Answer Addiction

Tag: drinking study

  • Can Drinking Outside On A Sunny Day Up The Risk For Skin Cancer?

    Can Drinking Outside On A Sunny Day Up The Risk For Skin Cancer?

    A new study examined whether drinking alcohol outside led to a faster sunburn. 

    According to new research, there could be a link between consuming alcohol and increasing the risk for skin cancer. 

    The research, published in the British Journal of Dermatology, notes that part of this is due to the fact that when drinking, people may forget to apply sunscreen or spend more time in the sun than they normally would.

    Feeling The Burn

    However, there’s more that comes into play.

    “The research suggests that alcohol reduces the amount of time you can spend in the sun before you get a burn,” Aaron White, senior scientific adviser with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), tells NPR.

    Previous research done in Germany backs this up. There, researchers looked at a group of healthy men and measured the amount of UV light necessary to burn their skin after each man had consumed about three drinks. 

    According to White, after the alcohol, “the amount of UV light it took to burn the skin was significantly less.”

    Ultraviolet Light

    This, White adds, is surprising “because it tells us that alcohol increases the risk of getting a sunburn—not just because people don’t tend to put on sunscreen.”

    Though the exact reason for this is unknown, researchers do have some ideas. One possibility has to do with carotenoids, which are “the yellow, orange, and red pigments that are produced by plants,” according to NPR. When a person consumes these, they may be more protected from UV. 

    In the German study, the carotenoid concentration in the men decreased after they had drank alcohol, leading researchers to conclude that this could lead the skin to be more sensitive to burning. NPR states that two other studies, one in Japan and one in France, have demonstrated similar results. 

    Still, there is no conclusive evidence as to exactly why those who consume alcohol seem to be more at risk when it comes to developing skin cancer. Eva Negri of the University of Milan says, “There are [likely] several explanations.” 

    Researchers think alcohol may affect the body and skin in numerous ways, which can lead to a “chain reaction” leading them to be more likely to be diagnosed with skin cancer. 

    Though White says more research in this area is needed, he also notes that the connection between alcohol consumption and skin cancer is not one to take lightly.

    “The added risk of sunburn with alcohol is probably one of the contributing factors to the [higher] rates of skin cancer [among] people who drink [alcohol],” he said. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Can Having One Drink A Day Affect Your Health?

    Can Having One Drink A Day Affect Your Health?

    A new study investigated the connection between moderate drinking and hypertension.

    It’s long been suggested by studies that moderate alcohol consumption can be good for the heart—but a new study finds otherwise.

    Dr. Amer Aladin, a cardiovascular medicine fellow at Wake Forest Baptist Health, led the study which looked at over 17,000 American adult’s medical records. They found a correlation between as little as one drink a day and increased risk for hypertension, or high blood pressure–a know risk factor for heart attack.

    The increased risk for hypertension was two-fold for moderate drinkers, the research showed. The study defined Stage 1 hypertension as a systolic top blood pressure reading of 130 to 139 mmHg and a diastolic bottom reading of 80 to 90 mmHg. Stage 2 hypertension was defined as a systolic blood pressure of 140 mmHg or higher and a diastolic reading of 90 mmHg or more.

    “I think this will be a turning point for clinical practice, as well as for future research, education and public health policy regarding alcohol consumption,” lead author Dr. Aladin told NBC News. “[This is] the first study showing that both heavy and moderate alcohol consumption can increase hypertension,” he said.

    It is important to note that because the study was observational, it can only show a correlation between drinking and hypertension—it does not prove cause and effect. 

    The Wake Forest researchers, led by Dr. Aladin, looked at the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), a large decades long study led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This data included 17,059 U.S. adults who signed on to NHANES between 1988 and 1994.

    The five groups included abstainers; former drinkers; those who consumed one to six drinks a week; those who consumed seven to 13 drinks a week; and heavy drinkers who consumed 14 or more drinks a week.

    Factors taken into account were age, sex, race, smoking status, physical activity BMI, cholesterol, and diabetes. Comparing moderate drinkers with non-drinkers, the drinkers were 1.5 times more likely to develop stage 1 hypertension and twice as likely to develop stage 2 hypertension. Heavy drinkers were 2.5 times more likely than non-drinkers to develop severe hypertension.

    Dr Marcin Kowalski directs cardiac electrophysiology at Staten Island University Hospital in New York City. He told Health24 that the study “gives us more insight to the negative effect of alcohol on the cardiovascular system.” He continued that Americans drink too much and “should be encouraged in the general population and especially in patients at higher risk for developing hypertension”.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Can Drinking Increase The Likelihood Of Cancer Or Death?

