If you're dieting, remember that alcohol has calories too

Alcoholic beverages could throw a wrench into your 2013 diet plan.  The National Center for Health Statistics reported late last year that American adults drink in an average of 100 calories daily from beer, wine and other alcoholic beverages, and almost 20 percent of men and 6 percent of women consume more than 300 calories daily from alcohol.

Men ages 20 to 39 consume the most alcohol, taking in about 175 calories per day on average, while women in the same age group consume about 60 calories daily per person.

"It is certainly not a good health strategy to have alcohol calories constituting a significant percentage of total calorie consumption," health advisers Dian and Tom Griesel say on Newswise, a research-reporting service. "This is especially true for women and those dieting who would be better off avoiding all alcoholic beverages until their weight goals are met or at most limiting alcohol to one drink no more than two days a week."

Griesel also said that current dietary guidelines recommend to consume alcohol in moderation, which means no more than one daily drink for women and two for men.  So, as you reach for the apple instead of candy, remember that there are empty calories in your drink of choice too. (Read more)

U.S. teens' cigarette use drops to a new low, but use of alcohol goes up a bit and more 12th graders are smoking marijuana

Teenagers' cigarette smoking dropped to a record low this year but alcohol use rose slightly after seven years of decline, according to a survey of 45,000 eighth-, 10th- and 12th- graders for the National Institute of Drug Abuse.

The survey also found that the use of illicit drugs dropped slightly among eighth-graders but rose slightly among 12th-graders. Among them, 36.4 percent reported using marijuana in the past year, up from 34.8 percent in 2010, and the share who saw great risk in smoking marijuana occasionally dropped significantly, to 20.6 percent, from 24.5 percent in 2010.

Among all three age groups, only 10.6 percent said they had smoked cigarettes in the past 30 days, down from 11.7 percent in 2010. The University of Michigan researchers who did the survey said the decline was significant, and may have been driven by a big increase in the federal tobacco tax in 2009.

"A 1-percentage-point decline may not sound like a lot, but it represents about a 9 percent reduction in a single year in the number of teens currently smoking," principal researcher Lloyd Johnston said in a news release. Among eighth-graders, the decline was about 20 percent. For other results of the survey, click here; for a PDF version, here. For the full survey report, go here.

"Teen attitudes toward smoking also continued to become more negative. For example, 80 percent of teens said they preferred to date nonsmokers in 2012," Steve Gorman reports for Reuters. "But anti-tobacco advocates said their battle to stamp out teen smoking was far from over, noting that 17 percent of high school seniors still graduate as smokers." And the figure is higher in many rural areas.

Kentucky ranks at or near the top in youth smoking. In 2010, the last year for which state figures are available, 16 percent of Kentucky children aged 12 to 17 (a slightly younger group than the one above) reported smoking a cigarette in the past month. The national rate for that age group was 10 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Annual health ratings of states still puts Kentucky 44th

Kentucky ranks 44th among the 50 states in overall health in United Health Foundation's America's Health Rankings. Darla Carter of The Courier-Journal reports that while this is the same rating Kentucky achieved last year, the state is not without some high points. Among them, Kentucky is 9th best nationwide for its low incidence of binge drinking. We are to be congratulated as well for our low violent crime, high immunization coverage and improved high-school graduation rate.

Smoking continues to be where Kentucky fails miserably. Still worst, with 29 percent of the population as smokers, the state also faces an uphill battle with more than 1 million obese adults and a high rate of cancer deaths. The state also needs to continue to improve its ability to control the nation's highest rate of preventable hospitalizations.

The rankings are published by the United Health Group's foundation, along with the American Public Health Association and the Partnership for Prevention. Kentucky’s challenges include having the nation’s highest smoking rate, more than 1 million obese adults and a high rate of cancer deaths. See more on Kentucky's ratings here. (Read more)

Kentucky teens attempt suicide more often than those in all U.S.

In a 2011 update of a study done four years ago, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Adolescent Health (OAH) surveyed America's teenagers about their physical health and potentially risky behaviors. Broken down state-by-state, the study presents a picture of what ails us, if we are willing to pay attention.

