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They don't know if they're coming or going.  Doctors are now saying that alcohol is good for your heart.  But maybe not so much for your breasts, ladies. Turns out a whole confluence of studies has found that one drink a day, every day, keeps your heart healthier but may contribute, somewhat significantly, to the development of breast cancer.   But any more than that, not so much.  And as for those who really don't imbibe at all, we could be in the worst shape of all. According to The New York Times, research into how alcohol consumption affects health has been going on for a long time. A 1990 prospective cohort study included results of more than 275,000 men followed since 1959. Compared with those who never drank alcohol, those who consumed one to two drinks a day had a significantly reduced mortality rate from both coronary heart disease and “all causes.” Those who consumed three or more drinks a day still had a lower risk of death from coronary heart disease

Now this is going to make a lot of people really unhappy (unless you're over 50). But a new study has found that the benefits of red wine as they pertain to a longer life have been severely overstated, according to yahoo.com/health. Researchers analyzed data on the drinking habits of over 52,000 adults who were interviewed about their average weekly alcohol consumption, as well as how much they drank in one day. They found “little to no” health benefits of drinking alcohol, regardless of how much or little someone drank.  Any protective benefits of alcohol seemed limited to men between ages 50 and 64, and women age 65 and over. But don't despair!  Former drinkers — some of whom were once heavy drinkers — were lumped in with people who had never been drinkers and labeled as “non-drinkers,” which could affect the results.  “There’s still much more work to be done on isolating the true effect of alcohol consumption on health,” study researcher Craig Knott tel

My son hasn't shown much interest in alcohol -- at least not yet (or to me!).  But a new study has found that you may be able to predict which of your children is going to binge drink in the future. Of course, genetics play a part.   And I may feel a little more nervous than most folks because alcoholism runs in my family. But the study found that genetics play only a small part.  Brain function and about 40 different other variables can also help scientists predict with about 70 percent accuracy which teens will become binge drinkers. When I was a young teen, a younger cousin used to go everywhere with her shampoo bottle.  Turns out it was really liquor.  Not sure if this is why but at the age of 15, she became pregnant, and was able to hide it till about her eighth month.  Her family thought she had just gained weight.  It was a sad coincidence that her baby was born with Down Syndrome, which had nothing to do with her lack of prenatal care, but here she was, at 15, wit

At first this didn't sound so shocking to me: 1 in 25 middle schoolers are binge drinkers .  Maybe because mine's a computer nerd. But then I got to thinking about it. True, the stats come from Canada, but could they be much different in this country?  A whopping 4% of kids 12 to 14 consumed five or more drinks on more than one occasion, according to a new study, newswise.com reports. The findings also indicated that the odds of binge drinking were twice as high among youth with three or more chronic conditions. "We are particularly concerned that the young adolescents most likely to binge drink are those who have substantial physical health challenges” the Web site quotes lead author Esme Fuller-Thomson, Sandra Rotman Chair at the University of Toronto’s Factor Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.  "We also found that youth with mood disorders had three times the odds of binge drinking," adds co-author Matthew Sheridan, a manager at a children’s mental hea

Don't get mad if your child is caught doing drugs in school.  A new study has found that t eens caught drinking or using marijuana at school should be screened for exposure to trauma, mental health problems and other serious health risks, according to newswise.com. It may be a cry for help. UCLA researchers found that the use of substances at school was associated with significantly increased odds of serious problems such as depression, being the victim of intimate-partner violence and attempting suicide, the Web site reports. "At-school substance use is not just an isolated event requiring simple disciplinary action but an important signal identifying teens in need of urgent psychosocial assessment and support," said lead author Dr. Rebecca N. Dudovitz, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA and the UCLA Children's Discovery and Innovation Institute, at newswise.com. In the study, students who reported using either alcoh

