Moderate Drinking Reduces Heart Attack Risk For Healthy Men

If you are a man who doesn't smoke, has a healthy diet, does plenty of exercise, and consumes alcohol in moderation, your chances of having myocardial infarction (heart attack) are lower than a man with a similar lifestyle who never drinks, say researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, USA.


Previous studies indicated that moderate alcohol consumption may lower heart attack risk for high risk people. This is the first study ever to show that this also applies to healthy men with healthy lifestyles.


You can read about this study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.


Dr. Kenneth J. Mukamal, and team, looked at information on 8,867 healthy men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. The study had data on the their eating habits, alcohol consumption, exercise routines and body weight. None of the men was overweight - they all had a Body Mass Index (BMI) of under 25. All of them did moderate to vigorous exercise for 30 minutes or more per day. They all consumed plenty of vegetables, fruits, cereal fiber, chicken, fish, soy, nuts and polyunsaturated fat. Their consumption of trans-fat, red and processed meats, and multivitamins was low.


The researchers found that during the period 1986 to 2001:


-- 106 men had heart attacks


-- 1,282 men consumed about two drinks per day, of whom 8 had heart attacks

-- 714 men consumed over two drinks per day, of whom 9 had heart attacks

-- 1,889 men never drank, of whom 28 had heart attacks


The researchers said that the men who consumed about two drinks per day had the lowest risk of having a heart attack, while those who never drank had the highest. One quarter of all the heart attack patients consumed under 5 grams of alcohol per day.


Dr. Kenneth J. Mukamal stressed that he would not advise people who never drink to start doing so just because of this study. The study just looked at heart health and did not take into account other possible risks, such as cancer.


"Alcohol Consumption and Risk for Coronary Heart Disease in Men With Healthy Lifestyles"

Kenneth J. Mukamal, MD, MPH, MA; Stephanie E. Chiuve, ScD; Eric B. Rimm, ScD

Arch Intern Med. 2006;166:2145-2150.

Click here to see abstract

N.J. Gov. Still Undecided On Whether To Join Lawsuit Against Overhaul While Health Care Costs Roil Mass. Governor's Race

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Prenatal Cocaine Exposure May Compromise Neurocognitive Development During Middle Childhood

Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found that heavier intrauterine cocaine exposure (IUCE) is associated with mild compromise on selective areas of neurocognitive development during middle childhood. The BUSM study appears in the May issue of Neurotoxicology and Teratology.



BUSM researchers evaluated whether the level of IUCE or the interaction between IUCE and contextual variables was related during middle childhood to executive functioning as measured by two neuropsychological assessments. The Stroop Color-Word Test measures verbal inhibitory control while the Rey Osterrieth Organizational score evaluates skills such as planning, organization and perception.



BUSM researchers classified subjects as either unexposed, lighter, or heavier IUCE by positive maternal reports and/or biological assay. Examiners who did not know the children's history or group status assessed 143 children at 9 and 11 years of age (74 with IUCE and 69 demographically similar children without IUCE). After controlling for contextual variables including intrauterine exposures to other licit and illicit substances, level of IUCE was not significantly associated with either assessment scores. However, the heavier cocaine-exposed group of children had significantly lower Stroop scores compared to the combined lighter/unexposed group.



According to lead author Ruth Rose-Jacobs, Sc.D., assistant professor and research scientist at BUSM, "These research findings were present even in the absence of major cognitive differences in the same cohort as previously measured by standardized instruments in late infancy and early childhood. The emergence of these subtle IUCE effects suggests the possibility of neurocognitive "sleeper effects" of IUCE, which may become more apparent with the greater functional and cognitive demands of late middle childhood and preadolescence."



In addition, researchers stated that further longitudinal assessment would help to clarify whether the IUCE group differences observed in this study are due to immaturity, delays in development, or potentially persistent deficits.



