2007 Darwin Award Nominee: Alcohol Division

Michael was an alcoholic. And not an ordinary alcoholic, but an alcoholic who liked to take his liquor... well, rectally. His wife said he was "addicted to enemas" and often used alcohol in this manner. The result was the same: inebriation.

The machine shop owner couldn't imbibe alcohol by mouth due to a painful throat ailment, so he elected to receive his favourite beverage via enema. And tonight, Michael was in for one hell of a party. Two 1.5 litre bottles of sherry, more than 100 fluid ounces, right up the old address!

When the rest of us have had enough, we either stop drinking or pass out. When Michael had had enough (and subsequently passed out) the alcohol remaining in his rectal cavity continued to be absorbed. The next morning, Michael was dead.

The 58-year-old did a pretty good job of embalming himself. According to toxicology reports, his blood alcohol level was 0.47%.

In order to qualify for a Darwin Award, a person must remove himself from the gene pool via an "astounding misapplication of judgment." Three litres of sherry up the butt can only be described as astounding. Unsurprisingly, his neighbors said they were surprised to learn of the incident. Source. Thanks, John C. (Goathouse) for the item.

Belgium ups the ante with cig warnings

Cigarette packs sold in Belgium will soon have vivid pictures of the harm that smoking does, along with text warnings.

The pictures are not for the faint-hearted. One shows a man with a swollen-red tumour protruding from his neck. "Smoking can lead to a slow and painful death," reads the advice underneath. Another shows a smoker in a prison cell clutching bars made of cigarettes. The moral of the story? "Smoking is addictive. Don't start." Other pictures the Belgian government plans to rotate over the next three years show toothless gums, blackened lungs and open-heart surgery.

Canada already uses pictorial warnings along with text. Other European countries are expected to follow suit.

EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou, introducing the new policy, said: "Pictorial warnings are a cost effective public health measure, which not only serve as a prominent source of health information, but are also likely to reduce tobacco use in the population." More.

Drug problem in Afghanistan getting worse, UN says

NEW YORK: Despite efforts by the Afghan government and the international community, the drug control situation in the country is worsening, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said in its annual report.

The production of illicit opium poppy in Afghanistan reached a record 6,100 tons in 2006, up almost 50 percent from the previous year, the report said.

Due to a rising level of Afghan opiate trafficking, the Vienna-based UN drug control watchdog added, the neighbouring countries are now faced with a wide range of problems, "such as organized crime, corruption and relatively high illicit demand for opiates."

Moreover, the drug abuse by injection is increasingly becoming one of the main factors behind the widely spread of HIV/AIDS in some areas of the region. Source.

Epidemic of child alcoholism in Britain

London: Children as young as 12 are being diagnosed as alcoholics amid growing concerns about binge-drinking in Britain, an investigation by The Independent on Sunday reveals today.

Record numbers of pre-teens and teenagers now require hospital treatment for drink-related disorders, the exclusive nationwide survey shows.

The findings prove there is a hidden epidemic of child alcoholism, resulting in thousands of youngsters being treated in hospital each year for alcohol poisoning, liver disease and drink-related psychiatric illnesses.

Doctors warn that conditions such as cirrhosis of the liver are now starting to appear in people who are still in their teens, prompting calls for special detoxification clinics to be set up around the country for teenage drinkers.

Dr Claire Casey, head of a new youth detox unit at the private Priory Group, said: "We have children presenting with all the adult symptoms of alcoholism. Some are so addicted that it is actually dangerous to get them to stop drinking straight away.''

New figures reveal that Britain's teenagers are drinking twice as much as they did a decade ago, with half of all 13-year-olds consuming more than 10 units a week. The amount being consumed by 11- to 13-year-olds has gone up almost threefold in the same period, with doctors citing the cultural shift towards 24-hour drinking.

They are also worried that the drinks industry is deliberately targeting the young, promoting alcopops - heavily sweetened, attractively packaged alcoholic drinks - and offering alcohol at historically low prices. Source.

Even low levels of second-hand smoke cause heart risk

Even low-level indirect exposure to cigarette smoke is associated with a significant rise in heart disease risk in new research conducted by researchers from the U.K.'s University of Nottingham.

The study is the first to directly measure secondhand smoke exposure through levels of a nicotine byproduct in the blood. Previous studies have relied on participants' recall of exposure.

Compared with people in the study with no detectable exposures to nicotine, those with low- and high exposure levels also had significantly higher levels of two important markers of heart disease risk.

"These findings suggest that secondhand smoke exposure has a clinically important effect on susceptibility to heart disease, even at relatively low levels of exposure, and they highlight the importance of minimizing the public's exposure to secondhand smoke," researcher Andrea Venn, PhD, stated. Source.

