ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – March 2021 officially marks one year of the pandemic and more Americans seem to be drinking away the pain. Alcohol hits our neurochemical pathways, releasing endorphins that make us feel good, but how much is too much? “I’ve had all these negative feelings about myself and ... alcohol numbed that,” Traci Barnes, owner of Rise Above Café, told Ivanhoe. If you don’t feel ready to take a big break just yet, but want to cut back, consider trying out dry weekdays instead. Source: https://www.heart.org/en/news/2020/07/01/covid-19-pandemic-brings-new-concerns-about-excessive-drinking https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/article/2020/rebalancing-the-covid-19-effect-on-alcohol-sales/ https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/brochures-and-fact-sheets/alcohol-facts-and-statistics#:~:text=An%20estimated%2095%2C0005%20people,death%20in%20the%20United%20States https://abcnews.go.com/US/alcohol-consumption-rising-sharply-pandemic-women/story?id=73302479 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/money-spent-on-drinking_n_5adf49d9e4b07be4d4c54401AdContributor(s) to this news report include: Marsha Lewis and Sabrina Broadbent, Producer; Robert Walko, Videographer; Robert Walko, Editor.

Are you considering trying Dry January, the annual initiative to stop drinking for the first month of the new year?

Now new research in young adults is shedding light on how peers affect outcomes. For teens and young adults, drinking alcohol is an age-old and often risky pastime. Now scientists are learning that being around others may impact the way young people react to alcohol. The young adults were given drinks that they were told may contain alcohol. The young people also showed differences in brain activity and displayed less impulse control on the tests.

A St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland without celebrations at local pubs? Yes, it is true, and just the latest example of how serious the coronavirus pandemic has become. The Irish government sent a release Sunday asking all pubs be closed from Sunday night until March 29 to help quell the spread of the coronavirus. St. Patrick’s Day celebrations surely will be affected around the world, and it’s hard to imagine you can’t even go to a pub in the heart of Ireland anymore to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. But that once again emphasizes the seriousness of the pandemic and the sacrifices so many are making.