This study was supported by the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the National Institutes of Health/National Center for Research Resources. The National Institute of Drug Abuse and the National Institutes of Health/National Center for Research Resources had no role in the design and conduct of the study, the collection, management, analysis and interpretation of the data, or the preparation, review and approval of the manuscript.



Source:
Michelle Roberts


Boston University Medical Center

Pioneering And Innovative Research Into The Neurochemical Basis Of Substance Addiction

The European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) is pleased to announce Jean-Pol Tassin as the recipient of the 2009 ECNP Neuropsychopharmacology Award in Basic Science Research in recognition of his pioneering and innovative research into the neurochemical basis of substance addiction.



The ECNP Neuropsychopharmacology Award recognises outstanding research in the field of neuropsychopharmacology and its closely related disciplines. Granted annually, the award alternates between basic science and clinical research and is accompanied by a prize of EUR 20,000. Jean-Pol Tassin Tassin is the award's 31st recipient.



Jean-Pol Tassin, currently team leader at the Coll??ge de France's Molecular Genetic, Neurophysiology and Behaviour Laboratory in Paris, was drawn to addiction by his early research on nerve terminals in the prefrontal cortex and the effects of stress and long-term isolation on the meso-cortical pathway. Moving to studies on the impact of psychostimulants on cortical and sub-cortical neurons, his critical insight was to connect the disruption of nonadrenaline and serotonin neuron interaction with addictive behaviour. Jean-Pol Tassin's research showed how these neurons, when exposed to repeated psychostimulant abuse, become 'uncoupled,' thereby inducing distress, or withdrawal, for which further administrations of the drug are needed to achieve relief. Later refinements to this groundbreaking model have highlighted the key role played in tobacco addiction by monoamine inhibitors present in cigarettes.



Presenting the award at the 22nd ECNP Congress in Istanbul, the chairman of the ECNP Award Jury 2009, Tomas H?¶kfelt of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, commended Tassin's scientific originality as well as his landmark contribution to our understanding of this critical public health concern.



Jean-Pol Tassin's plenary lecture at the 22nd ECNP Congress has been recorded and is published on the ECNP website, ecnp.eu



Source:
Sonja Mak


European College of Neuropsychopharmacology

Drug Has Potential To Prevent Alcoholics From Relapsing

An experimental drug that blocks the euphoric feelings associated with drinking may prevent alcoholics from relapsing. The finding, the result of a mouse study at Oregon Health & Science University, could lead to human clinical trials within the next year.



"We showed we could block behavior in mice that resembles this increased euphoria even after the animals had been given a lot of alcohol," said Tamara Phillips, Ph.D., professor and vice chair of the behavioral neuroscience department at OHSU and a research scientist at the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center. "That's what you want in a treatment, because we don't get to people until after they become addicted to alcohol."



Earlier research has shown that some people's brains become sensitized as a result of chronic exposure to alcohol. This change in the brain does not subside after people quit drinking. So when they begin consuming alcohol again, "they get a bigger jolt," Phillips said.



Alcohol consumption causes the body to release a substance known as "corticotrophin-releasing factor" or CRF. It activates receptors in the brain. Phillips and her team determined that a brain receptor called CRF1 appears to be involved in this heightened pleasure sensation. They compared the responses of normal mice and mice bred without the CRF1 receptor to chronic doses of alcohol. Mice without the CRF1 receptor did not experience the euphoric jolt the normal mice demonstrated.



The research team also took normal mice with the CRF1 receptor and exposed them to chronic doses of alcohol. Before testing for the euphoric response, the researchers gave the mice an experimental drug called CP 154,526 - developed by Pfizer - which prevents CRF from reaching the brain receptor. This group of mice also did not experience the heightened reaction.



Phillips' study recently was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences. The results may be particularly applicable to stress-induced relapse. That's because the CRF1 receptor also triggers the body's response to stress.



This could have implications for PTSD patients. "I think if you block this receptor, you might be able to decrease drinking in response to PTSD," Phillips said.



