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CEO of Crim Fitness Foundation to step down – WNEM Saginaw
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CEO of Crim Fitness Foundation to step down - WNEM Saginaw
Fitness: Your body craves some TLC! – The Standard
ALSO READ: #WCW: Mitchelle Adagala, fit and fabulous
Most people wait until they are injured before seeing a physiotherapist. However, regular physiotherapy is key to preventing injury by improving posture, mobility and flexibility, addressing imbalances and working on balance, strength, stabilisation and range of motion.
The same way you would not wait until your car breaks down to have it serviced, you should not wait until your body breaks down to have physio. This is important whether or not you exercise as things like childbirth, sitting for long periods, working at a computer, poor posture and old injuries, to name a few, can affect your overall body alignment.
If you then add exercise to the mix, it can exacerbate underlying physiological issues. This is why, often, when people start to exercise, they become more susceptible to pain and injury. This is because over time, your body has learned to adapt and adjust to day to day movements. The additional pressure that exercise put on muscles, joints and ligaments can bring to light any underlying physiological problems.
Not only can your physiotherapist identify and address any imbalances, they can advise you on specific strength, alignment and stretching exercises to do, to mitigate these imbalances.
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Fitness: Your body craves some TLC! - The Standard
5 fitness rules to follow if you’re working out in your 60s, 70s, and beyond – msnNOW
Photo: Getty Images/Thomas Barwick senior exercise routine
Take it from the people who continually live to be 100: Working outeven in small incrementsis one of the keys to living a healthy life. As longevity becomes more and more talked about, we're all looking for ways to live longer and better. "Your workouts should depend on your individual fitness goals and levels, and really not your age," says Martin Ridley, physical therapist at Tru Whole Care. This is especially the case if you've been diligent about your fitness routine throughout your life, he says, since you won't be starting from scratch."Maintain 30 to 40 minutes of movement, whether it's biking, walking, swimming, strength training, or stretching," says Ridley.
That said, certain activities can get harder with age. "You can't do everything at the same capacity that you used to, and the longer you don't use muscles, the more they shut down," says Will Torres, trainer and founder of New York City-based movement studio Willspace. And so, there are certain elements that trainers say are especially beneficial when you're in your 60s and beyond for ultimate mobility and strength. Keep scrolling for expert-approved tips for a healthy fitness program.
1. Prioritize spinal health: The spine endures a lot over the course of our lives, so keep it top of mind when working out. The best way to do this, according to Torres? Hang. "Hanging is very important to develop grip strength, to stretch the tendons and ligaments in your arms, shoulders, spine, and neck," he says. Also, while you're hangingby something like a pull up bargravity works to elongate your entire body, which is really healthy for your spine.
Besides hanging, Ridley advises those in their 60s and older to avoid core workouts that contract the back. "Instead of doing sit-ups and crunches, do core- and back-strengthening exercises to help the spine stand as supported and as tall as possible," he says, noting that crunches and sit-ups can lead to back pain. Do extension-based core exercises instead.
2. Do regular yoga or Pilates:While you could turn to anything from cycling to running in your 60s or 70s, experts highly recommend incorporating regular yoga or Pilates into your routine. "We tend to recommend yoga and Pilates as the number one workout to do in your 60s and 70s," says Ridley. "They're both low impact and lower intensity, and your body will still feel the great effects of exercise." Pilates and yoga both strengthen your muscles and help with your body alignment and flexibility.
Getty 3. Strengthen your hands: Torres points out that grip strength tends to lessen as you age. "We have a bunch of ways to strengthen your grip, and hanging is the best one," he says. Another good exercise for this? The plank. "Teaching people how to put weight on their hands [through a plank] develops strength pushing in the opposite direction [of a hang]," says Torres, noting that this will also strengthen your core (as we know).
4. Do hip mobility work: Having mobile hips is key all throughout your life, but especially when you're over 60. "Your body gets used to sitting," says Torres (thanks for nothing, desk jobs). He says that this tends to happen if you're not using your joints to their capacity or their full range of motion (which makes them tighter and less mobile). Enter the deep squat, or what he calls a toddler squat.
"This I define as having your hamstrings resting on the calvesyou're going all the way down," says Torres. "This works the flexibility and mobility of the hips, and it develops your postural muscles, since you're working to keep your spine upright." Try to do five minutes a day. He also recommends doing hip stretches regularly to stay mobile.
