‘Drunkorexia’ Finding Home in College
We know that eating disorders are a growing problem for girls and young women. We know that binge drinking is a huge issue on college campuses across the country. Researchers are finding the two sometimes go hand in hand. Some students are swapping food calories for those found in alcohol, believing the trade might help them lose weight. Others are practicing a form of bulimia, drinking and gorging on “drunk food” such as pizza and hot dogs, then throwing up afterward. It’s called drunkorexia, but while the term is relatively new, the phenomenon is not. Scientists say that eating disorders and alcohol/substance abuse often are linked. “The term drunkorexia is not my favorite, but as it brings awareness to the problem,” says Dr. Kenneth Weiner, the medical director at the Eating Recovery Center in Denver. “Anorexia nervosa has the highest death rate of any psychiatric illness. It’s an incredibly serious disorder. When you’re starving yourselves, your brain is really starved. You’ve had the experience of drinking on an empty stomach? These folks are drinking on an empty body.” (Denver Post)

Booze, Pot Sapping Youth Smarts?
Teens who binge drink or use pot could be doing some serious damage to their brains, according to new research. Granted, this research won’t necessarily surprise a whole lot of people. Scientists have known that alcohol can kill brain cells in adults for decades; but until now, there’s been very little research on what substance abuse does to still-growing brains. Researchers at the University of New Mexico found that youth who drink frequently or smoke marijuana score lower than their non-smoking, non-drinking peers in a whole host of intellectual tests—from organizing their time to their ability to pay attention. Robert Thoma, lead researcher, says that more work still needs to be done to find out exactly what this study means. “You have the chicken and the egg problem,” he said. “Which came first, the low executive function, which could lead to drinking more, or the heavy drinking, which leads to poor executive function?” (Business Week)

Alcohol-Juiced Energy Drink Banned from Campus
A New Jersey college has banned Four Loko, a popular energy drink spiked with alcohol, from its campus after 23 students came down with alcohol poisoning from drinking too much of it. The canned beverage, which authorities say is also popular with local high school students, comes in 23.5-oz. cans and contains about the same amount of caffeine as 12 ounces of coffee. It also is about 12 percent alcohol, making the typical Four Loko user drunk and jittery—a potentially dangerous combination. “When people combine the two, they tend not to feel the alcohol as much because the caffeine is keeping them more alert,” says Alissa Rumsey, a nurse at the New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. “Yet when the caffeine wears off, then the person feels the full effects of the alcohol.” (New York Daily News)

iPhone’s Ugly Meter: Cyberbullying Tool?
Want to be a perfect “10”? Some of us might have a chance with iPhone’s new Ugly Meter iPhone application. The app scans photos of its users, then lets them know how ugly they really are. If you score a 10, the app tells you, “You’re so ugly, when you walk by the bathroom, the toilet flushes.” While the app might be fun and games for most of its users, some experts believe it could be dangerous should it fall into the wrong hands. “I can see that the guys who programmed it were having a bit of fun and all,” said Stephen Balkam, CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute. “If you’re 25, 26 or 28, this sort of thing could be quite funny or amusing; but in the hands of a 14- or 15- year-old, it could be quite the reverse, and particularly if someone is submitting someone else’s photograph and circulating that photo around school.” (Fox News)

Quote:
“The Simpsons remains one of the few TV programs for kids in which Christian faith, religion and the question about God are recurring themes.”—the Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s newspaper, praising America’s favorite yellow-tinged dysfunctional family. It’s the second time the Vatican has praised the animated show—going so far as to say, “Homer and Bart are Catholics,” in its headline. “The Simpsons” Executive Producer Al Jean, however, denies the Simpsons pay their respects to Rome. After all, Jean says, they attend the First Church of Springfield, “which is decidedly Presbylutheran.” (Reuters, Entertainment Weekly)