The next step is testing CP 154,526 to see if it is safe for use in humans. If it clears that hurdle, researchers will start human trials to determine if the drug can prevent alcoholic relapse.







About OHSU



Oregon Health & Science University is the state's only health and research university, and Oregon's only academic health center. OHSU is Portland's largest employer and the fourth largest in Oregon (excluding government), with 12,400 employees. OHSU's size contributes to its ability to provide many services and community support activities not found anywhere else in the state. It serves patients from every corner of the state, and is a conduit for learning for more than 3,400 students and trainees. OHSU is the source of more than 200 community outreach programs that bring health and education services to every county in the state. As a leader in research, OHSU earned $307 million in research funding in fiscal year 2007. OHSU serves as a catalyst for the region's bioscience industry and is an incubator of discovery, averaging one new breakthrough or innovation every three days, with more than 4,100 research projects currently under way. OHSU disclosed 132 inventions in 2007 alone, and OHSU research resulted in 33 new spinoff companies since 2000, most of which are based in Oregon.



Source: Ken Olsen


Oregon Health & Science University

Male College Students Also Victims Of Violence At Girlfriends' Hands

Thinking about a typical victim of college dating violence, you're probably imagining her, not him.



Researchers often think the same way, according to a Kansas State University expert on intimate partner violence. Sandra Stith, a professor of family studies and human services, said most research has looked at men as offenders and women as victims.



"In the research on college students in particular, we're finding both men and women can be perpetrators," she said. "In our growing-up years, we teach boys not hit their sister, but we don't teach girls not to hit their brother."



She and a K-State research team are looking at the impact that being a victim of violence has on male versus female college students in heterosexual relationships.



"Most research shows female victims having higher levels of depression, anxiety and school problems than nonvictims," Stith said. "Our research indicates that both male and female college students are being victims of violence, and we want to see how it affects both."



In 2008, Stith and her former student at Virginia Tech, Colleen Baker, published research in the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma that found the biggest predictor of whether male and female college students would use violence against a partner was whether the partner was violent toward them.



"It's a dramatically more important factor than anything else," Stith said. "If your girlfriend hits you, that dramatically increases the likelihood that you're going to hit her, and vice versa."



In general, Stith said there are lower levels of violence among college couples than among married or cohabiting couples, and the violence is more likely to involve shoving and pushing by both men and women.



"Previous research indicates that as young people grow up, the violence may become less frequent or severe or it may be eliminated," Stith said. "Sometimes it's about immaturity."



Although alcohol is often a factor in violence among older couples who are married or in long-term relationships, Stith said drinking -- particularly binge drinking -- plays a big part in college student violence. Other factors include a lack of anger management skills and having grown up with parents who are violent with one another.



"When students get angry with their boyfriend or girlfriend, violence sometimes seems to be the normal thing to do," she said.



Stith said when researching alcohol problems, she found that college students often had different standards for themselves when it came to what constitutes a drinking problem. Whereas they see themselves as just partying and participating in normal college life, they would say an older, professional adult behaving the same way has a problem with alcohol.



"I think they might be normalizing their aggressive behaviors, too," she said. "They may think that when they're drinking and get angry and she slaps him and he grabs her, that it's not domestic violence. They may think that domestic violence is what happens in married people's lives."



Stith said one of her basic philosophies is that society needs to work toward ending all violence, not just male violence.



"We need to address female violence, too," she said. "We need to say that when you're in a relationship with someone you care about, you don't hit and you don't kick."



Stith's research team that is looking at the impacts of dating violence includes the following family studies and human services students and researchers: Yvonne Amanor-Boadu, post-doctoral research assistant; Marjorie Strachman Miller, doctoral student; Josh Cook and Michelle Gorzek, master's students; and Lauren Allen, a junior from Olathe and a 2007 graduate of Olathe Northwest High School.



