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Apolo Anton Ohno, the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian in history and star of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, (eight-record breaking Olympic medals in short-track speed skating) has partnered with The Century Council and its Ask, Listen, Learn: Kids and Alcohol Don’t Mix program. Today in Greenwood Village, Ohno, in conjunction with the newly formed Apolo Anton Ohno Foundation, began a five-city tour to schools throughout the U.S. encouraging kids to say “YES” to a healthy lifestyle and “NO” to underage drinking. The Apolo Anton Ohno Foundation, established by the eight-time Olympic medalist, will focus on providing youth of all ages and socio-economic backgrounds with the opportunity to play sports, be active and learn about the benefits of making responsible and positive choices. (Source: Medical News Today, 3/8/10)

Anterior Cingulate Cortex Activity May Represent A Neurobiological Risk For Alcohol Dependence
Previous research has found that activation of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is associated with risk factors for alcohol use disorders – such as low alcohol effects and positive alcohol expectations – among adolescents.
Genome-Wide Study Of Alcohol Dependence Points To Chromosome 11
Alcohol dependence (AD) is a complex disease for which both genetic and environmental factors affect susceptibility. Previous research had identified several genes associated with AD through linkage analysis or candidate-gene approaches.
Increasing Dissolved Oxygen Concentrations In Alcohol May Reduce Negative Side Effects
Oxygen for ethanol oxidation is supplied through breathing, the stomach, and the skin. There is a great deal of genetic and environmental variability in the pharmacokinetics of alcohol absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination.
Use Of Gene Networks Instead Of Individual Genes To Examine Alcohol Use Disorders
Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are influenced by multiple genetic, environmental and behavioral factors, which makes it difficult to find individual genetic markers to help identify those at risk of developing AUDs.
(Source: Medical News Today, 3/2/10)

A new 6 million pound NHS campaign to reveal alcohol’s hidden effects warns people of the unseen damage caused by regularly drinking more than the advised limits and highlights drinkers’ affected organs while they sup their drink in the pub or at home. The campaign was launched recently by Public Health Minister, Gillian Merron. It forms part of a government-wide strategy to tackle the harmful effects of alcohol and is backed by major health charities. (Source: Medical News Today, 3/1/10) Online-Comment: I have been wondering for some time already why people in the U.K. get the advise to drink double the amount of alcohol as advised in other countries on the continent. Is it the climate or the good relations between alcohol industry and government?

New CASA* Report Finds: In 2006 65 percent of all U.S. inmates meet medical criteria for substance abuse addiction, only 11 percent receive any treatment.
Drugs, alcohol implicated in 78 percent of violent crimes, 83 percent of property crimes, 77 percent OF weapon, public order, other crimes.
Of the 2.3 million inmates crowding our nations prisons and jails, 1.5 million meet the DSM IV medical criteria for substance abuse or addiction, and another 458,000, while not meeting the strict DSM IV criteria, had histories of substance abuse; were under the influence of alcohol or other drugs at the time of their crime; …
The new 144-page report also reveals that alcohol and other drugs are significant factors in all crime.
Press Release: Behind Bars II: Substance Abuse and America’s Prison Population

Background:
Many causes of death are directly attributable to the toxic effects of alcohol and deaths from these causes are increasing in the United Kingdom. The aim of this study was to investigate variation in alcohol-related mortality in relation to socioeconomic deprivation, urban-rural location and age within a national context.
Conclusions:
Large inequalities in alcohol-related mortality exist between sub-groups of the population in England and Wales. These should be considered when designing public health policies to reduce alcohol-related harm.
The complete article is available as a provisional PDF. Published by BMC Public Health, 2/25/10, 10:99doi:10.1186/1471-2458-10-99

Commenting on new figures published last Thuesday which show a sharp increase in chronic liver disease (CLD) mortality rates in Scotland, Dr Brian Keighley, Chairman of the BMA in Scotland, said: “These figures highlight the true human cost of alcohol misuse in Scotland. Today’s figures show a shocking rise in the death toll caused by a drinking culture that is out of control. (Source: Medical News Today, 2/25/10)

In the previous announcement about the WHO executive Board meeting in January we mentioned, the draft Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol was adopted there and will be put before the World Health Assembly in May. During the Executive Board meeting there were some negotiations over the text of the strategy, and the Member States made some amendments. The updated text is now available at the WHO website and here.

Drinking at the last chance saloon…or – there is no place for integrity in academic medicine.
Distinguished voices are lining up behind England’s chief medical officer Liam Donaldson in support of a minimum price for alcohol. The BMA and the Royal College of Physicians have made a good case, and this week they are joined by the combined weight of the Faculty of Public Health and the Royal Society for Public Health. These two bodies list a minimum price for alcohol among 12 policy changes that will save many lives and relieve pressure on the NHS. As the faculty’s president Alan Maryon-Davies says, in lean times such act ion is all the more essential…. (Source: Google Alkohol News, 2/7/10) schiwago.blogspot.com, 2/7/10

Prenatal alcohol exposure is widely known to impair brain development in exposed offspring. Rodent studies have shown that developmental deficits in newborns related to altered levels of a brain chemical called serotonin (5-HT), leading to subsequent alterations in patterns of neonatal acute pain responses and/or hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) stress reactivity. New findings show a “blunted response” to an acutely painful event – a heel lance – in alcohol-exposed human newborns, indicating that prenatal alcohol exposure may alter the brain’s developing pain regulatory system. (Source: Medical News Today, 1/28/10)

Parents who try to teach responsible drinking by letting their teenagers have alcohol at home may be well intentioned, but they may also be wrong, according to a new study in the latest issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. In a study of 428 Dutch families, researchers found that the more teenagers were allowed to drink at home, the more they drank outside of home as well. What’s more, teens who drank under their parents’ watch or on their own had an elevated risk of developing alcohol-related problems. (Source: Medical News Today,  1/28/10)  Comment:  A very important study.