Alcohol and Health News

Dieters can now have their wine and drink it, guilt-free and minus the hangover. That’s the promise of so-called “light” or low-alcohol, low-calorie wines.

In Australia, the most effective and efficient ways to reduce alcohol-related harm – increasing taxation, and restricting availability and alcohol promotion – are politically unpopular.

The peak body for Aboriginal-controlled health services in the Northern Territory has backed the Prime Ministers call on the Northern Territory Country Liberals Government to reinstate the banned dri

We found that four genetic variants in alcohol metabolising genes in 4167 children were strongly related to lower IQ at age 8, as was a risk allele score based on these 4 variants. This effect was only seen amongst the offspring of mothers who were moderate drinkers (1–6 units alcohol per week during pregnancy (per allele effect estimates were −1.80 (95% CI = −2.63 to −0.97) p = 0.00002, with no effect among children whose mothers abstained during pregnancy (0.16 (95%CI = −1.05 to 1.36) p = 0.80), p-value for interaction = 0.009). A further genetic variant associated with alcohol metabolism in mothers was associated with their child’s IQ, but again only among mothers who drank during pregnancy.PLOS ONE: an inclusive, peer-reviewed, open-access resource from the PUBLIC LIBRARY OF SCIENCE. Reports of well-performed scientific studies from all disciplines freely available to the whole world.

The Federal Government welcomes the alcohol labelling initiative launched by DrinkWise Australia and the Winemakers' Federation of Australia on 24 September 2012.

Based on the finding of two studies, it appears that intensive preoperative alcohol cessation interventions, including pharmacological strategies for relapse prophylaxis and withdrawal symptoms, may significantly reduce postoperative complication rates. No effect was found on mortality rates and length of stay.

The effect of preoperative alcohol cessation intervention should be further explored in an effort to reduce the adverse effect of alcohol use on surgical outcomes. The number needed to screen to identify eligible patients for alcohol intervention studies in surgical settings seems to be extremely high. This may indicate that these studies are difficult to perform. Nevertheless, timing, duration and intensity of alcohol cessation interventions need to be subject to further investigation.

Just over 12 months ago the alcohol industry initiated Drinkwise with the aim of providing consumers with information about health risks and alcohol. But a report just released from the Ipsos Social Research Institute found that only a...

There are very many things in the world that truly fascinate me.

Drinking a lot of alcohol is bad for the drinker’s health, both in the short and in the long run. But drinking often affects others adversely, too.

In this cohort, the prevalence of AUD was greater in the second postoperative year than the year prior to surgery or in the first postoperative year and was associated with male sex and younger age, numerous preoperative variables (smoking, regular alcohol consumption, AUD, recreational drug use, and lower interpersonal support) and undergoing a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass procedure.

A coalition of health campaigners will launch their own national review board for alcohol advertising They say the current regulator is a toothless tiger and has done little to reign in the alcohol...