5. Make your fitness adaptive: According to Torres, your body wants stimulus... which isn't exactly what you get if you only walk on a treadmill or cycle in place. By making your fitness adaptive, or in other words, by making sure that you're not just repeating the same motion over and over again into oblivion, you can up your fitness game. Torres suggests activities like hiking and dancing as two examples of this. "With hiking, there's all this terrain. You're stepping over rocks, going uphill, going downhill... you're acclimating to different terrain," he says. "When you're dancing, you're twisting, and trying to develop rhythmically." Try switching things up to get your muscles dealing with unpredictability: walk in a park uphill, downhill, or sign up for a salsa dancing classwhatever suits your fancy.
Video: Study: An earlier dinner can lower your risk of cancer (Courtesy: Veuer)
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5 fitness rules to follow if you're working out in your 60s, 70s, and beyond - msnNOW
We are dropping the paywall on coronavirus news stories – Lincoln Journal Star
This undated electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, orange, emerging from the surface of cells, green, cultured in the lab. Also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus causes COVID-19. The sample was isolated from a patient in the U.S.
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This includes stories about closings and cancellations, medical repercussions, the decision-making processes of community leaders, and much more. We provide expert advice and tips about how best to deal with the impact of the virus.
You will see coronavirus content displayed high on our home page, as well as on the front page of our newspaper and the e-edition. Plus, we have a daily newsletter aggregating news you can use about COVID-19. Please sign up for this essential newsletter at journalstar.com/newsletters.
Accurate local news is critical; decisions are made and information is shared by community leaders that impact the lives of people. Journalists report these decisions and ask the tough questions on behalf of readers.
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We are dropping the paywall on coronavirus news stories - Lincoln Journal Star
The massive tongan prop who was ‘too overweight’ to play rugby reveals incredible weight loss – Rugby OnSlaught
Tongan prop Ben Tameifuna has revealed an incredible weight loss in a video just months after was told he couldnt play for a French club because he was too overweight!
Racing 92 had ordered Ben Tameifunato lose weight with the club unhappy with theTongainternationals condition following his return from the Rugby World Cup.
The Tongan prop was seriously overweight going into the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Here is a video showing how big he WAS.
According to reports in France, Tameifuna tipped the scales at 160kg when he reported back to the Top14 club.
It is not the first time Racing have been unhappy with the 28-year-olds weight.
The former Chiefs player was reportedly at 140kg when he left for the tournament but has packed on the beef despite playing and training in France over the past month.
The 28-year-old Tameifuna, the heaviest player at the tournament, is no stranger to weight issues with the latest reports bringing a reminder of Big Ben returning from a summer vacation last year weighing 166kg.
In 2018, Tameifuna returned for pre-season weighting 166kg.
An incredible video shows just how much weight the prop has now lost and it looks like he has lost around 20kg just by looking at his waistline!
Much in the past have been made of Props and their distinct lack of athleticism in some cases. Weve recently spoken at length about the size of Ben Temifuna who is one the biggest players to EVER have played in a World Cup. If you look at this kicking attempt here though, you wouldnt think that man weighs 21 stone!
Tonga may be out of the competition but videos like this will certainly keep them on the radar for rugby fans out there.
This is after the Tonga rugby Twitter account sent a message to head coach Toutai Kefu with a video of Ben The Boot Tameifuna nailing a kick from 40 metres, whilst also telling current kicker Sonatane Takulua that he has a new rival in the team.
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The massive tongan prop who was 'too overweight' to play rugby reveals incredible weight loss - Rugby OnSlaught
Intermittent fasting linked to reduced risk of liver disease – ConsumerAffairs
Researchers say the diet plan can change proteins in the liver to keep consumers healthy
03/13/2020
Photo (c) StephanieFrey - Getty ImagesIntermittent fasting has recently gained traction for its ability to help consumers lose weight and achieve a healthier lifestyle, but a new study shows that it can also promote good liver health.
Australian researchers at the University of Sydney say that the diet can positively impact fat metabolism in the liver, which can help prevent various liver diseases and conditions. Specifically, they found that a certain protein called HNF4-(alpha) was suppressed when an intermittent fasting plan was followed.
"For the first time we showed that HNF4-(alpha) is inhibited during intermittent fasting. This has downstream consequences, such as lowering the abundance of blood proteins in inflammation or affecting bile synthesis. This helps explain some of the previously known facts about intermittent fasting," said researcher Dr. Mark Larance.