    Can Drinking Increase The Likelihood Of Cancer Or Death?

    A new study examined how alcohol consumption affects one’s health.

    Scientists have long-proven that drinking heavily is bad for your health and increases the risk of death, but does lighter drinking carry the same risk? A new study illuminates this mystery.

    The study, published in PLOS Medicine, found that those who drink the most have the highest risks of death and cancer.

    On the opposite spectrum, the study found that a person’s combined risk of dying younger or developing cancer is actually lowest among light drinkers. The study defines this as a person consuming one to three alcoholic drinks weekly. The risk for cancer or death increases with just one drink added to the week.

    Light drinkers had a lower combined risk of death or cancer when compared with non-drinkers, but the study did not look at why.

    The data from the study concluded that the average lifetime alcohol intake reported among the adults was 1.78 drinks per week. Men reported that they drink more—at 4.02 drinks per week—than women (0.80 drinks per week).

    The study showed that for both women and men, risk of death was lowest among those who consumed less than 0.5 drinks per day.

    “The reasons for the reduced risk in light drinkers compared to never drinkers are still open to debate amongst the scientific community,” said Dr. Andrew Kunzmann, a research fellow at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland and lead author of the study, according to CNN. “Some have suggested that alcohol may have cardio-protective effects that may reduce risk of cardiovascular disease.”

    The data for the study came from the U.S. Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial, covering 99,654 adults between the ages of 55 and 74 in the United States.

    The recommended alcoholic intake in the U.S. is two or fewer drinks a day for men, and one drink a day for women, per the American Cancer Society and the American Institute For Cancer Research. The study’s researchers suggest that this new data might call for a redefining of those recommendations.

    On the overall view of the study, Dr. Noelle LoConte, an oncologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said to CNN, “I think it reinforces what we already knew, which is moderate and heavy drinking is bad universally for cancer.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Controversial "Moderate Drinking" Study Shut Down By Officials

    Controversial "Moderate Drinking" Study Shut Down By Officials

    The news comes on the heels of Anheuser Busch’s decision to pull millions in funding from the study. 

    A highly controversial National Institutes of Health study is no longer in the works, NIH director Francis Collins announced Friday, June 15. 

    According to STAT News, Collins said the $100 million study would be shut down after a task force discovered “severe ethical and scientific lapses in the study’s planning and execution.” 

    The study, which would examine the possible health benefits of consuming one daily drink, had been in the headlines after a New York Times investigation revealed that the federal agency had courted the alcohol industry for funding, leading to concerns that the results could be skewed.

    Recently, Anheuser Busch decided to pull its own funding out of the study.

    STAT News reported that the task force found that the manner in which the NIH funded the research “casts doubt” as to whether “the scientific knowledge gained from the study would be actionable or believable.”

    The task force also found that beginning in 2013, “there was early and frequent engagement” between NIH officials and those in the alcohol industry. These communications, the task force stated, seemed to be “an attempt to persuade industry to support the project. Several members of NIAAA (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) staff kept key facts hidden from other institute staff members.” 

    Michael Siegel, public health scientist of Boston University, says the decision to end the study was the right one.

    “NIAAA undermined its own scientific integrity by soliciting and accepting alcohol industry funding to study the health ‘benefits’ of alcohol,” he told STAT News.  

    The study raised ethical concerns in part due to how it solicited its funding. The New York Times investigation revealed that in 2014, the scientists involved in the study went as far as to tell executives in the alcohol industry that the study “represents a unique opportunity to show that moderate alcohol consumption is safe and lowers risk of common diseases.”

    The Times also reported that they told officials that the study would supply a “level of evidence [that] is necessary if alcohol is to be recommended as part of a healthy diet.”

    Aside from ethical concerns, the study was also found to have other flaws. According to STAT News, the group looking into it found that it didn’t have enough patients and the follow-up time was not sufficient, meaning “the trial could show benefits while missing harms.” 

    Before the study was shut down, 105 participants had enrolled and $4 million had already been spent. 

    Dr. Kenneth Mukamal of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center was to lead the study. In a statement, the medical center said it is “deeply committed to ensuring the scientific and ethical integrity of any research study involving our investigators.”

    The statement also noted that Dr. Mukamal “is an experienced researcher who has led dozens of important studies over his career. We take the working group’s findings very seriously and will review the report carefully.”

    View the original article at thefix.com