http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Chronic alcohol consumption blunts the biological clock's ability to synchronize daily activities to light, disrupts natural activity patterns and continues to affect the body's clock (circadian rhythm), even days after the drinking ends, according to a new study with hamsters. http://phys.org/news171006931.html Medicine & Health Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:55:57 EST news171006931 Paradoxically, mortality rates during economic recessions in developed countries decline rather than increase, according to an analysis in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). In poor countries with less than $5000 GDP per capita, economic growth appears to improve health by increasing access to food, clean water and shelter as well as basic health services. http://phys.org/news170941437.html Medicine & Health Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:00:02 EST news170941437 Toyota Motor said Monday it was developing anti-drunk driving equipment that would lock the ignition of a vehicle if high levels of alcohol are detected in the driver. http://phys.org/news170920062.html Electronics Mon, 31 Aug 2009 06:48:18 EST news170920062 Abstaining from alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of depression according to a new study published in Addiction journal. http://phys.org/news170682502.html Medicine & Health Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:48:44 EST news170682502 Rutgers University Professor Dipak Sarkar has received a $3.5 million MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue researching the damaging effects of alcohol on the nervous systems of the unborn. http://phys.org/news170600128.html Medicine & Health Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:30:01 EST news170600128 It is still unknown why the natural history of chronic disease caused by hepatitis C virus (HCV), which currently infects 3% of the world's population, varies from mild in some patients to rapidly progressing in others. http://phys.org/news170518579.html Medicine & Health Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:20:01 EST news170518579 Britain has seen an "alarming" growth in oral cancer rates for people in their 40s, largely due to rising alcohol consumption, a leading British charity warned Tuesday. http://phys.org/news169202780.html Medicine & Health Tue, 11 Aug 2009 10:10:02 EST news169202780 Three cases of patients suffering from the adverse affects of steroid-enriched dietary supplements have been reported by researchers at Henry Ford Hospital. http://phys.org/news168623364.html Medicine & Health Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:49:48 EST news168623364 (PhysOrg.com) -- Men who drink 22 or more units of alcohol a week have a 20% higher rate of admissions into acute care hospitals than non-drinkers, researchers from the University of Glasgow have found. http://phys.org/news165682624.html Medicine & Health Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:59:02 EST news165682624 Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have discovered a new brain mechanism involved in alcohol addiction involving the stomach hormone ghrelin. When ghrelin's actions in the brain are blocked, alcohol's effects on the reward system are reduced. It is an important discovery that could lead to new therapies for addictions such as alcohol dependence. http://phys.org/news165575416.html Medicine & Health Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:10:48 EST news165575416 Research from Canada's own Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) featured in this week's edition of the Lancet shows that worldwide, 1 in 25 deaths are directly attributable to alcohol consumption. This rise since 2000 is mainly due to increases in the number of women drinking. http://phys.org/news165230226.html Medicine & Health Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:17:46 EST news165230226 Childhood physical abuse is associated with elevated rates of cancer in adulthood, according to a new study by University of Toronto researchers. http://phys.org/news165147841.html Medicine & Health Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:00:03 EST news165147841 Ageing Finns have increased their alcohol consumption significantly since 2000, a worrying trend in a country where alcohol is the leading cause of death, researchers said on Friday. http://phys.org/news164038088.html Medicine & Health Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:50:02 EST news164038088 Although alcohol consumption is known to be associated with chronic pancreatitis, new evidence indicates that a threshold of five or more drinks per day is required to significantly raise risk; however, most patients with chronic pancreatitis do not drink this amount, according to a report in the June 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. In addition, smoking is an independent, dose-dependent risk factor. http://phys.org/news163697719.html Medicine & Health Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:36:00 EST news163697719 A new global study has found that lifestyle risk factors such as alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking are important risk factors for bowel cancer. Researchers have shown that people who consume the largest quantities of alcohol (equivalent to > 7 drinks per week) have 60% greater risk of developing the cancer, compared with non-drinkers. http://phys.org/news163145900.html Medicine & Health Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:19:08 EST news163145900 A class of drugs already approved as cancer treatments might also help to beat alcohol addiction. That's the conclusion of a discovery in flies of a gene, dubbed happyhour, that has an important and previously unknown role in controlling the insects' response to