The researchers came to their conclusions after analyzing how the HNF4-(alpha) protein was affected by intermittent fasting in mice. The protein is generally responsible for regulating a wide array of liver genes.
The team found that both intermittent fasting and every-other-day-fasting (in which consumers only consume food on an alternating daily schedule) changed how HNF4-(alpha) interacted with the metabolism of fatty acids in the liver. The observations of this interaction and others could allow for medical professionals to develop approaches that could help manage glucose and regulate diseases like diabetes.
"We know that fasting can be an effective intervention to treat disease and improve liver health. But we haven't known how fasting reprograms liver proteins, which perform a diverse array of essential metabolic functions," explained Larance. "By studying the impact on proteins in the livers of mice...we now have a much better understanding of how this happens."
The full study has been published in the journal Cell Reports.
Christopher Maynard is a New York-based writer and editor who has worked as a security guard, high school teacher, theatrical lighting designer and volunteer fireman. He is a graduate of Marist College.
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Intermittent fasting linked to reduced risk of liver disease - ConsumerAffairs
Experts Share the Importance of Strength Training for your Legs when Trying to Lose Weight – Bigtime Daily
Growing older, we sometimes need an extra hand, which will help us to overcome some situations that we do not manage to do ourselves. Promoting and maintaining health and running a good lifestyle is essential for any individual. Sometimes most of our old ones face serious health-related issues, which limits their mobility and brings some inconveniences for them.
Fortunately, our innovative world has a solution for this as well. Due to a number of professional services, they get the needed extra help, as well as better their health and feel comfort in their own homes. However, each of these companies should face these health-related issues:
1. Diabetes
The diabetes is a really serious health issue since if your blood sugar is too high, it can bring you a number of other serious problems as well. So, caring for your food and maintaining a healthy diet is among the most essential factors that each needs to keep.
Getting experience and having much knowledge helps to care for appropriate food and drink intake. So, a good company will provide the best home help for the elderly and take care for finding the professionals for them. River Garden Home Care is experienced enough to give its clients the support they need.
2. Stroke
Having a sudden interruption in the blood supply to their brain, leading a normal lifestyle becomes impossible for many people. Stoke can have an impact on a persons independence.
Getting better from this life-threatening medical condition is possible due to good care and support. Depending on the urgency and professionalism of the treatment, the situation can become better or worse. The sooner it is treated, the less the damage will be.
3. Physical Disability
Growing older sometimes bring some serious issues related to a persons free movement. Being in the condition of a physical disability, people sometimes find it difficult to do some ordinary things. Hence, getting help in most cases becomes a necessity for them. Good support will make the situation better and people will feel better and safe. Fully trained professionals will help the older ones in moving and doing tasks they need, which will release them from stressful situations.
4. Palliative Care
Anyone who has a serious illness, may be in a stressful situation. It can not only become a reason for depression for the person, but for family members as well. Companies, who provide with home care, should integrate palliative care in their services, since it is really essential. Good care will bring relief from the symptoms and help people to overcome the stress. Besides, it helps to better the quality of life and relieve a person from pain as much as possible.
5. Catheter and Stoma Care
Based on different health-related issues, many people need to insert a certain tube into the bladder, in order to have urine pass into a drainage bag. In order not to limit your independent live, you need to ask for the professional help, who will take the right catheter and stoma care. It is an essential issue, since if you do not have proper care you may face serious problems and infections.
Conclusion
Besides the illnesses and issues related to mobility, you may have other reasons for asking professional care. Sometimes the old ones need them just for other purposes as well. Some of them do not manage to accept the fact that they are growing old, and they start to feel lonely and depressed. They need just simple social interaction and want to get involved in different activities. Coming out of these situations, they hire such services, whose professional and caring workers bring back their ordinary way of living.
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Experts Share the Importance of Strength Training for your Legs when Trying to Lose Weight - Bigtime Daily
Perimenopause: ‘I went from triathlon training to needing naps’ – BBC News
Image caption Personal trainer Emily Barclay went from triathlon training to "needing a snooze every day"
At 39, Emily Barclay was hit with irregular periods, crushing fatigue and mood swings. It took four years before she was diagnosed with perimenopause - a phase that can last for 10 years before the menopause itself, with similar debilitating symptoms.
"Everything was just wrong."
That's how Emily felt when she started gaining weight, feeling exhausted all the time and "totally out of control".
She couldn't understand it - she was fit, healthy and training six times a week for long-distance triathlons. But within three months, she went from preparing for Ironman events to "needing a snooze every single day".
