The Sentinel: 04/28/23

Editorial | Knock, Knock - Pew, Pew

I miss the 80s and 90s. You could knock on anyone's door during reasonable hours and not get shot at. You could pull into a driveway without worrying about someone stepping outside ready to put you in the ground.

In the 80s and 90s, we didn't shoot the pizza guy either. Other than an occasional Diet Pepsi, no one spilled blood or anything else at the front door.

Americans are getting more trigger-happy by the day. In 2016, there were 37,077 deaths attributed to firearms. In the first quarter of this year, 13,386 lives were taken by a small object weighing around 8 grams. The country is on track to nearly double the number of casualties seven years ago.

This year alone, there have been 172 mass shootings. That number is 8% higher than the same period last year. As I type this, 13,386 have lost their lives to gun violence in 2023.

Two weeks ago, 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot twice, with bullets striking him in the left forehead and right arm, according to the Kansas City police department, by homeowner Andrew Lester. Lester, who is 84 years old, opened fire through a glass door with a .32 caliber revolver and is now facing two felony charges.

While Yarl survived the shooting and is recovering, 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis lost her life when 65-year-old Kevin Monahan, fired two shots from his front porch at a vehicle with three others in it in his driveway. Monahan has been charged with second-degree murder in the rural upstate New York incident.

In both cases, the shooters let lead fly without first saying a word to the victims.

Four days ago, an Instacart driver and her boyfriend were shot at 9 p.m. on Saturday in Southwest Ranches, Florida, while making their last delivery of the evening. Luckily, it was not the two teens were not injured by Anthonio Caccavale, who stated that he fired three times at the delivery car after the vehicle struck him.

Like the two earlier shootings, Diamond D'arville and Waldes Thomas were at the wrong address. Unlike the first two examples, the shooter will not be charged. NBC6 in Miami wrote the police said each party appeared "justified in their actions based on the circumstances they perceived."

Up in Lake County, Illinois, police charged 79-year-old Ettore Lacchei with murder after allegedly shot his neighbor, who was doing yard work on his own property. William Martys was using his leaf blower in his yard when he was fatally shot by Lacchei.

We are all for the right to bear arms. How about we work toward exercising it more responsibly as a country? It is time for America to figure it out.

Who knows? The next door you knock on might just get you killed.

Resistance isn't futile - "BORG" drinking is not healthy for the brain

But while the consumers think water and electrolytes might protect them from hangovers, it didn’t protect some students from ending up in the hospital.

by Matt Sheehan
OSF Healthcare

Gallon jugs are oftentimes used for daily necessities like milk and water. But a new trend on social media could be a mixture for disaster.

Blackout rage gallon, or "BORG" drinking, is the newest TikTok take on binge drinking.

College students can be seen on social media mixing alcohol, water, sweet flavorings and hangover remedies like Pedialyte. But while the consumers think water and electrolytes might protect them from hangovers, it didn’t protect some students from ending up in the hospital.

In Amherst, Massachusetts – home of UMass Amherst – the local fire department handled nearly 30 ambulance transport requests due to significant alcohol intoxication.

Deepak Nair, MD, a neurologist with OSF HealthCare Illinois Neurological Institute, says blacking out from drinking is very harmful.

"High quantities of alcohol can cause direct damage to the brain," says Dr. Nair. "In single settings of drinking where you’re having enough alcohol to blackout, the reason you’re blacking out is because there’s a toxic effect of that alcohol on the brain."

Dr. Nair says binge drinking is something "fairly unique" to American culture. But he also calls it the most risky form of drinking.

"We know it’s dangerous to both the nervous system and the brain, but also in terms of other long-term health effects," Dr. Nair says. "Even those who have stopped engaging in binge drinking, there are long-term lingering effects. Everything from mild cognitive impairment that’s permanent, to more severe forms of what are called ‘alcoholic Wernicke encephalopathy’ where specific parts of the brain are being damaged permanently. This can cause permanent disability."

Dr. Deepak Nair

So what about this new form of binge drinking? Does diluting the alcohol with water and electrolytes provide any benefits at all? Dr. Nair says a basic chemistry class will give you the answer.

"All you’re doing is slightly diluting the amount of alcohol. But you’re still talking about a very high percentage of alcohol by volume, and a very high overall volume of alcoholic liquid. That’s not a good way to think about it," Dr. Nair says.

In the short term, blacking out from alcohol may just cause you to not be able to remember the night before. But Dr. Nair says continued binge drinking and blacking out can cause your memory, in general, to worsen.

“High quantities of alcohol have a tendency to impact the memory centers of our brain. When those parts of the brain are damaged, it can permanently impair our ability to store memories. At the end stage when we meet patients like this, not only can they not store new memories and recall memories effectively, their brain starts to make up details about their own life,” Dr. Nair adds.

Dr. Nair says this is called Korsakoff psychosis, which is a later stage complication of persistent Wernicke encephalopathy. He says this brain disorder is incredibly disabling, and alcohol abuse contributes to this problem.