Source:

Sandra Stith

Kansas State University

Back To School: More Stressful Than Parents Think

August can be a stressful time for teens and tweens, as they prepare to face another school year - and with it, new social and academic pressures.


The Partnership for a Drug-Free America recently released a survey showing that the number one reason for teenage drug and alcohol abuse is to deal with school-related pressures. Of the 6,500 teens surveyed, 73 percent said that "coping with school stress" is a main reason why they turn to drugs. In an accompanying study of parents, just 7 percent of parents thought teens might use drugs to deal with stress.


"There's a real disconnect between what teens are thinking and feeling and what parents believe about their teens when it comes to attitudes about drug use," said Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of the Partnership.


Many parents know that their kids face pressures unheard of when they were teens, along with schedules as demanding as most adults. But they may be surprised that instead of blowing off steam by playing soccer, gossiping at the mall or playing video games, some teens see drugs and alcohol as a way to grapple with tough classes.


As parents make their to-do lists for back to school, far more important than buying new clothes and notebooks is making time to talk-having what may be a sensitive or even uncomfortable discussion with your child about handling stress in a healthy way, and letting them know you care about them too much to see them in danger. Your kid may roll his eyes, but he'll hear you.


Frequent discussions with kids about the risks of drugs and alcohol go a long way. Research shows that kids who learn a lot about these risks from a parent or other caring adult are up to 50 percent less likely to use.


If starting the conversation feels like a big production, or if your child isn't especially talkative, try breaking the ice with a text message. It's how teens talk to each other, and most parents find that even if their teens won't take their calls, they'll respond to a text message. If you're lost for words, visit TimeToTalk for advice and tips on talking about tough subjects with your teens, and a guide to text messaging.


Back to school is an important transition time, but it's not enough to talk to your kids about drugs and alcohol once a year. How many times have you told them not to drink milk out of the carton or leave laundry on the floor? Keep the conversation going all year. Remind your kids that no matter what name they called you at dinner last night, you love and support them.


About the Partnership


The Partnership for a Drug-Free America is a nonprofit organization that unites parents, renowned scientists and communications professionals to help families raise healthy children. Best known for its research-based national public education programs, the Partnership motivates and equips parents to prevent their children from using drugs and alcohol, and to find help and treatment for family and friends in trouble. The centerpiece of this effort is an online resource center at drugfree, featuring interactive tools that translate the latest science and research on teenage behavior, addiction and treatment into easy to understand tips and tools. At drugfree, parents can connect with each other, tap into expert advice for children of all ages, and find the support they want and need to raise healthy families. The Partnership depends on donations from individuals, corporations, foundations and other contributors. The Partnership thanks SAG/AFTRA, the advertising industry and our media partners for their ongoing generosity in the fight against drug abuse in America.

TimeToTalk

Nurses Call For Urgent Action On Binge Drinking To Prevent 90,000 Deaths, UK

The Royal College of Nursing today branded the findings of a new report by Alcohol Concern, Future Proof - Can we afford the cost of drinking too much, as a "national tragedy". The report suggests that alcohol will cause over 90,000 avoidable deaths in the next decade.


The report is published as the Royal College of Nursing launches its General Election manifesto, which calls for better regulation of the drinks industry to minimise the dangers and health care costs associated with excessive drinking.


Dr Peter Carter, head of the RCN, said:


"For 90,000 lives to be thrown away as a result of excessive drinking would be an absolute tragedy. As well as causing unimaginable suffering for the families and friends of those involved, more people needing hospital treatment for alcohol-related reasons means extra pressure on an already over-stretched and pressurised health service.


"These findings add further weight to the case for regulation of the labelling, sale and advertising of alcoholic drinks to ensure that the alcohol industry does not engage in unscrupulous practices which encourage consumers to drink to excess. As we move closer to the next general election, we call on all political parties to prioritise action on binge drinking. They must also think carefully about the steps needed to encourage a safer, more sensible attitude to alcohol in order to prevent the predicted devastation from becoming a reality. The nation's relationship with alcohol is a national and international disgrace."