Australia: Alcohol kills indigenous person every 38 hours

ALCOHOL kills one indigenous Australian every 38 hours, landmark research has found.

The average age of those dying from alcohol-attributable causes - mostly suicide for men, or alcoholic liver cirrhosis for women - is about 35 years.

National Drug Research Institute (NDRI) Indigenous Australian Research team leader Dennis Gray said these were conservative estimates from a first-of-its-kind study of the problem which showed alcohol killed 1145 indigenous Australians between 2000 and 2004.

"If we are serious about addressing this disparity and reducing death rates among indigenous Australians, we need to focus on the underlying social causes of that ill health," Professor Gray said. "For instance, suicide is the most frequent alcohol-caused death among indigenous men, which reflects the despair that many indigenous people feel."

Senior Research Fellow Tanya Chikritzhs said she was shocked to discover indigenous women as young as 25 years were dying of haemorrhagic stroke due to heavy drinking. Source.

Addiction has many subtypes

"Dr. Peter Banys, head of the addiction treatment program at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, said addiction needs to be considered a disease of many subtypes, similar to leukemia, each linked to a different set of genes or environmental factors. Some people may be hardwired thrill-seekers, he said, while others may fall prey because of depression or 'cognitive processing' disorders. Each subtype might respond to a different medication or counseling approach.

'You've got to be thinking about it as multiple disorders that look the same but are not,' Banys said. 'They're not genetically the same. We already know that there are at least six different chromosomal locations heavily implicated, and many more are turning up.' -- From a San Francisco Chronicle addiction story by its science writer Carl T. Hall, Feb. 11. Source.

UK: Labour MP Fiona Jones dead of alcoholism

London: Fiona Jones, until recently a rising star in the Labour Party mentioned as a possible cabinet minister, died from liver disease due to alcoholism last week. She was 49. Her husband, a local radio DJ, was quick to point to a culture of heavy drinking at the House of Commons and an extraordinary court battle over her election expenses as being to blame. Details.

After stroke, he forgot to smoke

A heavy smoker who suffered a stroke and thereafter "forgot" to smoke provided researchers with an important clue to the brain anatomy of addictive cravings.

This stroke victim's brain was damaged in an area called the insula, a pair of regions deep within the folds of the brain that had been previously implicated in addiction. (Drawing) The insula of cocaine addicts "lights up" in brain imaging studies when shown enticing images of the drug.

Now a study of nearly 70 heavy smokers who had suffered various types of brain damage confirms that damage or destruction of the insula took away, or drastically reduced, nicotine cravings. Of the 19 subjects with insula damage, twelve stopped smoking immediately without experiencing cravings. Smokers with damage to other regions of the brain had a much more difficult time; only four of them quit smoking with relative ease.

The study, by Antoine Bechara (photo), a neuroscientist at the University Southern California in Los Angeles, and colleagues, is published in today's edition of Science. Although brain damage is hardly a recommended treatment for smokers who want to quit, researchers say the findings provide important insight into the biological basis of addictive behaviors. Details from Science online. Interesting discussion by Carl T. Hall, science writer of the San Francisco Chronicle, here.

Research: Effects of prenatal exposure to cocaine

A study on rabbits has found that prenatal exposure to low doses of cocaine causes an unusual, long-lasting change in the functioning of dopamine (D1) receptors in the brain, resulting in developmental and behavioral consequences. The study is published in the current Journal of Neuroscience. Abstract. Lead author Greg Stanwood says that the results are significant because they concern the relatively low levels of cocaine typical of recreational users. Children of these mothers appear to be normal at birth, but Stanwood suggests that they will have cognitive and behavioral deficits later on. Press release.

Patients feel OK discussing alcoholism with dentist

More than ninety per cent of dental patients feel OK discussing their drinking with their dentist, a survey by researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina has found.

Authors of the study urged dentists to raise the subject with patients and to advise drinking less or quitting if excessive drinking were found.

The fact that heavy drinking causes cancer of the larynx gives dentists grounds to raise the subject.

This kind of "brief intervention" by doctors has proved to be a highly effective motivator to get people to cut down or stop drinking. Details.

Doctors say: Raise alcohol prices

Scotland: A committee of eminent physicians has recommended increasing the price of alcoholic beverages to cut down on alcohol-related assaults and injuries (photo).

Committee chair Dr Bruce Ritson said alcohol-related hospital admissions had increased dramatically in recent years.

"Study after study has shown the link between the cost and availability of alcohol and excessive alcohol consumption," he said. "It is no coincidence that the price of alcohol has reduced significantly in recent years and that alcohol-related assaults are now at an alarming level.