The personal trainer went to the doctor several times over the following four years and was repeatedly given conflicting advice.
"I just wasn't getting any answers. I was told I was stressed, that they needed to change what [contraceptive] I'm on, I needed to exercise more, I needed to lose weight."
Emily says not knowing what was wrong with her was "scary" and that every couple of months, she would have "episodes" where she didn't feel like herself.
"I didn't understand what was happening and I was really scared about why I wasn't me any more," she says.
"I had episodes of just being psycho... It wasn't just being a bit ratty but proper angry and I would keep going back for arguments. Then afterwards, I would feel totally wiped out.
"It was terrifying, as I felt totally out of control. It's like you've been body-snatched and you're watching another person."
Emily had "endless" hormone tests that all came back normal. She ended up conducting her own research and told the doctor she thought she either had chronic fatigue syndrome or perimenopause.
Together, they identified that her symptoms seemed to run in conjunction with her menstrual cycle and at 42, she was finally diagnosed with perimenopause - a phase that can last up to 10 years and cause hot flushes, night sweats and mood swings, similar to the menopause.
"I didn't know perimenopause even existed [but] I felt such a relief because I now knew what was going on," she says.
"I didn't know there was this transition, I just thought you toddled along happily and one day you had a few hot flushes, your periods finished and you were done."
For most women in the UK, the average age of reaching the menopause is 51, but decreasing levels of oestrogen can cause perimenopausal symptoms.
Emily struggled at first with the impact of the condition. She had been used to training for 12 to 15 hours a week through swimming, cycling and running, but felt too tired to exercise - something that had brought her social benefits as well as fitness.
Many of her friends were from the Norwich-based triathlon club Tri-Anglia and the Bungay Black Dog running club, so she saw them less frequently.
She also didn't finish the 2017 Outlaw Half Holkham - an event consisting of a 1.2-mile (1,900m) swim, 56-mile (90km) bike and 13.1-mile (21km) run - due to her symptoms and she pulled out of Ironman Vichy in France as the distances were double and she felt "there was simply no point" going.
"A huge part of [training] was socialising and catching up with people; I would run with one of my friends which was an opportunity to chat and I would do long runs with my dogs," she says.
"I felt lost not being able to do that."
Source: Dr Susanna Unsworth from Cambridge Women's Health
The 43-year-old decided not to take medication and instead adapted her lifestyle to "allow for fatigue". Cardiovascular exercise still "wipes me out for days" so instead she has taken up power-lifting.
"Now I know what it is, I feel happy to ride it out," she says. "I don't take PT clients in the evening any longer, I allow time for naps, I make sure I get early nights when I need to."
She has also channelled the years she spent trying to get answers into an online support service called Perimenopause Hub, where women with the condition all over the world can find out more about symptoms and get support.
It has a Facebook group with more than 1,200 members and experts on hand to give advice. Emily, who says the project has "grown and grown", will also be hosting a three-day online summit on 20-22 March.
"The feedback has been phenomenal. People have been in contact and said they feel they are 'no longer alone', 'I'm not different', 'I'm not the only one going through this'," she says.
"It's been lovely creating this community. It's like I've given permission to people to talk about it and that's really cool."
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Perimenopause: 'I went from triathlon training to needing naps' - BBC News
Weight gain linked to lower risk of breast cancer before the menopause – The Institute of Cancer Research
Image: Normal breast epithelial cells with stained mitochondria (green), microtubules (red) and DNA (blue). Credit: Julia Sero, the ICR, 2016.
Gaining weight from early adulthood is linked to a lower risk of breast cancer before the menopause, a major global study of more than 600,000 women has found.
Being heavier as a young adult is known to lower the chances of developing premenopausal breast cancer, but it has been unclear to date what impact any subsequent weight gain (or loss) might have.
In a new long-term study, funded by Breast Cancer Now and other collaborators, women who gained 10kg or more from early adulthood (aged 1824) up to their forties or early fifties were found to have a lower risk of breast cancer before the menopause than those whose weight remained stable, regardless of their starting weight.
The international collaboration led by scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, the University of North Carolinaand the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences found that the more weight women put on, the stronger the protective effect, with a reduction in risk of around 4% for each 5kg gained between early adulthood and ages 4554.
The findings provide further evidence that levels of fat, or adiposity, are a fundamental factor determining a womans chances of getting breast cancer.
