Substance Abuse and Native Americans
This is an OPINION and I'm not going to explain, justify or try to support it.
I suspect that you see a lot of substance abuse in Native Americans at least in part due to infections introduced by European colonizers that Natives had no immunity for.
We do know an awful lot of tribes were wiped out or decimated by European diseases.
If you think that's not just bat shit insane and you find my idea interesting, you may wish to read the following pieces by me as well:
Footnote
What diseases? I don't KNOW.
BUT: Trypanosoma and legionella are both associated with poverty housing. The chronic not deadly form of legionella is called Pontiac. It gets in hot water heaters and in poorly maintained water pipes. It's all over the place, especially in poorer neighborhoods.
Hypothetically, IF you have fingernail issues like this AFTER binging, you probably have trypanosoma. In my experience, legionella can cause routine sneezing and a chronic cough. When it's severe, it can become what me and my sons call "a chainsaw cough."
I think salt probably helps with legionella because my son who is only a carrier gets it worse than me and his brother, so CF seems to protect against it a la this. Mint definitely helps with legionella. We went through a lot of mint while living in poverty housing.
That's not comprehensive. It's just a place to start looking for clues.