Isabella List Updates

The Devastating Scale of Australia’s FASD Crisis Australia holds a troubling distinction in the global health landscape, maintaining one of the highest rates of prenatal alcohol exposure worldwide. As of 2023, 28% of women continue to consume alcohol during pregnancy, representing a significant improvement from 42% in 2013 but still affecting approximately 90,000 births annually.

Alcohol is a depressant. This means that it slows down the messages travelling between the brain and body which affects the way you think, feel and behave. Alcohol is a very strong drug, and it can cause extreme harm to our health. Large quantities of alcohol are poisonous but even small amounts are very dangerous for developing brains.  If you are planning on having a baby or during pregnancy the safest option is to drink no alcohol

In this report Impact Economics and Policy has estimated that the lifetime economic and social costs of exposure to alcohol during pregnancy in Australia range between $2.7 billion and $6.4 billion per year3, including: Between $2.4 billion and $6.1 billion due to FASD Between $19.9 million and $24.7 million due to miscarriage $244 million due

Smoking while pregnant doesn’t just impact a baby’s physical health—it can also cause problems for their brain development. Scientists have recently discovered how tobacco use during pregnancy can lead to changes in how a child’s brain grows and functions, with potential effects lasting for years. Changes in the Baby’s Brain When a baby is exposed

Promoting and modelling abstinence in the first place is a key to avoiding Heavy Episodic Drinking For years, many prevention programmes aimed at reducing alcohol misuse have assumed that shaping young people’s attitudes towards alcohol would influence their drinking behaviour. However, research from the Steps Towards Alcohol Misuse Prevention Programme (STAMPP) Trial, involving over 12,000 adolescents in

  The Vote 4 Medicine Debacle is a ‘gift’ that just keeps on giving! The use of cannabinoids in medical treatments for children and adolescents is rising, often to manage conditions like epilepsy or chemotherapy-induced nausea. While this approach may seem promising, comprehensive research sheds light on the serious risks associated with these substances for

The impact of cannabis on human fertility has emerged as a critical public health concern, particularly as global cannabis consumption has surged by 23% since 2010. With 209 million users worldwide and growing, most being males of reproductive age, understanding cannabis’s effects on fertility has never been more urgent. This increase coincides with a troubling

  Here’s a sobering thought: While your average recreational substance user is busy defending their “harmless fun,” approximately 8.7 million children in the United States alone are living in households where at least one parent struggles with substance use disorder. That’s right – one in eight children under 17 are watching their childhood disappear into