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Alcohol consumption is falling in New Zealand – but not fast enough to stop the brutal legacy of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder

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Rates high alcohol consumption in Aotearoa New Zealand are starting to fall, consistent with trends seen across Europe. This may reflect greater awareness of alcohol-related harm, in addition to financial pressures and reduced availability of alcohol products.

Despite this modest decline in consumption, inequality in alcohol-related harm persists, more people live in povertyand increasingly Māori proceed to drink heavily and experience disproportionate harm – including fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)FASD).

This is much more true for ladies than for men. Women living in poverty are twice as likely drink greater than those that are not restricted.

FASD is attributable to exposure to alcohol before birth and has no cure. The condition lasts a lifetime and may cause learning difficulties, impulsiveness, explosive behaviour and an inability to understand consequences. It is a mixture of aspects that contributes to difficulties in families, at college and in wider society.

The lack of recognition and resources places a heavy burden on families struggling to deal with these impacts. This further deepens the inequalities and failures of our education and care systems.

Women in danger

While women have long drank lower than men and proceed to drink on average, there are also subgroups of heavy drinkers, especially amongst younger ladies. These likely contribute to the current FASD data.

Survey data collected in 2011 revealed a small group of young women who were drinking huge amounts of alcohol – mostly RTDs and spirits bought from off-licences (as opposed to bars or restaurants). Their consumption was about twice the average for adults in Aotearoa at the time, and equivalent to the volume consumed by the heaviest drinking young men.

These young women had low life satisfaction and reported symptoms of alcohol dependence. They liked alcohol advertisements and were more likely than others to buy alcohol late at night. This suggested that liberal trading hours encouraged their high consumption.

We found that this group of young women are in danger of sexually transmitted infections, sexual violence, and having children with FASD.

A Legacy of Heavy Drinking

New Zealand is currently grappling with the effects of high levels of alcohol consumption over the past three many years, some of that are linked to long-term health effects for the drinker, including cancer and heart disease.

But a surprisingly large part of this harmful legacy is alcohol’s influence on others.

Our last evaluation We calculated the healthy life years lost. We found that in 2018, 70,668 healthy life years were lost in Aotearoa due to FASD. This is greater than the 60,174 healthy life years lost due to drinking alone in 2016.

The urgent need to respond to this devastating situation was highlighted in a petition filed with the Waitangi Tribunal by David Ratu. It is estimated that FASD could also be the largest disability affecting Māori and 30% of prisoners may suffer from FASD.

After years of neglect, the current government now has prioritized specializing in FASD. This will provide much-needed increased resources to support people living with FASD and people caring for them.

Detecting damage before it happens

It is essential that Māori have control over these resources to ensure they’re put to good use. But that is not enough. Aotearoa needs to transcend providing more support once the harm has been done, and be certain that the harm attributable to alcohol products is minimised.

This could possibly be addressed by reducing the oversupply of alcohol products (through selectively removing licenses and reducing sales hours) – a move supported by testsThe lack of trade regulations, resulting in an oversupply of alcohol products in areas inhabited by people living in poverty, contributes to alcohol harm and is generally are not welcomed by these communities.

The previous government began with amendment to the alcohol act to make supply control more responsive to community needs. It is essential to monitor this and see whether the goal of a greater licensing process is being adequately achieved.

Another change was expected but never got here – greater restrictions on promoting alcohol products. Much of this marketing now takes place on social media and uses personal data for the purpose of identifying and targeting most vulnerable consumers.

Marketing efforts do so much to normalize the consumption of alcohol products, but do nothing to minimize the risk of addiction or discourage drinking to “drowne one’s sorrows” in difficult times.

The current small decline in alcohol consumption is welcome. Encouraging continued reductions through good policy will reduce the ongoing catastrophe of avoidable hardship for many who already face greater than their fair proportion.



This article was originally published on : theconversation.com
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Health and Wellness

Runner dedicates New York City Marathon to preventing gun violence

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Like the 50,000 other individuals who lined the starting line of the New York City Marathon on November 3, Trevon Bosley of Chicago was prepared to push his body to the limit over the 26.2-mile distance. Unlike them though Bosley dedicated his run to deceased relations and preventing the gun violence that took their lives.