"Clearly, we recognise that alcohol misuse is a complex problem and will require to be tackled in a number of ways. "But by tackling the issue of price we believe we could start to make a significant impact on Scotland's alcohol-related health problems." More.

Meth use increases stroke risk

Use of methamphetamine increases the risk of damage to major arteries leading to the brain, and of stroke, according to a report in the journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Details.

UK: 24 young people a day treated for alcoholism

UK: MORE than 20 children and teenagers are being treated in hospital every day for alcohol-related illnesses, including mental disorders, poisoning and liver disease, according to newly released official data.

The figures, labelled “staggering” by one of Britain’s most senior doctors, show that in the year 2005-6, during which Prime Minister Tony Blair introduced 24-hour drinking, the number of under-18s seeking treatment for alcohol-related health problems leapt by 13% to 8,894, an average of 24 a day.

The research, released in parliament by Caroline Flint, the health minister, shows that the number treated has gone up by 33% since Blair came to power in 1997.

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: “This is a staggering rise and it is only the tip of the iceberg.

“The younger they drink, the more likely they are to have alcohol-related problems later in life. It is now commonplace to see men and women in their twenties with end-stage alcoholic liver damage.”

The disease figures released by Flint do not include those people treated for injuries sustained in incidents such as drunken fights or drink-driving. Source.

Second-hand smoke gives cats cancer

A study by researchers at Tufts Veterinary School’s Foster Hospital showed that cats living in homes where humans smoked at least a packet of cigarettes a day had more than three times the risk of developing lymphoma than cats in nonsmoking houses. Cats living with one household smoker had almost twice the risk, while cats living with two or more smokers in a household had nearly four times the risk of developing lymphoma cancer. The study was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology and picked up on the "Why Does My Pet...?" blog.

Meth measure defangs cold medicines

Major medication manufacturers have reformulated their over-the-counter cold medicines to eliminate pseudoephedrine, a chemical used illegally to manufacture methamphetamine. But the substitute ingredient, phenylephrine, isn't nearly as effective, critics say.

In a peer-reviewed letter to the editor published recently in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, two University of Florida researchers concluded that there is “virtually no evidence to show that phenylephrine oral nasal decongestants at the FDA-sanctioned dose of 10mg are effective.”

U.S. Congressman Henry Waxman (D.-Ca) has twice called upon the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to launch an investigation into the use of phenylephrine in these drugs. The latest call came after release of a new study by Schering-Plough:

According to the drug firm, phenylephrine was "not significantly different from placebo in decreasing nasal congestion" while pseudoephedrine was "significantly more effective," in a clinical trial involving 38 people.

“Medical studies indicate that phenylephrine may be no more effective than placebo in alleviating nasal congestion, raising questions regarding FDA's conclusion that the drug is safe and effective for over-the-counter use,” said a statement on Waxman's website.

Despite Waxman's calls, the FDA has so far declined to undertake a review. Source.

Meth mouth: the video

A dental video showing several examples of meth mouth, the deterioration of teeth and gums caused by prolonged methamphetamine use, is here. (RealPlayer, audio required)

On the heroin highway from Afghanistan: Tajikistan

You can buy heroin anywhere anytime in Tajikistan, the former Soviet republic that borders Afghanistan.

Tajikistan is a major export corridor for the record opium crop from Afghanistan. Drug trafficking is one of the few reliable sources of income in this poverty-stricken nation.

A larger proportion of Tajik addicts are young and female. AIDS cases are on the rise. There are only two treatment clinics in the country; both are small and operate with little funding. More on this bleak situation in this AP story.

Real-time online Rx drug database studied

Sacramento, CA: An online network that would report patients' purchases of prescription drugs in real time is under discussion in the California state legislature. Advocates say the network is needed to stop patients conning multiple doctors to issue prescriptions for popular drugs of abuse such as Vicodin, Oxycontin, and others. But the plan also raises privacy concerns. Such programs unjustly target chronic pain sufferers and their physicians, who end up feeling bullied by law enforcement not to treat pain, argues Siobhan Reynolds, founder of the nonprofit Pain Relief Network. A discussion of pros and cons is in RedOrbit.

Alcohol No. 1 Killer in Finland

Helsinki: Alcohol became the No. 1 weapon of mass destruction in Finland this year, following big cuts in excise taxes two years ago that made the beverage much cheaper to buy.

Alcohol caused 17 per cent of all adult male deaths, jumping ahead of heart disease for the first time ever. Among women, alcohol beat out breast cancer as leading killer. There was also a major jump in binge drinking among young people in the first six months following the tax cut. Source.