Alcohol and meds can be lethal for seniors

April is Alcohol Awareness Month which is intended to educate people about the consequences of alcohol-related problems. Millions of older adults drink alcoholic beverages. Some of them drink too much, which can harm their health and lead to safety problems.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if someone has a drinking problem. Some signs of drinking, such as falls and depression, can be mistaken for other physical or mental conditions or other conditions related to aging.

Elderly alcohol abusers can be divided into two general types: the “hardy survivors,” those who have been abusing alcohol for many years and have reached 65, and the “late onset” group, those who begin abusing alcohol later in life.

The latter group’s alcohol abuse is often triggered by changes in life such as retirement, death or separation from a spouse or family member, a friend or a pet, health concerns, reduced income, impairment of sleep and or family conflicts.

As people age, they may become more sensitive to alcohol’s effects. This means that older adults can experience the effects of alcohol, such as slurred speech and lack of coordination, more readily than when they were younger. Over time, someone whose drinking habits haven’t changed may find he or she has a problem.

Many older adults take prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs, and herbal remedies. Drinking alcohol can cause certain medicines to not work properly and other medicines to become more dangerous or even deadly

Mixing alcohol and some medicines can cause sleepiness, confusion, or lack of coordination, which may lead to accidents and injuries.

Depending on the type of medicine, doing so can result in increased risk of stomach or intestinal bleeding or liver damage.

Read the labels on all medications and follow the directions. Some medication labels warn people not to drink alcohol when taking the medicine. Ask a doctor or pharmacist whether it’s okay to drink alcohol while taking a certain medicine.

Among other reasons this issue flies under the radar is they are not interacting with law enforcement. Few older adults go out to bars and drink heavily. Instead, many drink alone in the privacy of their own homes — which keeps them from getting the help they need.

There is no risk of losing their job. Since most senior citizens are retired, their problem drinking does not affect them in the work place – another factor that keeps the issue shrouded in secrecy.

Remember — you can’t make a person deal with a drinking problem. You can offer support and get help for yourself. If you think you have a drinking problem talk to a health care professional like your doctor.

 

British girls are the worst teenage binge drinkers in the western world, a report has revealed.

British girls drink more booze in the UK than their male counterparts
Some 50% of 15-year-olds have been drunk at least twice - almost double the 29% average of other developed countries, figures show.
Girls also drink more alcohol in the UK than their male counterparts, with only 44% of 15-year-old boys admitting being intoxicated on two or more occasions.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) figures were published in a new report called 'Through the Looking Glass'.
They revealed that between 1998 and 2008, the proportion of girls who binge-drank - defined as consuming more than six drinks per session - increased from 17% to 27%.

Charlie Sheen crumbles during the opening night of his 20-date tour at the Fox Theatre in Detroit.

Some came out of solidarity, some came for the spectacle. Most came for both and saw no contradiction in that.

On Saturday night Charlie Sheen kicked off his tour, Sheenishly titled "Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat Is Not an Option," in Detroit. But that latter statement proved to be over-optimistic, and what torpedoed were the remnants of Sheen's once-impressive career.

Sheen's image has always been that of a bad boy, both on and off the screen. His misdemeanours over the years – shooting a fiancée in the arm, drug overdoses – were seen by his fans as proof of Sheen's adorable naughtiness. His hugely successful TV show, Two and a Half Men, for which he was paid almost $2m an episode, mined this reputation with his character, the wittily hedonistic, Charlie Harper. Since his very public falling out with the producers of the show earlier this year, Sheen, a once-skilled comic and character actor, has thrown his energies into giving rambling interviews, full of talk of "winning" and "tiger blood".

His father, Martin Sheen, interviewed on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs on Sunday, said his addict son needs "help and sympathy". Both were in short supply at the opening night of his show.

It was both poignant and appropriate for the former A-list Hollywood star to begin his sell-out tour in Detroit. Now less of a city and more a symbol of the death of American industry, this former hub of car manufacturing is dying. Last week, the US census report revealed that Detroit's population had dropped by a quarter in the past decade and the city's mayor was reduced to begging for a recount in the hope of bringing it up enough to qualify the city for increased state and federal aid.

Whether Sheen's appeal now lies in what some see as his aspirational lifestyle or simply voyeuristic rubbernecking is something of a fuzzy issue.

Jason Proventher, and Jack Green, both 23 and from Michigan, were quick to pinpoint why they had come: "I'm here to see him fall apart," said Green. His friend added, "He's living the American dream!"

