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Studies in recent years have demonstrated that binge drinking can decrease bone mass and bone strength, increasing the risk of osteoporosis. Now a Loyola University Stritch School of medicine study has found a possible mechanism: Alcohol disturbs genes necessary for maintaining healthy bones. The findings could help in the development of new drugs to minimize bone loss in alcohol abusers.

Speaking about the release of the Advisory Group on Drug and Alcohol Education's report, and the government's response, Eric Carlin, Chair of the Drug Education Forum, said: The problems that drugs and alcohol cause are too important for drug education to be an optional subject for parents or schools. The Drug Education Forum has been championing the importance of supporting parents for many years.

Binge drinking is linked to a wide spectrum of medical, psychological, behavioral, and social problems. It is well known that chronic alcohol abuse may induce gastrointestinal dysfunction, chronic atrophic gastritis and is closely related with gastric carcinoma. However, the detailed mechanism by which ethanol affects the gastrointestinal mucosa remains to be elucidated. A research article published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology refers.

A New Jersey company is renting drug-sniffing dogs to parents concerned about their children's possible use of illicit drugs.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has voted to recommend that adult smokers under 65 receive a pneumococcal vaccination to protect against bacteria that cause pneumonia, meningitis and other illnesses.

Children exposed to secondhand smoke have higher levels of carbon monoxide in their blood than adults, according to researchers at Tufts Medical Center who said kids who breathe secondhand smoke can be exposed to carbon monoxide levels equal to those of adult smokers.

The parity amendment attached to the bailout of Wall Street firms that ensures coverage of treatment for mental illness and addiction should be reversed or modified because it is "likely to open up a Pandora's box for the American health care system," Jeffrey Schaler, a psychologist and professor at

From 1935 to 1975, just about everyone busted for drugs in the U.S. was sent to the United States Narcotic Farm outside Lexington, Ky. Equal parts federal prison, treatment center, research laboratory and farm, this controversial institution was designed not only to rehabilitate addicts, but to discover a cure for drug addiction.Now a new documentary, The Narcotic Farm, reveals the lost world of this institution, based on rare film footage, numerous documents, dozens of interviews of former staff, inmates and volunteer patients, and more than 2,000 photographs unearthed from archives across the country. Premiering October 26 on public television in Philadelphia and Salisbury, Md., the film will appear on public television stations across the country throughout November. A book accompanying the documentary includes rare and previously unpublished pictures of "Narco," as the institution was called locally, a selection of which can be seen in this slide show. [More]