small head size, unusually small-set eyes and shorter-than-average height.

The 992 women in the study were enrolled in the California Teratogen Information Service and Clinical Research Program between 1978 and 2005, which provided confidential risk assessments for any potential toxin exposures during pregnancy. Every three months during the remainder of their pregnancies, they were asked about their use of alcohol and other substances, including specific dates of use, drinks per day, number of binge episodes and maximum number of drinks.

Information about their babies' development was collected after birth, and each newborn was then examined by a dysmorphologist, a specialist in structural birth defects, to look for evidence of fetal alcohol syndrome as well as other conditions.

While higher levels of alcohol exposure were strongly linked to a greater risk of infants born smaller and lighter, with small heads and a smooth ridge between the nose and upper lip, the most significant associations were observed during the second half of the first trimester of pregnancy -- defined as 43 to 84 days after conception.

For every one-drink increase in the daily average number of drinks consumed during this stage of pregnancy, there was a 25 percent higher risk for having a smooth ridge between the nose and upper lip; a 22 percent higher chance of having an abnormally thin upper lip; a 12 percent elevated risk of having a smaller-than-normal head; a 16 percent greater risk of reduced birth weight; and an 18 percent higher chance of reduced birth length.

In addition, the likelihood of shorter birth length was associated with drinking in any trimester, the study found.

"There is almost 40 years of research [on fetal alcohol syndrome], but one of the challenges has been determining what are the windows of risk and the patterns in timing and quantity of alcohol use, and this [study] addresses that," said Tom Donaldson, president of the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in Washington, D.C. "This article very clearly demonstrates that risk begins with any use."

*To read the rest of this article, please click on this urlink for more.

'You Might Want to Stay Awake' - Study Argues that Sleep Not Beneficial After Trauma

Sleep Locks In Bad Memories, Emotions

By Katie Moisse

Sleeping after a traumatic event might lock in bad memories and emotions, a new study has found.

Researchers from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst asked more than 100 healthy adults to rate their emotional responses to a series of images, some depicting unsettling scenes. Twelve hours later, they rated the images again. The difference: Half of the subjects slept during the break; the other half did not.

"Not only did sleep protect the memory, but it also protected the emotional reaction," said Rebecca Spencer, a neuroscientist at UMass Amherst and co-author of the study that was published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Study subjects who stayed awake for 12 hours had a weaker emotional response to the unsettling images the second time around, suggesting sleep serves to preserve and even amplify negative emotions. Their memories were also weaker than those of their well-rested counterparts, as they struggled to remember whether they had seen the images before.

"It's true that 'sleeping on it' is usually a good thing to do," said Spencer, citing evidence that sleep boosts memory and other cognitive functions. "It's just when something truly traumatic or out of the ordinary happens that you might want to stay awake."

Spencer said people often find it difficult to sleep after a traumatic event.

"This study suggests the biological response we have after trauma might actually be healthy," she said. "Perhaps letting people go through a period of insomnia before feeding them sleeping meds is actually beneficial."

While the findings may have implications for post traumatic stress disorder, Spencer emphasized that daily emotional ups and downs are not grounds for sleep deprivation.

"Just because we have a bad day doesn't mean we should stay awake," she said. "We need to maintain some memories and emotional context to know what to avoid. We do learn something from them."

Although sleep gives the body some much-needed rest, the brain stays active. Spencer used polysomnography to monitor brain activity in some sleeping subjects.

To read the rest of this article, please click on this urlink for more.

'Fear is a Powerful & Often a Rational Motivator' - Does 'Prevention and Treatment' Trump an Actual Cure for Alzheimer's?

A futuristic fix for Alzheimer's disease?

What if Alzheimer's isn't curable? What if scientists are wasting their time trying to discover the root of the problem, rather than developing ways to treat patients so that they might live with the disease with some dignity?  The December issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease raises these questions with a new study that says more attention should be focused on extending the life of neurons. In other words, prevention and treatment rather than an all-out cure.

The Times' editorial board weighed in on the study's findings in Monday's Opinion pages, suggesting researchers keep an open mind on all fronts:

[Dr. Ming Chen at the University of South Florida ], the new study's lead author, says that for years Alzheimer's researchers have been driven by fear of the societal devastation that will be wrought by increasing numbers of dementia sufferers, and that it has led scientists down a path for a cure that doesn't exist. But fear is a powerful and often a rational motivator. It's fine to reexamine priorities. The last thing we want is for researchers to be distracted by the debate or to close off options that let them dare to pursue either a cure or a preventive strategy.