In Kentucky, the numbers read as not terribly surprising. Our kids are a little more fat than the national average. They smoke and chew more tobacco. They have a little more sex while in high school. But one statistic is startling: Kentucky's teenagers are trying to kill themselves more frequently than other teenagers nationwide.

According to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month, 11 percent of Kentucky youth have attempted suicide, compared to 8 percent nationally. Moreover, 5 percent of Kentucky's teenagers have had a suicide attempt result in an injury, poisoning or overdose that had to be treated by a doctor or nurse during the 12-month period before the survey was conducted. That compares to only 2 percent nationwide for kids responding who required the same treatment during the same duration.

If there is good news for Kentucky in the survey, it's this: The state's teenagers are in reasonably good health, but are not getting the physical exercise that the rest of the nation's teens are getting (39 percent vs. 49 percent) and they are playing fewer team sports (46 percent vs. 58 percent). They are heavier (16 percent vs. 13 percent) than the average American teen and more likely (36 percent to 28 percent) to drink a can, bottle or glass of soda or pop one or more times a day.

They are less likely to have never tried smoking (41 percent  to 55 percent) than other American teens, to have smoked on a least one day of the last 30 (24 percent to 18 percent), bought their own cigarettes (21 percent to 14 percent) and used chewing tobacco (17 percent to 8 percent). Eight percent of Kentucky teenagers report using pain relievers for non-medical reasons in the last 12 months. That's a bit higher than the national average of 6 percent of U.S. teens who report doing the same.

Kentucky's teenagers are also a bit more likely to have had sexual intercourse while in high school (52 to 47 percent) than the national average, more likely to carried a weapon on a least one day (23 percent o 17 percent), carried a gun (9 percent to 5 percent), though less likely to have been in a physical fight (29 to 33 percent).

To find each of these topics, go here. Look for the heading (physical health, mental health, substance abuse, healthy relationships), then go to the Kentucky site page. A more complete data picture will emerge.

Legislators, doctors debate how health law will or should affect Kentucky; we answer some questions that were left hanging

By Tara Kaprowy and Al Cross
Kentucky Health News

Though host Bill Goodman (above, in an advance promo) said they just "scratched the surface" on what the federal health-care reform law will mean for Kentucky, physicians and legislators debated Medicaid expansion, the implications of requiring people to buy health insurance, how to pay for it all and other questions last night on KET's "Kentucky Tonight" panel and call-in show.

Perhaps the biggest question about the law in Kentucky is whether the state will choose to expand Medicaid, allowing as many as 329,000 more people with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty threshold to qualify for the program for the poor and disabled and be paid for entirely by the federal government in 2014-16. State Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, pushed hard for the expansion, saying "We can't leave 100 percent of the money laying on the table."

Starting in 2017, the amount of federal contribution will start to decrease — to 95 percent in 2017, 94 percent in 2018, 93 percent in 2019 and 90 percent in 2020 and subsequent years, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation.

Kentucky already has a $400 million shortfall in its budget, said Republican state Sen. Tom Buford of Nicholasville, and would need "$515 to $695 million by 2020" to pay for the additional recipients. Other Republicans have said that would require higher taxes or cuts in services, and called for Gov. Steve Beshear to reject the expansion, but supporters of the law argue that the state will save money overall. For that story, click here.

Louisville urologist Michael Macfarlane, a member of the state Republican executive committee, said he would like to see everyone get health care, but "It really boils down to how are we are going pay for this. . . . In every program like this they underestimate what the future entails. . . . The money is not out there. . . . We are going to be Greece and Spain before long."

Marzian replied, "We are paying now for our uninsured folks that we can put onto Medicaid." Noting that the state has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to help the Kentucky Speedway and the Kentucky Horse Park and build the Yum! Center in Louisville, she asked, "Why can’t we help our middle class and the poorest of the poor get health insurance and health care?" She said the law will stimulate the economy because having more people insured will generate more need for health-care services and health-care jobs.

The panel also debated the implications of the law's requirement to buy health insurance or pay a penalty, which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld as a legitimate use of the taxing power of Congress. Marzian said requiring people to buy health insurance is "personal responsibility" since "everybody uses health care at some point."

