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Obesity, drug addiction, and dopamine
Eating junk-food can be addictive, and apparently, it causes brain changes that look eerily similar to drug addiction. That’s the message not only from the rapidly fattening waistlines of Americans everywhere, but also from the Johnson and Kenny labs at the Scripps Institute. Food and drug addiction The idea that obesity is caused by a…
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Addiction causes – Learned self regulation and its possible benefits for drug use problems
In the first part of this little series on addiction cause and self-regulation I talked about some of the genetic influence on impulsivity that have been shown to also be related to drug use. In this next part, I want to drive home some recent ideas regarding learning related to self-regulation. It’s no secret that…
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Addiction causes – Genetic variability related to attention, impulsivity, and drug use.
It will probably come as no surprise to at least most of you that addiction is closely linked to problems of self-regulation (like ADD and ADHD). This is one of the main reasons that professionals view addiction as a disease, and not a choice. This post is pretty advanced, but it should leave you knowing…
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Drug abuse statistics: American drug abuse and addiction
In looking up some numbers for a recent post I put up on TakePart, I uncovered some amazing addiction and drug abuse statistics (most from 2007, so they’re probably higher by now). Addiction statistics highlights: Slightly more than half of Americans surveyed indicated that they are current drinkers (I thought it’d be higher) – Meaning…
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More CPDD Addiction research: Addiction, exercise, recovery!
Okay, this is probably the last addiction research update I will give focusing on the Reno conference. The rest of the stuff I learned will be incorporated into future posts. I’ve written before about the relationship between exercise and recovery (see here) and I will surely write more since for me, it was a big…
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Emotional eating: A possible connection for food addicts
Co authored by: Jamie Felzer Do you ever stuff yourself beyond capacity because you are depressed, feeling inadequate or self conscious? Are you a perfectionist with difficulty expressing and realizing your feelings, instead turning to food to take out your frustrations? If so, you may be linking strong emotions and eating- taking your inability to…