Indeed, when it comes to science, some lament a culture that fosters close-mindedness. On a recent episode  of "This American Life," for instance, cancer researcher Jonathan Brody complained that researchers spend too much time refining the same concepts rather than taking big steps forward.  He likens it to a screenwriter in Hollywood who sells out to survive. He says:

You know, I do think it's much like being in Hollywood. You might go out to Hollywood thinking that you'll be the next Kafka. And you end up writing, you know, the worst sitcom in the world, right, because you want to survive. So what happens in this country when the same thing happens with science?

For Brody, it's the frustration that only familiar concepts get funding that compelled him to team up with a music teacher to discover whether soundwaves could kill cancer cells.

*To read the rest of this op-ed piece, please click on this urlink.

Study: Ear Buds Are Hazardous to Wearers

Fatal distraction: Deaths of headphone-wearing pedestrians on the rise

By Sevil Omer

Anna Marie Stickel never heard the train coming. The 14-year-old was listening to music on her iPod while walking along the railroad track, taking a shortcut to school after missing the morning bus.


An Amtrak train traveling south along the stretch of track in Maryland's Middle River struck her from behind, instantly killing the high school freshman on Jan. 5, 2010.


Anna's tragic story sparked a national study examining the dangers associated with pedestrian use of headphones, according to Dr. Richard Lichenstein, director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine Research at the University of Maryland Hospital for Children in Baltimore. She was among 116 cases studied. 



The findings: Wearing headphones while walking on roads can be a fatal distraction.

The number of people killed or seriously injured as a result of not being aware of their surroundings because they were wearing headphones has tripled in the past six years, Lichenstein said.


Results were published Tuesday in the journal Injury Prevention. The study found:

• The number of deaths of people wearing headphones increased from 16 in 2004-2005 to 47 in 2010-2011.
• The majority were male (68 %) and 67 percent were under the age of 30.
• The majority of vehicles involved were trains (55 %).
• 89 percent of cases occurred in urban counties.

Lichenstein and three researchers delved into the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission, Google News Archives and Westlaw Campus Research Database from Jan. 1, 2004 to June 1, 2011.


"Sensory deprivation that results from using headphones with electronic devices may be a unique problem in pedestrian incidents, where auditory cues can be more important than visual ones,” the study cited.


*To read the rest of this article, please click on this urlink.

"Despojando" - An Brief Introduction to Self-Care

Mental health and wellness need not be confined exclusively to working with clinicians.  While the benefit of a good, qualified social worker, psychologist, or other mental health professional should not be underestimated, there are many different good choices that each of us can make the most of during those less challenging moments of our lives.  Self-care is a concept that we here at Open Arms Center value greatly as effective tools to prevent unhealthy habits and maintain healthy ones.    Simple, oft-time low-cost activities such as reading, taking a walk, talking to a trusted friend, hobbies, and so on are but a few examples of self-care.  

Another useful example of self-care is found in the following repost from another blog.  

"There are those who deal with the blues and depression with therapists and drugs, and then there are those who put on a Cuban track. There's something sensual and exciting about the riffing and repetition that just drives it all away. Latinos call it despojando. It works, trust me." 

- Al Angeloro, [originally posted on Un Bohio Blog]

Maybe you, too, find music to be helpful when you need to feel a little better.  Think about the things that make life a little sweeter for you and start writing them down.  Keep them handy for the tougher moments as a helpful reminder of what brings a smile to your heart.   Who knows?  Maybe your list may help you help someone else, too.

"Coffee Just Doesn't Do It" - Data Suggests that More Moms are Abusing ADHD Meds

Mother's new little helper — Adderall

Stressed-out women are turning to the ADHD drugs their children take.

By Katherine Ellison

All over the country in recent weeks, mothers of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder have been scrambling to fill prescriptions for their kids' stimulant medications, due to suddenly scarce supplies.

Drug firms blame the shortage on quotas of the psychoactive ingredients, set by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to control abuse. Some DEA officials counter that the drug firms have chosen to use their limited allotments to make more of the pricey, brand-name drugs, causing a dearth of the cheaper generics.

Manufacturing issues aside, however, the National Institute on Drug Abuse suggests there may be another, more ironic reason for the stimulant shortages: namely, a dramatic increase in their use — and abuse — by women of childbearing age.

Over the last decade, the number of prescriptions written each year for generic and brand-name forms of Adderall, an amphetamine mix that has recently become the most popular ADHD remedy, has surged among women over 26, rising from a total of roughly 800,000 in 2002 to some 5.4 million in 2010. A particularly startling increase has been for women aged 26 to 39, for whom prescriptions soared by 750% in this time frame.