Buford, an insurance agent and the chairman of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee, contended that instead of buying health insurance, those not eligible for Medicaid could just choose to pay the penalty ($695 for individuals or up to 2.5 percent of the household income, the Kaiser Foundation notes) and when hospital care is needed, "She can buy insurance on her way in the ambulance," and after being treated, can cancel the policy.

"That is simply not true," Marzian said. "There is a waiting period." Well, not exactly.

Nicole Huberfeld, a University of Kentucky law professor whom Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg cited in her opinion, told Kentucky Health News, "The law allows for one three-month grace period of non-coverage per year, so if a person were uncovered, then covered, then uncovered, then covered, penalties would be assessed for the second two non-covered periods." She called that scenario "economically inefficient" since "Most people do not choose to pay something, the tax penalty, for nothing: opting not to have insurance coverage."

In his blog for MoneyTalks News, Stacy Johnson argued that buying health coverage only when it's needed might also backfire: "If you go to the emergency room for a broken leg, will you sit there in agony, applying for insurance and waiting as long as it takes for newly purchased insurance to kick in?"

The liveliest debate on the hour-long show was between the two doctors, Macfarlane and Morehead internist Ewell Scott.

Macfarlane said, "This system really has nothing to do with helping people get health insurance, this system is really going to take over health care . . . directly by computer programs and protocols out of Washington," which he said will ration care and socialize the system. He said a new coding system that will require physicians to select from a vast number of codes — up to 68,000 in the new system from 13,000 in the old one, the American Medical Association indicates — to describe in detail the diagnosis and treatment of each case.

Scott replied, "I think Dr. Macfarlane, with all due respect, is crazy. . . . This is not going to happen." Asked is and how Macfarlane was misstating the facts, Scott said, "This is not going to be a problem for the physician." Macfarlane replied, "That's just not true."

The system in question is the International Classification of Diseases. The ninth version of the system has been in place for 30 years. The transition to ICD-10 will be effective Oct. 1, 2013, according to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Despite the increased number of codes, it is not expected to be more time-consuming for providers because "each diagnosis or procedure gets only one code," said Don McLeod, spokesman for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Scott acknowledged the law is not perfect and "does nothing to control costs in the long run," but called it "a baby step forward for getting us out of this terrible, dysfunctional health-care financing system we've gotten ourselves into." Scott noted the U.S. has the most expensive health-care system in the world "by double" but has "the worst outcomes in the world." A study by The Commonwealth Fund ranked the U.S. sixth of the seven main industrialized countries in terms of quality.

Macfarlane maintained, "We have the best system in the world." He acknowledged changes are needed, but "The idea that the mandate will pay for this is just false." Large swaths of the population, including young adults, undocumented immigrants and people who are out of work, will continue to avoid buying health insurance, he said. (In fact, undocumented immigrants are exempt from paying the penalty, according to the Kaiser Foundation.)

Goodman ended the show by acknowledging the subject's complexity and the need for more discussion on another episode later this summer or in early fall. To view the show, click here.

Kentucky Health News is a service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.

Kentuckians binge drink more often than residents of any other state, national survey for federal health agency finds

By Tara Kaprowy
Kentucky Health News

Kentuckians binge drink an average of about six times per month, more often than people living in any other state, a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

Binge drinking is defined as consuming four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men on one occasion. Nationwide, 17 percent of adults binge drink, up from 15 percent in a 2009 survey. That's one in six people, averaging four binges a month and eight drinks per binge (CDC graphic).

Excessive and binge drinking "causes more than 80,000 deaths in the United States each year, making it the third leading preventable cause of death," reports MSNBC. Binge drinkers are at an increased risk for liver disease, heart disease, of being in a car accident and engaging in violent behavior.

The report analyzed data from a 2010 telephone survey of 458,000 adults who described their previous 30 days of drinking. "Although the percentage of people reporting binge drinking was highest among young people, it was binge drinkers ages 65 and older who over-consumed the most often: this group reported an average of five to six episodes a month," MSNBC reports.