This probably something you've never thought about but did you ever wonder why wounds don't heal well if you drink, well, a lot? A new study has found that p eople who are injured while binge drinking are much slower to heal from wounds suffered in car accidents, shootings, fires, etc. Newswise.com reports that bingeing on alcohol  reduces levels of key components of the immune system involved in healing. In the United States, alcohol dependence and/or abuse affects 20 percent to 40 percent of hospitalized patients, according to the Web site. Alcohol increases the risk of infections in the hospital, including surgical site infections. Patients with surgical-site infections are hospitalized for twice as long, have a higher rate of re-admission and are twice as likely to die as patients who did not binge drink. The study showed, for the first time, that binge alcohol exposure reduces the amount of white blood cells that chew up bacteria and debris. This defect, in part,

We all know physical activity is practically commanded by the Bible in the way we're all ordered to practice it.  It can prevent breast cancer, heart disease, diabetes, you name it, even Alzheimer's, according to some studies.  And now it's being touted as a way, along with occasional drinking (?), to keep your eyesight strong well into old age.   newswise.com reports that a  physically active lifestyle and occasional drinking "are associated with a reduced risk of developing visual impairment." (Does this mean we should all become "occasional" drinkers to save our eyes?) But it's not just losing your sight we should be worried about, the Web site notes.  It could also affect the way, and how well, we live. Visual impairment – sight loss often caused by eye disease, trauma, or a congenital or degenerative condition that cannot be corrected with glasses or contact lenses – is associated with a poorer quality of life and, when severe, loss o

Can't they ever make up their minds?  Now moderate alcohol consumption may be okay? Despite just this week seeming to imply that women should drink very little, if at all, compared to men, a new study now says that a glass of wine at dinner may actually boost the immune system and improve its response to vaccination, according to medicalnewstoday.com. Scientists vaccinated two sets of monkeys against smallpox.  One group was given 4% alcohol while the other, sugar water. The monkeys were monitored for 14 months, then vaccinated again at seven months. During this time the mice's alcohol intake varied, with some classified as "heavy" drinkers and others, moderate drinkers. In the end, the heavy drinkers had a more muted response to the vaccine than the ones given sugar water. Those considered moderate drinkers had the best response to the vaccine. So what does this mean for people?  "If you have a family history of alcohol abuse, or are at risk, or have be

Just our luck.  Wouldn't you know it?  Women's livers are more at risk from drinking than men's. According to newswise.com, that's because we're smaller and have less body water than men (but, just to make everything even, of course, we get the lion's share of fat). “As a result, women who are already predisposed by genetics to have liver disease should limit their alcohol consumption or stay away from alcohol altogether,” the Web site quotes Dr. Howard Monsour, chief of hepatology at Houston Methodist Hospital. Say what?   He adds, " There is a misconception that you have to be an alcoholic to develop serious liver disease. Not true. In fact, if you have a genetic disposition, drinking more than a moderate amount could be very damaging, especially for women." About 20 to 30 percent of the population has a genetic disposition to cirrhosis of the liver and Monsour said it is important for people to know if they have a family history of cirr

Next time you drink, make sure you don't fall down and break any bones.  A new study  has found that drinking -- well, binge drinking -- impairs the healing of bone. According to newswise.com, alcohol "slows healing on the cellular and molecular levels." “Many bone fractures are alcohol-related, due to car accidents, falls, shootings, etc.,” the Web site quotes Roman Natoli, MD, PhD, a study author. “In addition to contributing to bone fractures, alcohol also impairs the healing process. So add this to the list of reasons why you should not abuse alcohol.” Researchers studied the effects that alcohol consumption had on bone healing in mice, newswise.com reports. One group of mice was exposed to alcohol levels roughly equivalent to three times the legal limit for driving. A control group was exposed to equal amounts of saline (salt water). Sure enough, the study found three ways in which alcohol impaired bone healing after a fracture: The alcohol-exposed mice h