Though part of this rise can be accounted for by an increase in population, officials at the National Institute on Drug Abuse are concerned that it is widening the pipeline for diversion and abuse.

Many doctors recommend stimulants for children and adults who have symptoms of ADHD, including difficulty sustaining attention and maintaining self-control. Experts in the field say they help strengthen the parts of the brain involved in these functions by improving the utilization of dopamine, a key neurotransmitter.

Yet amphetamines and other stimulants can also be abused, especially when crushed and snorted, providing a "rush" that has been compared to that of cocaine. The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists warns that even when taken as prescribed, the medications can be habit-forming, and also have possibly serious side effects, including seizures, paranoia, aggressive behavior and tics. In people with preexisting heart problems, there is an added danger of cardiac arrest.

The upside of the medications — their ability to help those with attention-deficit disorders to focus — has nonetheless led to a continuing increase in their use, and in drug company revenue. In 2010, manufacturers sold $7.42 billion worth of the drugs, up from $4.05 billion just two years earlier.

Many of these new prescriptions are warranted. When ADHD symptoms are severe, the disorder can be debilitating for children and adults. As stigma surrounding it has abated, it's not surprising that there has been an increase in adults, in particular, seeking treatment.

The danger comes when people without ADHD take the meds to boost their productivity, a trap experts say has of late become especially tempting for young mothers. Remember that "Desperate Housewives" episode in which actress Felicity Huffman tries her kids' Ritalin and finds it's the perfect "mother's little helper" as she races to finish making costumes for the school performance of "Little Red Riding Hood"?

"Much as kids are stressed by having to go through school and all their outside activities, their moms are right there with them," says Stephen Odom, a Newport Beach addiction specialist. "She's more tired than anyone, and coffee just doesn't do it."

Like the Huffman character, many women start out by sampling their children's meds — a felony, by the way. Then they get prescriptions of their own, sometimes by faking ADHD symptoms, or find the pills by more underhanded means.

This was the case for Sunny Morrisette, a 28-year-old woman in Logan, Utah, arrested last month for trading cigarettes to neighborhood schoolchildren in return for their ADHD drugs. Morrisette allegedly told police that she was under a lot of stress and had heard "good things about Adderall and wanted to try it." She was charged with several felony drug offenses and with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

"There's a lot of denial around these drugs, and the danger is easy to minimize because that prescription label can make you feel what you're doing is safe," warns Brad Lamm, the president of a New York intervention agency.

The greatest rates of abuse continue to be found on college campuses, where students use the meds to study — and party — harder. Dee Owens, director of the Alcohol/Drug Information Center at Indiana University, says Adderall abuse has become "epidemic among young ladies" who are trying to keep their grades up and their weight down, and to drink more beer without falling asleep.

More worrisome, and in what the National Institute on Drug Abuse calls a "cause for alarm," abuse of prescription stimulants is also becoming more prevalent in high school. An institute survey of 45,000 students found abuse of stimulants had increased among high school seniors, from 6.6% to 8.2%, just in the last two years.

To read the rest of this article, please click on this urlink.

Open Arms Center Fundraiser - February 25th, 2012

Open Arms Center is hosting its first-ever fundraiser in the charming setting of an Asian garden party in the lush gardens of Miami Springs' Casa Zwick.  Tickets are only $30 and proceeds benefit the work Open Arms Center provides for Miami's underserved communities. 

The Open Arms Center fundraiser will on Saturday, February 25th, 2012 from 3pm to 6pm. (please RSVP by no later than Saturday, February 18th, 2012).   Casa Zwick is located at 264 Navajo Street in Miami Springs, just minutes north of Miami International Airport.   For more information or to RSVP, please contact us via email (openarmscenter.exrel@gmail.com) and/or telephone (305-244-0971).

'Give the Gift of Life' - Borinquen Clinic Blood Drive

Our good friends at Wynwood's Borinquen Medical Center will be hosting a blood drive at their main campus on Monday, January 23rd, 2012 from 10:30am to 4pm.

The Borinquen Medical Center is centrally located at 3601 Federal Highway, just a block and a half west of the intersection of Biscayne Boulevard and NW 36 Street, minutes north of downtown Miami.  If you would like more information, you can give Borinquen a telephone call at (305) 576-6611.

Please spread the word about Borinquen's blood drive.  Who knows:  the blood you donate could save the life of someone very special.


Open Arms Center is proud to be a community partner with Borinquen Clinic and, together, we are all working hard to make Miami better!