Though Kentuckians binge drink most often, residents of Wisconsin drink the most alcohol — up to 9 drinks on one occasion — and had the highest percentage, 25.6, of people who said they binge drink. Utah and West Virginia has the lowest share of people who say they binge drink, 10.9 percent. New Jersey had the lowest frequency, 3.6 times per month. (Read more)

Meanwhile, a study found drinking alcohol leads to the release of endorphins in parts of the brain that are responsible for feelings of pleasure and reward, says research-reporting service Newswise. "This is something that we've speculated about for 30 years, based on animal studies, but haven't observed in humans until now," said lead author Jennifer Mitchell, clinical project director at the Gallo Center at the University of California-San Francisco. "It provides the first direct evidence of how alcohol makes people feel good."

Excessive alcohol consumption costs the country about $223.5 billion per year, "mostly due to lost workplace productivity and increased health care costs," reports Sarah Kiff for The Washington Post. (Photo by Uselei Marcelino, Reuters)

A study by Canadian researchers has found that setting a minimum alcohol price can drive down those costs — and is more accepted by the public than imposing taxes. The researchers found "for every 10 percent hike in minimum alcohol price, they found people drank 3.4 percent less alcohol," Kiff reports. "For certain drinks, the effect was even more pronounced: Increasing the minimum price of wine by 10 percent correlates with an 8.9 percent drop in consumption. Beer, however, appeared relatively resilient to price fluctuations, with a 10 percent bump lowering consumption a paltry 1.5 percent."

England and Wales have passed legislation that prohibits the sale of below-cost alcohol. Scotland is considering a similar move. (Read more)

Kentucky Health News is a service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.

Parents should talk to children about drugs and alcohol often, and firmly, but spend more time listening

Talking about drugs and alcohol often, and when children are at a young age, are two of the best things parents can do to prevent substance abuse by teenagers.

"As much as parents want to be the 'anti-drug,' as media campaigns encourage, the tricky part is doing it effectively, without alienating their kids or essentially lighting a joint for them," reports Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz of the Chicago Tribune.

One of the keys is to have conversations often and early on. "What you don't want is to be having this conversation after your child has already started drinking or smoking marijuana," said J. David Hawkins, founding director of the Social Development Research Group at the University of Washington.

Nationwide, 71 percent of high school graduates have consumed alcohol, half have gotten drunk at least once, almost half have tried illegal drugs, and one-fourth have tried illegal drugs other than marijuana, the 2010 Monitoring the Future survey found. The annual poll, conducted by the University of Michigan, talked to 50,000 American teens.

Kentucky teens under 18 are among the least likely to drink alcohol of teens in the nation, the 2007-08 National Survey on Drug Use and Health showed. Kentucky teens ranked 10th lowest, but were nearly on par with the national average when it came to binge drinking. (Read more)

The workshop "Guiding Good Choices" gives lessons to parents in how to deal with the issue. It advises parents to talk to their kids about drugs before adolescence, preferably when they're in the fifth or sixth grade. Parents should talk to their kids about people in their family that may have drinking or drug problems and how that affects them. They should set a family policy on drugs or alcohol and establish consequences. And they should plan to have the conversation every year.

Teens generally obey rules until they reach the eighth grade, when it becomes unclear to them whether or not drugs and alcohol are actually bad. Alison Birnbaum, a psychotherapist and social worker based in New Canaan, Conn., said talking about drugs is only 20 percent talking, and 80 percent listening, but parents should be firm. Parents should make clear they will be disappointed if the rules are broken.

Safety First, a teen drug-prevention project, advocates "Just Say Know," rather than "Just Say No." It provides kids with science-based information and asks parents to be honest, if selective, about their own history with alcohol and drugs. "Parents often worry that they're condoning drugs if they're not condemning them, but ... acknowledging the possibility that your kids might experiment sets you up to discuss what they should do if they get in trouble," Elejalde-Ruiz writes. (Read more)

Veteran journalist sees hope in residential drug recovery program

"Kentucky's struggle to help its citizens who suffer from dependency on drugs and alcohol recently reached an impressive goal when leaders of that struggle who are prominent in different political parties celebrated the official opening of a $5 million treatment center in Western Kentucky," Al Smith wrote in an op-ed piece for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Smith, left, reports on his trip to the dedication of the Recovery Kentucky residential center in Paducah with "First Lady Jane Beshear, wife of the Democratic governor, and Don Ball, the Lexington developer and Republican fund-raiser," who "left politics behind" to mark the opening of the 10th and last in a series of centers planned at Ball's urging by Gov. Steve Beshear's Republican predecessor, Ernie Fletcher. Smith praises Beshear or "retaining Ball as task force chairman and appointing the first lady as his cochair in a commendable commitment to making the program a bipartisan effort."

