Word: growth
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Unlike such drugs as barbiturates and opiates, which affect the nervous system, alcohol can attack virtually any of the body's cells. It can cause stunted growth, distorted faces, poor eyesight, learning disabilities and hyperactivity. In the recently published book The Broken Cord (Harper & Row; $18.95), author Michael Dorris tells the heartbreaking story of his adopted son Adam, whose Sioux parents died of alcohol abuse. Adam was institutionalized and diagnosed as retarded before he turned three. At five, he still wore diapers, could not count consecutively or even identify colors. "Adam's birthdays are reminders for me," writes Dorris...
...damage is probably minimal in the first two weeks, but during the rest of the first trimester, when the fetus' organs are forming, the effects may be especially severe. If the drinking continues, additional damage can occur, since the brain develops during all nine months and rapid body growth does not occur until the third trimester. Even after the baby is born, abstinence may be advisable. A study in last week's New England Journal of Medicine suggests that when mothers have one or more drinks a day, their children ingest alcohol in breast milk, which may impede the infants...
...experts part company with Siegel on the idea of building better . drugs. "There is a real danger," says Weil, "in thinking there is a perfect drug that won't interfere with psychological and spiritual growth -- and without the potential for dependence and damage." Reaction from drug czar William Bennett's newly created Office of National Drug Control Policy is equally cool. Says Dr. Herbert Kleber, the agency's deputy director: "I can only note that all previous attempts along this line have ended in disaster. Remember that morphine was used to treat opium addiction, and heroin was used to treat...
...their long stampede, the bulls have managed at least temporarily to overcome their fears about the U.S. budget and trade deficits. Despite a dramatic slowdown in growth, they have been looking on the economy's bright side. "Investors now believe the Federal Reserve Board can deliver a 'soft landing' of subdued inflation by year-end, without a recession," says Byron Wien, chief domestic strategist for the investment firm Morgan Stanley, who since May has been predicting a new all-time high on the Dow. Elaine Garzarelli, a portfolio manager at Shearson Lehman Hutton, who was one of the few forecasters...
Sadly, what makes this growth rate seem impressive is the economic difficulties of less affluent black workers. Beginning in the early 1970s, blacks disproportionately bore the brunt of the decline of smokestack America. Since then, not only has there been a widening gap between black and white unemployment rates, but the real incomes of some categories of low-skill black workers have plummeted 20% as well. Small wonder that blacks' per capita income was 57% of whites' in 1984, the same percentage as in 1971. So much for the Reagan-era vision of Morning in America...