Bosley’s cousin, Vincent Avant, was shot to death on a street near his family’s home in 2005, according to NBC News.

Then in 2021, Bosley’s brother, 18-year-old Terrell, was fatally shot outside the Lights of Zion Church in Chicago’s West Pullman neighborhood.

“It really shook up everything in the family,” Bosley told NBC News. The family stopped celebrating holidays and even listening to music. “We only started to find relief through preventive measures.”

Bosley was a mentor for the Chicago organization Bold Resistance Against Violence Everywhere (BRAVE), which organizes talent shows, basketball tournaments and other programs. This work led him to meet with victims of the 2018 Parkland, Florida, school shooting, where he shared stories about his group members’ experiences with gun violence in Chicago.

The Parkland school shooting ultimately led to the creation of March For Our Lives, a gun violence advocacy group founded by youth survivors of the shooting, of which Bosley is now co-chair.

Bosley told NBC News that to help him cope with the aftermath of his brother’s death, he took up running.

“I needed something to calm me down and take my mind off it,” he said. “I’ve heard people say that they find running relaxing and that it helps them.” Bosley said that running frequently “really started to clear my head and it just had a positive effect on me.”

Bosley participated within the New York City Marathon as a part of a bunch of runners representing Team Inspire, a bunch of 26 runners with various levels of marathon experience facilitated by the marathon organizing group, New York Road Runners.

While his thoughts were on his brother in the course of the race, his pre-race thoughts were also on Chicago, which has develop into embedded within the national imagination as a spot where gun violence is rampant.

Although gun violence has declined in recent times, Bosley said gun violence in Chicago is due to “many problems,” including an absence of funding for education for the town’s youth, an absence of workforce programs and an influx of weapons from friendly nations weapons.

“Indiana is only a 15-minute drive,” Bosley told NBC News. “So we have all these other issues that we’re trying to reduce in our community, and now we’re dealing with a flood of guns. This has caused the gun violence we see in Chicago.”

According to a 2022 research paper published in , Chicago is one among the cities where social violence interventionists are used.

In 2022, the town spent $50 million on these programs along side the $5 billion national commitment for community violence intervention programs under President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act.


This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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Health and Wellness

Tyler Lepley and Miracle Watts are engaged!

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One of the web’s hottest couples, Miracle Watts and Tyler Lepley, 37, are about to begin planning their wedding. Watts shared her engagement photo on Instagram, and the post has since gained nearly half one million likes.

The actress and social media personality captioned the photo with an engagement ring. The photo shows a white heart-shaped garland of flowers with the words “Will you marry me” in the center. Lepley smiled as he knelt on one knee, holding his future wife’s ring finger. The stars wore all black of their engagement photo and looked dazzling and joyful.

This engagement may come as a surprise to some fans, considering Miracle recently gained popularity after asking a matter about how long it should take a person to marry a girl during Q&A on her YouTube canal.

“I have a question. Do you think it is disrespectful for a man not to marry a woman after being with her for a certain number of years if they both agree to it? marriage is something they need?” she asked in a YouTube video.

Answering her own query, Watts replied, “Yes. I do. Yes, and we’re getting near that time… Better get your act together.

Lepley told a social media commenter on the time that the engagement was “closer than you think” and lower than six months later he popped the query. The actor has actually pulled himself together and is doing all the things in his power to make the matter official.

The engaged couple met on the set of P-Valley in 2021 and since then they’ve been like two cents in a pod. Over the years, we have seen them share glimpses of their love, whether it was Tyler washing Miracle’s braids, vacationing in Bermuda, or popping up at a club.

They now even have a tangible piece of their love; the couple gave birth to their first child together, a boy named Xi Leì Lepley, in October 2022.

The actor also has two children, Leo and Jade, together with his ex April King.

Congratulations to the couple and we will not wait to see their story unfold live!

This article was originally published on : www.essence.com
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Health and Wellness

Indigenous people are 4 times more likely to die from diabetes. We need to better understand how exercise can help

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It is estimated that just about 1.9 million Australians suffer from diabetes, and the variety of these people is increasing. In the years 2013–2023, the whole variety of people with diabetes in the whole country increased by 32%.