Source
Royal College of Nursing

Small Spectrometer With A Big Future

In a raid the police seize some suspicious white powder. But is it really a narcotic substance? Previously the powder would have had to be sent to a laboratory for testing. A portable infrared spectrometer now enables the analysis to be conducted on site.


Do the tablets contain enough or possibly even too much active agent? Is the medicinal yield from the raw materials adequate or are the waste products excessive? Producing pharmaceuticals and chemicals in large quantities is a complex process which has to be constantly monitored for example using spectrometers. The principle is as follows: The tablets or other solid items are radiated with light and the spectrometers measure how much light of a certain wavelength is reflected by the sample. In the case of liquids and gases the device analyzes how much light permeates the sample. These measurements permit conclusions to be drawn on the composition of the samples, for instance the amount of active agent in tablets. Current spectrometers are large and expensive, which means that in industrial processes they can only be deployed at certain points along the production chain.


Working in cooperation with colleagues at Chemnitz University of Technology and an industrial company, COLOUR CONTROL Farbmess-technik GmbH, research scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM have developed a portable infrared spectrometer which is now being marketed by COLOUR CONTROL. "It's about a quarter of the cost of conventional spectrometers," says Dr. Thomas Otto, deputy head of department at the IZM in Chemnitz. What's more, measuring 10 x 6 x 8 centimeters, it is scarcely bigger than a packet of soap, whereas comparable devices have up to now been more like the size of a suitcase. "The key part of the development is a movable micro-mirror which precisely deflects the infrared radiation," says Otto. "As the mirror can be tilted, it can deflect the light in various directions. This enables it to replace two quite large hollow mirrors." A chromium and gold coating on the mirror ensures that more than 98 percent of the light is reflected.


The small spectrometer has many potential applications. It could help the police to classify narcotics during raids and to determine the content of active substance. Such tests have had to be conducted in special laboratories up to now. "In the production of solar cells too, the spectrometer can do a good job in combination with an ellipsometer for determining layer thicknesses. Manufacturers can check whether the individual solar cell layers possess the right thickness and the desired properties," says Otto. The spectrometer is so small that it can be integrated in the ellipsometer instead of taking up nearly as much room as a suitcase.


FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT

Hansastra??e 27C

80686 Muenchen

fraunhofer.de

U.S. To Support Vietnam Pilot Methadone Program In 2008, Officials Say

The U.S. plans to support a pilot methadone program scheduled to launch next year in Vietnam that aims to reduce the spread of HIV among injection drug users, U.S. officials announced Thursday in a paper presented at an annual donors' conference in Hanoi, Vietnam, AFP/Yahoo! News reports.

The U.S. will support the Vietnamese government and health groups in an "aggressive campaign" that targets at-risk populations, including IDUs, young people, and commercial sex workers and their clients, the officials wrote, adding, "Our main goal will continue to be on preventing, and providing care and treatment for people living with HIV." The paper said that over the next year, the U.S. will prioritize rehabilitation and treatment therapy for IDUs, as well as support pilot methadone programs at six sites to help reduce transmission of the virus.

The delegates also said the U.S. supports increasing treatment access with a goal of providing 22,000 HIV-positive people with antiretroviral drugs by next year. According to AFP/Yahoo! News, Vietnam has provided antiretrovirals to almost 12,000 people living with the virus. The delegates also called for political leadership to reduce stigma and discrimination. They added that "experience from many countries has demonstrated that reducing stigma and discrimination" of HIV-positive people is a "critical factor in fighting the epidemic" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 12/6).

Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Combined Measures Of Maternal Drinking Can Predict Resulting Problems In Children

While many people are aware that drinking during pregnancy can lead to a range of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs), including the serious Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), linkages between maternal-drinking measures and child outcomes have been inconsistent. Researchers have now designed a "metric" or combination of measures that appear better able than individual measures to predict prenatal neurobehavioral dysfunction and deficits in children.