Recovery Kentucky uses "a recovery model that includes peer support, daily living skills training, job responsibilities and challenges to practice sober living," writes Smith, who overcame his own alcohol addiction almost 50 years ago while editing the Russellville newspaper. "The memory is so vivid I couldn't resist sharing it with some newcomers to sobriety in Paducah," he wrote, quoting himself: "I've been where you've been. It's a program of hope, it works if you work it." (Read more)

Conway joins fight against fruity, high-proof malt beverage

Contending it promotes binge drinking in young adults, Attorney General Jack Conway has joined the fight against a fruit-flavored malt beverage made by Pabst Brewing Co.

Conway is one of 17 attorneys general asking the company to stop marketing Blast by Colt 45 to youth. The drink, which comes in a 23.5-ounce can, has an alcohol concentration of 12 percent, or 24 proof. Each can has the equivalent of five servings of alcohol. The drink comes in flavors like blueberry-pomegranate, strawberry lemonade and raspberry-watermelon.

Conway said Blast poses "a serious health and safety risk" for youth. The attorneys general have asked that the alcohol content be lowered. Pabst has not responded. (Read more)

Kentucky teens under 18 among least likely to drink alcohol, but binge drinking among them is nearly the national average

About 6 percent (709,000 of 12 million) of U.S. children aged 12 to 14 drank alcohol in 2009, and nearly half got their drinks from their own home, according to a study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Because the data are new, they have not been broken down by state, SAMHSA spokesman Bradford Stone said. But the 2007-08 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which was released in June 2010, showed Kentucky teens are among the least likely in the country to drink alcohol. Numbers showed about 13.8 percent Kentucky youth ages 12 to 17 had tried alcohol in the month they were surveyed. Census estimates indicate Kentucky has about 235,000 10- to 14-year-olds.

Kentucky ranks 10th lowest in percentage of youths who drink alcohol, the 2007-08 numbers showed. Most of the states with the lowest percentages were in the South, including Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. The lowest percentage, 7.57, was in Utah; Rhode Island, at 20.7 percent, had the highest. Nationwide, the percentage was 15.3 percent.

Nearly 9 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds in Kentucky said they had binged on alcohol in the month they were surveyed, compared to 9.25 percent nationwide.

Research shows underage drinking can lead to future problems. "People who begin drinking alcohol before the age of 15 are six times more likely than those who start at age 21 and older to develop alcohol problems," said SAMHSA Administrator Pamela Hyde.

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health is an annual, countrywide survey involving in-person, at-home interviews with about 70,000 people 12 years of age and older. Each interviewee is randomly selected. Data pertaining to the use of alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs and mental health is collected. The survey is funded by SAMHSA. Figures are subject to error margins depending on the size of a state and its sample in the survey.

Cars Decide If Driver Is Drunk - Video

Associated Press: An alcohol-detection prototype that uses automatic sensors to instantly gauge a driver's fitness has the potential to save thousands of lives, but could be a decade away from everyday use in cars.

Motorists under the influence of drugs are a growing threat on U.S. roads. If you think about driving on a Friday or Saturday evening about 16% of the vehicles - one in six of the cars - the driver will be under the influence of an illicit or licit drug.

"Drugged driving" hampers judgment, reaction time, driving skills and memory.

Related:
16% of motorists may be under the influence of drugs during weekends - one in six of the cars
Drunk Driving, Distracted Driving, Moralism, and Public Health - NEJM
30% of U.S. adults have been arrested by age 23: study. Reuters, 2011.

Cleverest women are the heaviest drinkers, according to Telegraph newspaper

Not sure if this is the best choice for a headline... This is the original source: Education, alcohol use and abuse among young adults in Britain. Soc Sci Med. 2010 Jul.