'Toxic Stress Can Harm Children for Life': Fighting Poverty .. with Hugs

A Poverty Solution That Starts With a Hug

By Nicholas D. Kristof

Perhaps the most widespread peril children face isn’t guns, swimming pools or speeding cars. Rather, scientists are suggesting that it may be “toxic stress” early in life, or even before birth.

This month, the American Academy of Pediatrics is issuing a landmark warning that this toxic stress can harm children for life. I’m as skeptical as anyone of headlines from new medical studies (Coffee is good for you! Coffee is bad for you!), but that’s not what this is.

Rather, this is a “policy statement” from the premier association of pediatricians, based on two decades of scientific research. This has revolutionary implications for medicine and for how we can more effectively chip away at poverty and crime.

Toxic stress might arise from parental abuse of alcohol or drugs. It could occur in a home where children are threatened and beaten. It might derive from chronic neglect — a child cries without being cuddled. Affection seems to defuse toxic stress — keep those hugs and lullabies coming! — suggesting that the stress emerges when a child senses persistent threats but no protector.

Cues of a hostile or indifferent environment flood an infant, or even a fetus, with stress hormones like cortisol in ways that can disrupt the body’s metabolism or the architecture of the brain.

The upshot is that children are sometimes permanently undermined. Even many years later, as adults, they are more likely to suffer heart disease, obesity, diabetes and other physical ailments. They are also more likely to struggle in school, have short tempers and tangle with the law.

The crucial period seems to be from conception through early childhood. After that, the brain is less pliable and has trouble being remolded.

“You can modify behavior later, but you can’t rewire disrupted brain circuits,” notes Jack P. Shonkoff, a Harvard pediatrician who has been a leader in this field. “We’re beginning to get a pretty compelling biological model of why kids who have experienced adversity have trouble learning.”

This new research addresses an uncomfortable truth: Poverty is difficult to overcome partly because of self-destructive behaviors. Children from poor homes often shine, but others may skip school, abuse narcotics, break the law, and have trouble settling down in a marriage and a job. Then their children may replicate this pattern.

Liberals sometimes ignore these self-destructive pathologies. Conservatives sometimes rely on them to blame poverty on the poor.

The research suggests that the roots of impairment and underachievement are biologically embedded, but preventable. “This is the biology of social class disparities,” Dr. Shonkoff said. “Early experiences are literally built into our bodies.”

The implication is that the most cost-effective window to bring about change isn’t high school or even kindergarten — although much greater efforts are needed in schools as well — but in the early years of life, or even before birth.

“Protecting young children from adversity is a promising, science-based strategy to address many of the most persistent and costly problems facing contemporary society, including limited educational achievement, diminished economic productivity, criminality, and disparities in health,” the pediatrics academy said in its policy statement.

One successful example of early intervention is home visitation by childcare experts, like those from the Nurse-Family Partnership. This organization sends nurses to visit poor, vulnerable women who are pregnant for the first time. The nurse warns against smoking and alcohol and drug abuse, and later encourages breast-feeding and good nutrition, while coaxing mothers to cuddle their children and read to them. This program continues until the child is 2.

At age 6, studies have found, these children are only one-third as likely to have behavioral or intellectual problems as others who weren’t enrolled. At age 15, the children are less than half as likely to have been arrested.

Evidence of the importance of early experiences has been mounting like snowflakes in a blizzard. For example, several studies examined Dutch men and women who had been in utero during a brief famine at the end of World War II. Decades later, those “famine babies” had more trouble concentrating and more heart disease than those born before or after.

Other scholars examined children who had been badly neglected in Romanian orphanages. Those who spent more time in the orphanages had shorter telomeres, a change in chromosomes that’s a marker of accelerated aging. Their brain scans also looked different.

The science is still accumulating. But a compelling message from biology is that if we want to chip away at poverty and improve educational and health outcomes, we have to start earlier. For many children, damage has been suffered before the first day of school.

As Frederick Douglass noted, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”

To read this article in its entirety, please click on this urlink.

Save the Date! -- OAC Fundraiser!!

Open Arms Center is very pleased to announce that it will host its very first fundraiser next month.   We are still working hard on the details but please mark Saturday, February 25th, 2012 on your calendar to join us for an event that we are working hard to make very enjoyable for you and your friends.

Our fundraiser will help Open Arms Center continue to grow into a community-based, people-focused agency that supports and helps families in Greater Miami foster the skills and traits that helps make their lives happier.

Please check back with us here on the Open Arms Center Blog or visit our Open Arms Center facebook page very soon for updated information about the very first Open Arms Center fundraiser.

We can't wait to see all of you very soon!