As within the case of a series health conditionsdiabetes disproportionately affects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Indigenous Australians are three times more likely diagnosed with diabetes than non-Indigenous Australians. Are 4.4 times more likely die from this.

Among other things, physical activity plays a very important role in stopping and treating type 2 diabetes. However, our latest study, published within the journal Medical Journal of Australiashows that we do not know enough concerning the role of physical activity in stopping and managing type 2 diabetes in First Nations people.

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a condition wherein it occurs an excessive amount of glucose (sugar) within the blood. There are several types of diabetes, but probably the most common is type 2 diabetes. In people with type 2 diabetesthe body becomes resistant to the motion of insulin – a hormone that regulates blood sugar levels.

Risk aspects for type 2 diabetes include a family history of diabetes, being obese and hypertension.

The high rate of diabetes in indigenous communities is essentially influenced by… social determinants of health. For example, we all know food insecurity disproportionately affects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, particularly in rural and distant communities. This can make it difficult to stick to a healthy food regimen, which in turn affects your overall health.

People in distant indigenous communities in addition they often have poorer access to education and employment opportunities, adequate housing and high-quality health care. All these aspects can contribute to worsening health.

First Nations communities do especially high stakes younger onset type 2 diabetes (often defined as diagnosis before the age of 40).

If diabetes shouldn’t be treated effectively, it can lead to numerous complicationsincluding long-term damage to the guts, kidneys, eyes and feet. Diabetes can affect all elements of an individual’s life, including their life sanity.

People with diabetes need to monitor their blood sugar levels.
Krakenimages.com/Shutterstock

Lifestyle interventions (food regimen and physical activity) are generally really helpful as a part of the treatment plan. for type 2 diabetes.

We wanted to understand how physical activity interventions could help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with diabetes.

Our research

There is powerful evidence that it plays more than simply a task in stopping diabetes exercise is helpful for people already diagnosed type 2 diabetes.

Physical activity is related to lower levels glycated hemoglobin within the blood (an indicator of glucose control), reduced levels of lipids within the blood equivalent to cholesterol, and weight reduction. The evidence suggests a mix aerobic and resistance exercises could also be better than either mode alone.

We reviewed research examining the impact of physical activity interventions and programs on the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes amongst First Nations Australians.

We only found nine studies that investigated physical activity interventions to prevent or manage type 2 diabetes in Indigenous adults.

There is evidence linking physical activity with improved outcomes for Indigenous Australians with type 2 diabetes. However, the worth of the outcomes was affected by weaknesses within the study design and the shortage of Indigenous involvement within the design and conduct of the studies.

A man running along the road.
Exercise is very important in stopping and treating type 2 diabetes.
sutadimages/Shutterstock

The high-quality evidence gap

There are many elements of stopping and managing diabetes that tend to be more difficult for people in First Nations communities, especially those living in rural or distant areas.

Additionally, latest technologies that can help manage diabetes, equivalent to continuous glucose monitorsare often very expensive.

It is incredibly vital what Indigenous Australians with diabetes have access to appropriate support for diabeticseducation and services.

In particular, health, cultural, and socioeconomic differences may impact participation in physical activity. What constitutes realistic exercise opportunities may differ for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people compared to other Australians.

Previous data has shown that Indigenous Australians are less likely to socialize recommendations for physical activity than non-Indigenous Australians.

Factors that will influence physical activity levels amongst First Nations people include access to protected, accessible, family-friendly, and inexpensive places to exercise. These could also be limited in regional and distant communities.



Overall, we found a scarcity of reliable data on whether and what kinds of exercise may profit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with type 2 diabetes.

Given that physical activity is the cornerstone of treatment for type 2 diabetes, we need more rigorous research on this area. These studies should be well designed and culturally appropriate. They must engage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in any respect levels of the research process.

Targeted research will help us discover the perfect ways to increase physical activity and understand its advantages for Indigenous people with type 2 diabetes.

This article was originally published on : theconversation.com
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