Results will be published in the April issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.



"The number of children being born with FAS remains unnecessarily high," said Lisa M. Chiodo, a researcher at Wayne State University and corresponding author for the study. "In part this is because it is difficult to identify patterns of drinking during pregnancy that put women's children at risk for FAS and other FASDs."



Chiodo said that although there are several measures of maternal drinking during pregnancy, their ability to predict child outcomes - particularly cognitive and behavioral problems - has been inconsistent. "We thought that combining many of the clinical and research measures of alcohol drinking into a single metric might help us find every child in our study who had been exposed to levels of alcohol that put them at risk," she said.



Only one other group has constructed a composite metric meant to identify women who were at risk of having a child with FASDs, Chiodo added, and the current metric differs from that one by focusing on problems related to alcohol drinking and not including other health concerns or risky behaviors.



The author of that other metric was Claire D. Coles, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Emory University School of Medicine. "It is imperative that health-care professionals ask pregnant women about their alcohol and drug use in order to provide appropriate care for the women, and to provide anticipatory guidance for their children," she said. "Knowing that a woman has a substance-abuse problem or is an alcoholic is likely to be highly related to later developmental problems in the children."



Researchers examined a sample of 75 African-American mothers as well as their four- to five-year-old offspring. The mothers self-reported peri-conceptional and repeated in-pregnancy maternal drinking in response to a number of semi-structured interviews and standard screening instruments, which were then used to construct a metric of "maternal prenatal risk drinking." The offspring were tested for IQ, attention, memory, visual-motor integration, fine motor skills, and behavior. The metric was then assessed against these outcomes.



The metric identified more than 62 percent of the mothers as drinking at risk levels; 23 percent more than the individual selection criterion identified.



"We had good reason to think that risk drinking was more common than thought," said Chiodo, "so detecting more risk drinkers was not that surprising. The real surprise was how successful the metric was in predicting deficits and problems in the children. In fact, our metric predicted poor child cognition and behavior problems better than any of the individual measures of maternal alcohol consumption or screens for problem drinking alone."
















"These combined measures of substance abuse were more predictive than alcohol-volume metrics," observed Coles. "Generally, alcohol-volume measures are less effective probably ??¦ due to self-reporting issues. I think that the strength of this paper is its reinforcement of the idea that alcohol use, particularly at levels that would define a woman as an alcohol abuser or alcoholic, is dangerous during pregnancy. For the clinician, it reinforces the idea that pregnant women should be questioned about their drug and alcohol use and that there are reliable and quick methods for identification of those at risk."



"Clinicians must be able to identify risk levels of drinking in their pregnant patients because that is a critical time for possible treatment and prevention," said Chiodo. "After the children are born, we also need to be able to identify which children were exposed to 'risky' alcohol levels during pregnancy to allow correct diagnosis of, and early intervention with, children with FASDs. We do not know how or if our current metric might be adapted in practice for clinicians. However, our results suggest that it might be useful for health-care providers to use more than one measure of drinking in a more thorough examination of risk patterns and problem drinking."







Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (ACER) is the official journal of the Research Society on Alcoholism and the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism. Co-authors of the ACER paper, "A Metric of Maternal Prenatal Risk Drinking Predicts Neurobehavioral Outcomes in Preschool Children," were: James Janisse of Family Medicine & Public Health Sciences; Virginia Delaney-Black of the Carmen and Ann Adams Department of Pediatrics; Robert J. Sokol of Obstetrics & Gynecology, and the C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth & Development in the School of Medicine; and John H. Hannigan of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Psychology, and the C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth & Development in the School of Medicine - all at Wayne State University. The study was funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, the Gerber Foundation, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.



Source:



Lisa M. Chiodo, Ph.D.


Wayne State University



Claire D. Coles, Ph.D.


Emory University School of Medicine




Alcoholism Clinical and Experimental Research