The findings come from a study carried out at the London School of Economics in which researchers tracked the lives of thousands of 34-year-old women and men, all born in the UK during the same week in 1970.

The report states: "The more educated women are, the more likely they are to drink alcohol on most days and to report having problems due to their drinking patterns.

"The better-educated appear to be the ones who engage the most in problematic patterns of alcohol consumption."

They may have more active social lives or work in male-dominated workplaces with a drinking culture. As girls, they may have grown up in middle-class families and seen their parents drink regularly.

According to the researchers, higher educational attainment is associated with increased odds of daily alcohol consumption and problem drinking. The relationship is stronger for females than males. Individuals who achieved high educational test scores in childhood are at a significantly higher risk of abusing alcohol across all dimensions.

References:
Cleverest women are the heaviest drinkers. Telegraph.

Education, alcohol use and abuse among young adults in Britain. Huerta MC, Borgonovi F. Soc Sci Med. 2010 Jul;71(1):143-51. Epub 2010 Mar 31.

Image source: Wikipedia.

16% of motorists may be under the influence of drugs during weekends - one in six cars

Motorists under the influence of drugs are a growing threat on U.S. roads. If you think about driving on a Friday or Saturday evening about 16% of the vehicles - one in six of the cars - the driver will be under the influence of an illicit or licit drug.

"Drugged driving" hampers judgment, reaction time, driving skills and memory.

Video: "Fall down alcohol test".

References:

U.S. says drugged driving growing threat. Reuters.

Am I driving a car? Drunk motorist stuns police http://goo.gl/D9NOa
Drunk Driving, Distracted Driving, Moralism, and Public Health - NEJM
30% of U.S. adults have been arrested by age 23: study. Reuters, 2011.

People who "drink heavily every so often" are 45% more likely to develop coronary heart disease

Occasional heavy drinking was defined as having 5 or more standard drinks in a day at least 12 times per year. "Regular" heavy drinkers - those who averaged at least 5 drinks per day, were excluded from the analysis.

In general, moderate drinking - a drink or two per day - is considered a potentially heart-healthy habit. A number of studies have found that moderate drinkers have lower risks of heart disease than teetotalers do.

Research suggests that alcohol can increase "good" HDL cholesterol, has anti-inflammatory effects in the blood vessels and may make the blood less prone to clotting.

On the other hand, regular heavy drinking may increase blood pressure, promote blood clotting and contribute to development of arrhythmias.

References:

Occasional binges may undo alcohol's heart benefits. Reuters, 2010.

Monounsaturated fats found in vegetable oils, nuts and avocados increase "good" HDL cholesterol levels by 12% http://goo.gl/GBQa5
Alcohol literally kills: Gary Moore had 380mg/dL in his blood, Winehouse 416mg/dL when she died surrounded by 3 empty vodka bottles. Telegraph UK, 2012. 

Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

Good and Bad Health Habits in the U.S.: Drinkers Outnumber Exercisers

Participation in sport is associated with a with a 20—40% reduction in all-cause mortality compared with non-participation. Exercise might also be considered as a fifth vital sign, according to the Lancet: http://goo.gl/gyxYf

A CDC study showed that six in 10 American adults were regular drinkers in 2005-2007, but only about three in 10 regularly exercised.

Since 1997, rates of cigarette smoking have declined by several percentage points, rates of obesity have climbed, and rates of alcohol use, exercise, and sleep have remained relatively unchanged.

Men were more likely than women to be drinkers (68% vs. 55%).

The more educated people were, the more likely they were to drink. 74% of people who have a graduate degree were drinkers, compared with 44% of people with a high school diploma.

Adults with higher levels of education were less likely to be smokers, be physically inactive, and be obese and to sleep six hours or less per night.

Twitter comments:

@kcb704: "The more educated people were, the more likely they were to drink." http://goo.gl/JDv1 // work hard, play hard..

@BrettLinda: Hold on... good or bad? RT @DrVes Good and Bad Health Habits in U.S.: drinkers outnumber exercisers http://goo.gl/JDv1

References:

Good and Bad Health Habits in U.S. WebMD.