Experts today called for studies to explore why both body size and additional weight gain independently reduce the likelihood of developing breast cancer before the menopause.
It is hoped that an understanding of the biological mechanism could lead to new preventive therapies and more accurate risk tests to help guide when individual women may benefit most from breast screening.
Breast cancer is the UKs most common cancer, with around 55,000 women and 370 men being diagnosed with the disease each year in the UK.
While the risk of breast cancer increases with age, nearly 20% of cases arise in women under the age of 50, and the disease remains the leading cause of death in women under 50 in the UK.
Previous research has established that having a higher body mass index (BMI) at a younger age is linked to a lower risk of breast cancer before the menopause, but it has been difficult to study in detail the role of weight gain due to the relatively low rates of breast cancer among younger women.
In a new analysis of data from 628,468 women from 17 studies across the world, including the Breast Cancer Now Generations Study in the UK, researchers investigated the effect of weight gain during six age intervals on the risk of breast cancer before the menopause: from ages 1824 to 2534, 3544 and 4554, ages 2534 to 3544 and 4554, and ages 3544 to 4554.
The analysis led by Dr Minouk Schoemaker and Professor Anthony Swerdlowat The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), Dr Hazel Nichols at the University of North Carolina and Professor Dale Sandler at the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences collected information on womens weights at a minimum of two ages, and followed participants for a median of 10.1 years.
Weight changes were analysed in increments of 5kg and a wide range of information was collected from participants to adjust for other factors that influence breast cancer risk including whether they had children and when, their starting weight and any family history of breast cancer.
Where available, other lifestyle factors such as smoking, level of physical activity, and alcohol consumption were taken into consideration.
The researchers observed that 10,886 out of the 628,468 women had gone on to develop breast cancer before the menopause, and found that weight gain of 10kg or more from early adulthood led to a reduction in risk.
Weight gain between early adulthood (1824) and ages 4554 led to decrease in risk of around 4% for each 5kg gained, with weight gain specifically between early adulthood and ages 3544 leading to decrease in risk of around 3% for each 5kg gained.
Interestingly, weight gain when started from the ages 3544 onwards did not affect womens chances of developing the disease before the menopause, which could suggest that it is overall exposure to excess weight over time that is linked to a lower premenopausal breast cancer risk.
Weight loss (of 5kg or more) was not found to be linked to the risk of premenopausal breast cancer once womens starting weight had been taken into account.
Learn how the ICR is tackling the most common type of cancer among women, which affects around one in eight women in their lifetime.
Find out more
While further studies are needed, the authors propose that the impact of a womans weight in early adulthood on her chances of developing premenopausal breast cancer may originate in childhood, and could be related to changes in her breast composition during puberty.
It is also thought that other factors such as altered levels of hormones or growth factorsin early adulthood may play a role.
With the protective effect of weight gain reversing after the menopause (where excess body weight increases breast cancer risk and where the disease most commonly) develops, Breast Cancer Now today urged for women of all ages to be fully supported to achieve and maintain a healthy weight, to help reduce the risk of breast cancer after the menopause, and of other types of cancer and other diseases.
The study ispublished in the International Journal of Cancer.
Lead author Dr Minouk Schoemaker, Senior Staff Scientist in Cancer Epidemiology at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said:
The link between a higher body mass index and a lower breast cancer risk before the menopause has puzzled researchers for a while now. In our large-scale international study, we were able to tease out the effects in more detail than ever before.
We found that while higher weight in early adulthood was most strongly linked to reducing breast cancer risk, later weight gain had an independent effect in bringing risk down further. But we know that the protective effect of a higher weight is reversed after the menopause, when being heavier increases womens breast cancer risk.
Women shouldnt consider gaining weight as a way to prevent breast cancer but understanding the biological reasons behind the link between weight and breast cancer risk could in future lead to new ways to prevent the disease.
Baroness Delyth Morgan, Chief Executive at Breast Cancer Now, which helped to fund the study, said:
These are really important findings that bring us a step closer to understanding the fundamental role of weight on the risk of breast cancer in younger women.
We must be really clear that weight gain itself should never be considered to try to prevent breast cancer, particularly as excess weight raises risk after the menopause, when the disease is most common. Its vital that women of all ages are fully supported to achieve and maintain a healthy weight, to help reduce their overall risk of cancer and other diseases.
We now urgently need to understand the biological reasons why body size and weight gain both lower womens risk of breast cancer before the menopause. Its really promising that the discovery of this protective effect could help us develop new preventive therapies or better risk tests to identify those who may benefit most from screening or risk-reducing steps.
