Alcohol News

The more alcohol men drink, the more time they spend in a hospital, research from the United Kingdom has found. Even relatively low levels of alcohol consumption were associated with a higher number of days spent in the hospital, the researchers found. Drinkers of eight or more units of alcohol a week were hospitalized more days than non-drinkers, and the length of stay increased as weekly consumption of alcohol went up.

By Abel Pharmboy, ScienceBlogs  -I don't know if Kim Severson of the New York Times knew this when writing her thought-provoking article earlier this week ["Mixing Drinks With Work and Staying Sober, Too"], but it coincided with the annual meetings of the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) and the College of Problems on Drug Dependence (CPDD). My point of bringing up Severson's article is a question that interests me given the context of The Friday Fermentable; namely, what happens if you have a career in the alcoholic beverage industry but become an alcoholic or alcohol abuser?

There's nothing like a cold beer on a sweltering summer day. George Koob can tell you exactly what makes that beer so satisfying – how the alcohol triggers a cascade of pleasure-inducing neurotransmitters in the brain. “You go to a barbecue, and the beer you have in the first 30 minutes promotes relaxing,” said Koob, a leading researcher on the neurobiology of addiction. “That's why we call alcohol a social lubricant.”

Bars and restaurants have become less tolerant of drinking on the job, but people in recovery from alcoholism still struggle with employment in the hospitality industry. Bartenders and other bar and restaurant workers still drink plenty: food-service workers have the third-highest rate of heavy alcohol use and the highest rate of illicit-drug use.

Consumption of alcohol is up, and so it seems are the ills associated with it. Worldwide, one in 25 deaths and 5 percent of the years that people live with health-related disabilities are related to alcohol, according to a new study.

For Del Pedro, a bartender at the Pegu Club in SoHo, Mondays are especially challenging. That’s when he allows himself careful tastes of new drinks at the bar, where cocktails are designed with precision. Mr. Pedro, an alcoholic with almost 15 years of sobriety behind him, is part of a quiet brigade of people who are trying to live a sober life in a business that is soaked in alcohol.

Just one drink can quickly go to your head. Researchers in Heidelberg tested this well-known adage. Only six minutes after consuming an amount of alcohol equivalent to three glasses of beer or two glasses of wine, leading to a blood alcohol level of 0.05 to 0.06 percent, changes have already taken place in the brain cells.

Alcohol dependence or abuse among fathers living with adolescents (youths aged 12 to 17) may increase the risk of alcohol or illicit substance use among their children according to a new national study.

Alcohol-related deaths among U.S. college students rose from 1,440 deaths in 1998 to 1,825 in 2005, along with increases in heavy drinking and drunk driving, according to an article in the July supplement of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

Research shows alcohol has a much stronger effect in the senior population than in younger people. As you age, you absorb alcohol more readily. So what used to be standard twenty-something fare is way too much for you now.