Images source: Wikipedia, Free Documentation License.

Alcohol consumption and raised body mass index (BMI) act together to increase risk of liver disease

Drinkers of 15 or more units per week in any BMI category and obese drinkers had raised relative rates for all definitions of liver disease, compared with underweight/normal weight non-drinkers.

The relative excess risk due to interaction between BMI and alcohol consumption was 5.58.

Raised BMI and alcohol consumption are both related to liver disease, with evidence of a supra-additive interaction between the two.

The occurrence of both factors in the same populations should inform health promotion and public health policies.

References:

Effect of body mass index and alcohol consumption on liver disease: analysis of data from two prospective cohort studies. BMJ 2010;340:c1240.
Alcohol literally kills: Gary Moore had 380mg/dL in his blood, Winehouse 416mg/dL when she died surrounded by 3 empty vodka bottles. Telegraph UK, 2012. 

Image source: Wikipedia, public domain.

Should Doctors ‘Prescribe’ a Drink a Day? No.

From the NYTimes:

The evidence regarding wine versus other beverages like grape juice is mixed.

For most people, low-risk drinking is not harmful to health — and may be helpful. However, I would discourage people from drinking in order to improve their health.

Compared with non-drinkers, men who consumed wine, beer, or spirits had a 36% lower risk of all-cause mortality and a 34% lower risk of cardiovascular mortality.

Before you recommend wine for cardiovascular risk reduction, consider this:

- One in five men at risk of drinking problem during their lifetimes

- Women have an 8 to 10 percent chance of becoming dependent on alcohol during their lifetimes

- Men have 15% lifetime risk for alcohol abuse, 10% risk for alcohol dependence. Each cuts your life short by 10-15 years.

- Heavy drinking increases risk of depression by 40%, and 80% of people dependent on alcohol are smokers

Alcohol literally kills: Gary Moore had 380mg/dL in his blood, Winehouse 416mg/dL when she died surrounded by 3 empty vodka bottles. Telegraph UK, 2012. 

References:

Should Doctors ‘Prescribe’ a Drink a Day? NYtimes, 2010.

A glass of wine daily may prolong life. How can you predict which patient will have a bottle daily though?

Before you recommend wine for CV risk reduction, consider this: 1 in 5 men at risk of drinking problem
Rethinking Drinking - NIH interactive website
Image source: Wikipedia, public domain.

Comments from Twitter:

OMC ‏ @charlesayanleke: That's a recommendation most peeps can get behind

Tibor Banyai ‏ @tibor75: Do u tell your AF pts to be 100% abstinent? Curious RT @drjohnm: RT @DrVes: Should Doctors ‘Prescribe’ a Drink a Day? No.

John Mandrola, MD ‏ @drjohnm:  No I don't rec abstinence but I don't feel that alcohol adds to health. Mild intake prob neutral. Worry about cancer risk

Video: Consumption of just two drinks increases car crash risk

From Cleveland Clinic:



"New Italian research shows having as little as one alcoholic drink within six hours of driving can increase your risk of a traffic accident by more than two-fold."

Video: Why red wine fights heart disease and cancer in some people

From Cleveland Clinic:



"Theres little debate that drinking moderate amounts of red wine can help the fight against heart disease, Alzheimers disease and some cancers, especially in women. The key to how much your body benefits though, is in your genes."

References:

Before you recommend wine for CV risk reduction, consider this: 1 in 5 men at risk of drinking problem

A glass of wine daily may prolong life. How you can you predict which patient will have a bottle daily though?

Men Who Followed 6 Healthy Lifestyle Habits Cut Their Risk of Heart Failure in Half

From WebMD: The six healthy lifestyle factors associated with a lower risk of heart failure were:

1. Normal body weight
2. Never smoking
3. Regular exercise
4. Moderate alcohol use
5. Diet that includes eating breakfast cereals regularly
6. Diet rich in fruits and vegetables

The lifetime risk for heart failure was approximately 1 in 5 (21.2%) in men adhering to none of the desirable lifestyle factors, compared to 1 in 10 (10.1%) in those adhering to four or more healthy lifestyle factors.

Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.