In the meantime, everyone can help keep their risk of breast cancer as low as possible by being more active, drinking less alcohol and keeping to a healthy weight. Anyone who is concerned about their breast cancer risk can call our free Helpline on 0808 800 6000 to talk to one of our nurses.
The Breast Cancer Now Generations Study is a landmark prospective study of the causes of breast cancer that is following over 113,000 UK women for over 40 years.
The Study based at the ICR has already led to a number of significant discoveries into the interlinked causes of breast cancer, including clarifying that women taking combined HRT are 2.7 times more likely to develop breast cancer than non-users, and that smoking is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer particularly if started during adolescence.
Breast Cancer Now thanks M&S for their generous support of the Breast Cancer Now Generations Study.
Read More..New Scientific Review Compares Alcoholics Anonymous to Therapy – Gizmodo UK
A new analysis of existing research this week suggests that Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and similar 12-step facilitated peer counselling programmes (TSF) really can help people dealing with alcohol use disorder to abstain from alcohol. Compared to other methods, like cognitive behavioural therapy, AA-type programmes seem to provide similar benefits in most health-related outcomes. Where AA and TSF programmes may perform better on average is in the percentage of programme participants able to abstain from alcohol for about a year or longer.
But the findings dont mean that AA/TSF isnt without its flaws or that its necessarily meant for everyone with alcohol problems.
The new researcha review of 27 studies and randomised clinical trials involving over 11,000 peoplewas published Wednesday by the Cochrane Library. Many scientists consider Cochrane reviews to be some of the most well-researched and comprehensive looks at a topic.
The review analysed studies comparing AA and AA-like 12 step programmes to other counselling approaches, including those involving a therapist, as well as to no treatment at all. These included 12-step programmes following a set protocol established by the larger organisation (known as manualised) as well as not (called non-manualised). Other methods studied included therapy employing motivational enhancement and cognitive behavioural techniques, as well as variants of multi-step peer counselling programmes.
For most outcomes, such as cutting down on a persons self-reported amount of drinking, both versions of AA/TSF (manualised and non-manualised) performed as well as any other treatment. But manualised AA/TSF seemed to do better when it came to complete sobriety, based on the combined results of two randomised clinical trials involving 2,000 people. On average, around 42 percent of people who remained inmanualised AA or a 12-step facilitated programme(which may involve other approaches in combination with AA) for a year, in these trials, reported being sober a year later, the review found, compared to 35 percent for people on other treatments like cognitive behavioural therapy. More people in these programs also reported remaining sober two and three years later than did people using other methods. It also found evidence that AA/TSF leads to substantial health care savings for people with alcohol use disorder, which can often lead to liver damage.
There is high quality evidence that manualised AA/TSF interventions are more effective than other established treatments, such as CBT, for increasing abstinence, the authors wrote.
The findings are the strongest validation yet for AA, which has been criticised by many former adherents and some mental health experts. These criticisms include the explicit focus on spirituality (submission to a higher power) as a way to cope with alcohol addiction, the negative attitude toward other treatments, including medication, seen in some circles, and the lack of concrete evidence for its benefits.
Though this review may answer that last criticism to a degree, those others remain. The review also suggests that a majority of people who seek out treatment for their alcohol use disorder still find it hard to achieve sobriety, even with AA. For many people with alcohol use disorder, as is the case with other types of substance-use problems, it may be a chronic condition that no one treatment can easily help with, but rather responds to one or more approaches tailored specifically to that persons needs.
Some advocates also say that the overarching goal of lifelong sobriety espoused by organisations like AA isnt a healthy way to approach alcohol use disorder. More important, they argue, is that a person is able to function daily as best as they can, not necessarily abstain completely. For some, the forced expectation of constant abstinence may only set them up to fail, much as strict diets rarely help people accomplish long-term significant weight loss. And of course, the free peer counselling provided by AA is both a blessing for many as well as an indictment of how difficult it remains for people to access dependable and affordable mental health care.
None of this is to say that AA cant help someone with alcohol use disorder, just that it may not be right for everyone. And thats okay, since there are other options available a message that the authors echoed in a Cochrane interview as well. These options can include medications like naltrexone, therapy, and secular peer-counselling groups, as well as emerging treatments such as MDMA-assisted therapy.
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New Scientific Review Compares Alcoholics Anonymous to Therapy - Gizmodo UK