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Thursday, June 12, 2008

Exercise as Drug Abuse Prevention Tool
This blog about the exercise and recovery is brought to you by the Alumni Outreach Department of Sober Living by the Sea. To learn more about Sober Living by the Sea visit the Sober Living by the Sea website, to learn more about our addiction treatment programs for men, visit the Landing Chemical Dependency Treatment for Men and Sunrise Recovery Ranch websites. To learn more about our addiction treatment programs for women, visit The Rose of Newport Beach website, and to learn about our treatment program for eating disorders and addiction visit The Victorian of Newport Beach.


I find it very beneficial to exercise in recovery and this is a very obvious and agreed upon tenet here at Sober Living by the Sea where our drug & alcohol rehab program activities have long featured physically strenuous as well as fun, social, spiritual, and esteem building building activities as part of every client's program of recovery.

If you are like me, you may occasionally struggle getting the motivation to get out of bed early to exercise, or maybe put on your gym clothes after a long hard day of work. Articles like the below which is published by NIDA (National Institue on Drug Abuse) really help to fire me up and remind me that not only will I feel better immediately after exercising (and in the long run) but it is actually part of a well rounded recovery program.

Begin NIDA Release:

It is well known that exercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle but can exercise programs actually reduce the likelihood of drug abuse and thus prevent addiction? The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is holding a seminal conference on June 5-6 to explore a possible role for physical activity in substance abuse prevention. As part of this effort, NIDA announced a $4 million grant initiative to spur further research on this emerging area of investigation.

"Exercise has been shown to be beneficial in so many areas of physical and mental health," said Dr. Nora Volkow, NIDA Director. "This cross-disciplinary meeting is designed to get scientists thinking creatively about its potential role in substance abuse prevention."

More than 100 scientists from around the country are gathering for the two-day conference. The goals of the meeting are:

To share the state of the science in epidemiology, basic science, and intervention research-focused on physical activity as a strategy to prevent substance abuse;
To facilitate development and testing of new paradigms for prevention; and
To promote future research in these areas.
Presentations will focus on the importance of the social context in which physical activity occurs, including school and the natural environment, as well as the relationship of physical activity to physical disorders (obesity), social reward structures (motivation), cognition (attention, impulse control and other motor skills), and mood disorders (depression, stress), all of which may play a role in substance abuse. To facilitate research on the role of exercise, attendees will also learn about and see demonstrations of tools that assess physiological responses to exercise and physical activity.

The meeting is taking place on the NIH campus, and will include participants from several other NIH institutes as well as experts from around the world. On the second day of the meeting, Sally Squires, the author of the Washington PostÕs Lean Plate Club will share insights and feedback from her column on what the public wants to know about physical activity and health.

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posted by SLBTS at 3:52 PM