Is falling apart the American dream?

"No," said Proventher. "It's the ride up to it that's the dream, the fun part."

"He's awesome!" cried Jeff Strasche, 36, from Detroit.

Were the rambling webcam videos Sheen recently put up on the internet awesome?

"No, those were kind of weird. But this is going to be awesome!"

Inside Detroit's sold-out 5,100 seat Fox Theater, the concession stand was doing a healthy business selling unhealthy items, including $35 T-shirts proclaiming "Bangin' 7gs", referring to Sheen's professed former drug intake, and a $25 hat that informed onlookers "I'm not bipolar".

When Sheen appeared on stage, 45 minutes late, he had the smile of a Halloween pumpkin, his mouth full of shadows where teeth had once been.

Things started well for him. His sneers at his former show, Two and a Half Men prompting cheers from the audience. But when he spoke, it was a mix of incoherencies and vitriol: "I used my power against them and stuffed their arms down their gaping throats. No time to take their stinking toupees because this warlock was on the move!" he bellowed.

"Smoke some more crack, Charlie!" someone shouted. The underrated Joaquin Phoenix 2010 mockumentary, I'm Still Here – about a Hollywood star who suffers a mental breakdown and is bullied by the public – suddenly looked shockingly prescient. Heartbreakingly, clips of Sheen from Platoon and Wall Street played on screen while Sheen himself stumbled about on stage. He tried to show a film he made in the 1980s with Johnny Depp, but the boos prompted an early end to that.

"Maybe it's more appropriate for me to tell some crack stories," he said.

The audience cheered.

"What do you want me to talk about?" he asked a member of the audience.

"I want to hear about the porn stars!"

"Why do you want to hear about that?" he asked, disappointed.

It was a classic misunderstanding: he thought they loved him for his fearless honesty; they did, but only in regards to his intake of crack and porn.

"OK, OK, I'll do some crack stories," he relented, desperately.

Soaring numbers of women are drinking hazardous amounts of alcohol, figures show.

The proportion consuming more than the recommended limit of 14 units a week has grown by a fifth in a decade.

Almost one in five women drinks in excess of this amount, with one in 20 downing more than 35 units a week – the equivalent of four bottles of wine.

By contrast, men’s drinking habits have remained constant over the ten years, with a quarter – 26 per cent – consuming more than their recommended limit of 21 units a week.


Over the limit: Almost one in five women now drink in excess of the recommended 14 units a week

The figures, published by the Office for National Statistics, will add to concerns that women are fast catching up with the opposite sex in the drinking stakes.

Although men’s average weekly intake is twice as high – 16 units compared to eight units – recent figures have pointed to a surge in binge drinking among females, particularly young girls.

Experts claim that British women are happy to be seen to be drinking as much as men on nights out, unlike in other countries where it would be frowned upon.

Campaigners have blamed the alcohol industry for targeting drinks at women and warn there is now a casual acceptance of drunkenness.

The latest ONS figures, for 2009, show that 18 per cent of women drink more than 14 units a week, up from 15 per cent in 1998.



Since 1998 the number of women drinking more than 35 units a week has doubled, up from 2 per cent to 4 per cent.


On average women drink eight units a week. But this is higher for those aged 16 to 24, who consume an average of 10.3 units.

The findings back up recent figures showing young women are drinking just as much as men, and are far more likely to end up in hospital.

An NHS Information Centre report found that teenage girls drink an average of 11.3 units a week – the equivalent of six medium glasses of wine or five pints of beer.

This compares with 11.9 units for the average boy drinker, aged 11 to 15.

The figures also showed that in 2009, a total of 3,661 girls were admitted to hospital with ‘alcohol-specific conditions’ – such as liver damage or ethanol poisoning – compared with 2,751 boys.

Don Shenker, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, said of the NHS figures: ‘Under-age drinking is an issue that we should all be concerned about.

‘Young girls are saturated by images, messages and role models, including the way adults drink, which creates a casual acceptance of drunkenness.

‘But this culture is taking a toll on young people’s health, with high levels of hospital admissions and all too frequent trips to A&E. The next generation of binge-drinkers are being created through access to cheap booze in supermarkets and irresponsible marketing by multi-million-pound retailers and producers.’

Earlier this year a separate report by Alcohol Concern warned that, by 2015, the equivalent of three Britons will be taken to hospital every minute as a direct result of alcohol