Sobering Report On Alcohol: No Amount Of Drinking Is Good For Your Health
"People should no longer think that a drink or two a day is good for you," said Emmanuela Gakidou, senior author of the report appearing in the Lancet. For people ages 15 to 49, alcohol is the leading risk factor for experiencing a negative health outcome. Other public health news also includes reports on e-cigs that appeal to children, HPV-related cancer rates, electronic medical records, antibiotic resistance, political influence and more.
The Washington Post:
Safest Level Of Alcohol Consumption Is None, Worldwide Study Shows
To minimize health risks, the optimal amount of alcohol someone should consume is none. That’s the simple, surprising conclusion of a massive study, co-authored by 512 researchers from 243 institutions, published Thursday in the prestigious journal the Lancet. The researchers built a database of more than a thousand alcohol studies and data sources, as well as death and disability records from 195 countries and territories between 1990 and 2016. The goal was to estimate how alcohol affects the risk of 23 health problems. The number that jumped out, in the end, was zero. Anything more than that was associated with health risks. (Achenbach, 8/23)
The New York Times:
Purveyors Of Juice-Box Style, Nicotine-Filled E-Liquids Quit Selling The Products
Makers of e-cigarette and vaping liquids like One Mad Hit Juice Box, V’Nilla Cookies & Milk, Unicorn Cakes and other products with packaging that could appeal to children have stopped selling them, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The agency said on Thursday that the 17 makers, distributors and sellers of nicotine-containing e-liquids for e-cigarettes had agreed to take the products off the market, after the agency issued a warning in May. (Kaplan, 8/23)
The Washington Post:
HPV-Related Cancer Rates Are Rising. So Are Vaccine Rates — Just Not Fast Enough.
Cancers linked to the human papillomavirus have increased significantly over the last 15 years in the United States, with throat cancer now the most common HPV-related malignancy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. More than 43,000 people developed HPV-associated cancer in 2015, compared with about 30,000 in 1999, the CDC said. (McGinley, 8/23)
NPR:
How Patients React After Seeing Their Doctors' Notes About Them
One day this spring, an elderly patient of mine became upset with me because, she said, I had betrayed her trust. The issue was a short note I had written in her medical record about her difficult relationship with her child. The note was a reminder for me and anybody else in the hospital where I worked that the patient didn't have anyone who could accompany her to appointments. (Gordon, 8/23)
KCUR:
KU Discovery Suggests New Approaches To Problem Of Antibiotic Resistance
In their quest to understand how bacteria like E. coli and salmonella become antibiotic resistant, researchers at the University of Kansas have made a discovery that may hold important implications for future treatments. It turns out the types of proteins that help shield some bacteria cells from antibiotics may have evolved independently rather than from a common ancestor, as has been commonly thought. And that discovery may lead to a more refined approach to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance. (Smith, 8/23)
Sacramento Bee:
Lack Of Political Power Can Actually Make You Sick
It’s no coincidence that the people who have the least influence over California’s decision-makers also have the worst health outcomes. It’s also no surprise that the elite Californians whose interests are amplified by campaign contributions, high-paid lobbyists and electoral power are shielded from the random and deliberate causes of poor health. (Daniel Zingale, 8/23)
Stat:
Sacha Baron Cohen Tried To Prank Francis Collins — And Science Won Out - STAT
Francis Collins did not take off his pants. To the contrary, he could sense something wasn’t quite right — perhaps immediately, when the heavyset and dubiously bearded man in a motorized scooter began an interview by asking: “Why are big agriculture putting chemicals into our food to make people transgender?” The man — who calls himself Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr., Ph.D. — was referring to trans fats. ... Collins, the NIH director, instead had become the latest public figure to fall victim to the pranks of Sacha Baron Cohen, a comedian who, as part of his new show “Who Is America?” has managed to convince a sitting member of Congress to endorse a program to arm toddlers for self-defense and a Georgia state lawmaker to bare his buttocks at a hypothetical ISIS attacker. (Facher, 8/24)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Cough Medicine UK: Cough Syrup, Honey, Antibiotics, Home Remedies
The medical uses for honey date back to the Stone Age, according to research published in the National Institutes of Health. Its antioxidant capacities have proved beneficial for individuals with some gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, inflammatory ailments and more. (Pirani, 8/23)
