An Australian doctor has weighed in after radio host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson admitted to a secret drug and alcohol addiction this week.

The radio host, 49, spoke for the first time about her years-long battle with drugs that saw her secretly enter rehab at the Betty Ford Clinic in November 2022.

During a tearful on-air admission, Jackie said at the height of her addiction, she took about 10-12 Stilnox/Ambien sleeping pills and 24 Panadeine Forte painkillers a day.

She admitted that she would take the tablets with alcohol, even though users are warned not to drink alcohol on the drugs as it can have dangerous consequences.

Now Dr Zac Turner – who specializes in preventative health and wellbeing – has given his professional opinion and told how the drugs can be ‘highly addictive’.

To talk to News Corphe said that while Jackie’s case might sound “extreme”, her use would have increased as she had built up a tolerance “over a few years”.

“With these medications you build up a tolerance if you don’t use them properly. And they are quite addictive,” Dr Turner – who is not Jackie’s doctor – told news.com.au.

“I’ve had a lot of patients who have really struggled with this type of addiction, who didn’t start out ‘doing something wrong’, at first it was ‘I have to sleep, I have to take this tablet'”.

An Australian doctor has weighed in after radio host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson admitted to a secret drug and alcohol addiction this week

Dr Zac Turner (pictured), who specializes in preventative health and wellbeing, told News Corp that using sleep medications can be dangerous because they do not improve sleep quality.

“People often think that whether you’ve weaned yourself off alcohol or pills, you’re still sleeping—but if you do, you’re actually reducing the restful, restorative parts of sleep.”

Dr Turner said Jackie may have turned to the sleep medicine because of her long career of early morning starts, and said people make “riskier” choices when sleep-deprived.

While Dr. Turner was full of praise for Jackie addressing her addiction, he also urged her to continue working with health professionals to counteract potential long-term effects.

“You have to do a lot to help increase your synaptic health, your vascular health, help all those functions recover,” he added.

Jackie made her tearful revelation about her drug and alcohol addiction while speaking to her co-host Kyle Sandilands on their KIIS FM radio show on Thursday.

She told how she kept her addiction struggles a secret for more than two years, even from Kyle and her KIIS FM colleagues.

Jackie revealed how she had checked into the Betty Ford Clinic in California in November 2022, when she took an extended break from The Kyle and Jackie O Show.

On Thursday, the radio host, 49, spoke for the first time about her years-long battle with drugs that led her to secretly enter rehab at the Betty Ford Clinic in November 2022

At the time, Kyle told her listeners that Jackie was taking a break to “focus on her health” after contracting Covid, which she admitted was a “lie” by “omission” in a heartbreaking message

At the time, Kyle told his listeners that Jackie was taking a break to “focus on her health” after contracting Covid.

Instead, she was secretly flown out of Australia for 28 days of treatment at the world-renowned rehab facility for an addiction to painkillers, sleeping pills and alcohol.

Known to treat Hollywood stars included Keith Urban, Robert Downey Jr. and Lindsay LohanBetty Ford charges anywhere from $45,000 to $90,000 AUD for a month-long residency, depending on the program.

Ahead of the release of her tell-all memoir The Whole Truth, Jackie broke down in tears as she spoke for the first time about the harrowing extent of her addiction.

“I was scared to tell people and say this out loud, I know people will look at me differently and love me,” she told listeners.

“I was in a really, really dark place.”

“It’s what depends on your brain, it changes the way you think, it doesn’t want you to get help, it’s so powerful,” she continued through tears.

“It takes a rock bottom moment to cut yourself off.”

She said her struggle first began more than 15 years ago when she was prescribed a strong opioid painkiller for endometriosis – a disease in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus and causes severe pain.

Despite their on-air partnership lasting 25 years, Jackie’s long-time co-host Kyle Sandilands was kept in the dark about her addiction struggles.

“I got it prescribed and I found that at the time I was taking more than I needed to and I realized this could be a bit of a problem, so I stopped then,” she said.

However, Jackie returned to medicine after her 2018 split from British photographer Lee, with whom she shares daughter Kitty, 13.

Jackie said she started taking some codeine “here and there” and a Stilnox at night with a glass of wine, which she described as a “blackout” situation.

What then really “kick-started” Jackie’s harrowing addiction was isolating herself at home during the Covid-19 pandemic, when she said she was “struggling” and feeling “so sad”.

As Jackie made her candid confession, a shocked Kyle Sandilands revealed he had ‘no idea’ about his co-host’s secret

When Jackie made her candid confession, a shocked Kyle revealed he had “no idea” about his co-host’s secret.

“You’re just so anti-drug, that’s the shock of it, you’ve never been the party girl, you never were,” he said.

Speaking candidly, Kyle added that he was ashamed that he didn’t see any signs of Jackie’s addiction.

‘I didn’t know you were a big drinker, I know you like a wine now and then. I feel embarrassed that I sit here every day of my life and had no idea, he said.

“I’m in shock, I’m in shock and I feel like a friend because I didn’t realize that,” he added.