alcohol. http://phys.org/news162132556.html Medicine & Health Thu, 21 May 2009 13:49:56 EST news162132556 Amid renewed calls to consider reducing the legal drinking age, a new University of Georgia study finds that lower drinking ages increase unplanned pregnancies and pre-term births among young people. http://phys.org/news162130755.html Medicine & Health Thu, 21 May 2009 13:20:17 EST news162130755 Patients with undiagnosed or untreated obstructive sleep apnea are especially vulnerable to the effects of sleep deprivation and even legal doses of alcohol when it comes to lowered driving performance and increased risk of vehicular accidents, according to new research to be announced on May 19 at the American Thoracic Society's 105th International Conference in San Diego. http://phys.org/news162047568.html Medicine & Health Wed, 20 May 2009 14:13:19 EST news162047568 A family-based prevention program designed to help adolescents avoid substance use and other risky behavior proved especially effective for a group of young teens with a genetic risk factor contributing toward such behavior, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Georgia. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), components of the National Institutes of Health, supported the study, which appears in the May/June issue of Child Development. http://phys.org/news161614455.html Medicine & Health Fri, 15 May 2009 13:55:06 EST news161614455 Contrary to the industry's position that visible drink labels will promote responsible drinking, young people are, instead, using these visible standard drink labels to increase or even maximize the amount of alcohol they consume at the lowest cost possible. http://phys.org/news161416174.html Medicine & Health Wed, 13 May 2009 06:49:57 EST news161416174 Nearly one in 12 people exposed to terrorism report increased use and misuse of alcohol, according to researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the University of Michigan. In a study published in the June issue of the journal Addiction, investigators combined data from 31 studies conducted in the aftermath of such incidents as the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Oklahoma City Bombings of 1995, and the Intifada uprisings in Israel. http://phys.org/news161256033.html Medicine & Health Mon, 11 May 2009 10:21:00 EST news161256033 Drinking up to half a glass of wine a day may boost life expectancy by five years—at least in men—suggests research published ahead of print in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. http://phys.org/news160274666.html Medicine & Health Thu, 30 Apr 2009 01:45:03 EST news160274666 Pharmacy researchers at Oregon State University today announced the discovery of a genetic regulator that is expressed at higher levels in the most aggressive types of head and neck cancers, in work that may help to identify them earlier or even offer a new therapy at some point in the future. http://phys.org/news160152592.html Medicine & Health Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:50:44 EST news160152592 Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found that some medical inpatients with unhealthy alcohol use may benefit from a brief intervention. The BUSM study appears in the May issue of Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. http://phys.org/news159715625.html Medicine & Health Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:27:46 EST news159715625 Liver disease is the most prevalent cause of alcohol-related deaths, followed by car accidents and cancer, according to new research conducted in Portugal and presented today at EASL 2009, the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Liver in Copenhagen, Denmark. The study also showed that alcohol-related diseases account for 1.25% of the health expenditure in Portugal. http://phys.org/news159695096.html Medicine & Health Thu, 23 Apr 2009 08:45:39 EST news159695096 A new study led by the University of Leicester has demonstrated that consuming alcohol did not affect how men judged the age of women. This has important legal implications if alcohol is cited as a cause of impairing judgement in cases of unlawful sex with a minor. http://phys.org/news159443558.html Medicine & Health Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:52:59 EST news159443558 (AP) -- The girl from Ipanema is putting on a few pounds. http://phys.org/news158344306.html Medicine & Health Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:32:32 EST news158344306 Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) cause malformations in babies, including facial defects, short stature, and mental and behavioral abnormalities. The African frog, Xenopus, is a valuable tool for understanding early vertebrate development since these embryos are large, easy to work with and very responsive to environmental cues. New research uses this system to address the mechanism underlying the characteristics associated with maternal consumption of alcohol in early pregnancy. http://phys.org/news158206854.html Medicine & Health Mon, 06 Apr 2009 03:21:31 EST news158206854 Efforts to dissuade youth consumption through negative alcohol consumption depictions can be thwarted by portrayals of positive consumption in prime-time television programming. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Affairs reveals that television series often portray mixed messages about alcohol, but the positive and negative messages were shown differently. http://phys.org/news157211214.html Other Sciences Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:47:31 EST news157211214 Most alcohol-related damage occurs after moderate consumption, according to a new doctoral thesis from Karolinska Institutet on the association between alcohol and injury. http://phys.org/news157045806.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:51:01 EST news157045806