You're out at a party. The host asks if you'd like a glass of wine.  You say yes, and stop at that, secure in the knowledge you've only had one and are perfectly fine to drive home.  But did you know that you could be drinking two, maybe three, servings in that one glass? According to a story at newswise.com, people have a hard time guessing the volume of liquids they pour. "Just how much one pours is influenced by a variety of environmental factors, researchers at Iowa State and Cornell universities discovered, and that could have serious consequences when it comes to over-consumption," the Web site reports. In the study, participants were asked to pour what they considered a normal drink using different types of glasses in various settings. Participants poured around 12 percent more wine into a wide glass than a standard one. Even more shocking, the same was true when holding a glass while pouring, compared to placing the glass on a table. “People have

Another frightening fact about teenagers and alcohol .  "On an average day, 881,684 teenagers aged 12 to 17 smoked cigarettes, according to a report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The report also says that on an average day 646,707 adolescents smoked marijuana and 457,672 drank alcohol," according to newswise.com. To put this in (terrifying) perspective: the number of adolescents using marijuana on an average day "could almost fill the Indianapolis Speedway (seating capacity 250,000 seats) two and a half times," the Web site reports. OMG. "This data about adolescents sheds new light on how deeply substance use pervades the lives of many young people and their families," newswise.com quotes SAMHSA administrator Pamela S. Hyde. “While other studies indicate that significant progress has been made in lowering the levels of some forms of substance use among adolescents in the past decade, this report shows tha

Yet something new involving teenage use of alcohol, and critically important to worry about.  School-age girls who drink have a 13% greater risk of breast cancer. According to newswise.com, a new study has shown that, for young girls and women heading back to school, "The more alcohol they drink before motherhood, the greater their risk of future breast cancer." This is the first time research has been able to find links between increased breast cancer risk and drinking between early adolescence and first full-term pregnancy. Previous studies have looked at breast cancer risk and alcohol consumption later in life or at the effect of adolescent drinking on noncancerous breast disease. "More and more heavy drinking is occurring on college campuses and during adolescence, and not enough people are considering future risk. But, according to our research, the lesson is clear: If a female averages a drink per day between her first period and her first full-term p

Bet you thought you knew who the world's biggest drinkers are.  I don't mean, among your neighbors, but in the world.  Used to be, any time you saw an outdoor cafe in a movie in Paris, or Rome, or Madrid, or Berlin, the actors would be quaffing down drink after drink, or always holding a wineglass in one hand. And yes, Europeans used to be the biggest drinkers.  But consumption there has slowed, according to a story at smartplanet.com.  However, liquor companies, don't despair.  The Asia-Pacific region is taking up where they left off. Who's doing a lot of the imbibing?  Would you believe China?  "China alone now accounts for 38 percent of global spirits consumption, according to data released this month by International Wine & Spirits Research (IWSR), courtesy of The Economist ." Kirstin Korosec reports.  She adds that the IWSR data shows seven of the top 10 growth markets are in the Asia-Pacific region. People in China love "a heady liquor k

Now we've seen it all? Nutrition labels on alcohol?  It's coming. We already have warnings on pregnancy but now the Treasury Department, which regulates alcohol, "said this past week that beer, wine and spirits companies can use labels that include serving size, servings per container, calories, carbohydrates, protein and fat per serving. Such package labels have never before been approved," according to Mary Clare Jalonik of the AP. The labels, however, are voluntary so you probably won't be seeing too many of them. I don't know about you but when I'm drinking my Cosmopolitan , I don't really want to know it has the same number of calories as a brownie, or two (212). That's what was behind the famous Skinny Girl cocktail brand, putting fewer calories in liquor. But I'm not in the mood to count calories when I'm out drinking.  It's just not the most important thing on my mind. Some weight loss experts say to treat it as a piece

There's now a new pill that can beat your hangover.  According to smartplanet.com, a team of UCLA researchers has found a way to detoxify the alcohol in your system. No mystery here. The team found the enzymes that make your liver metabolize alcohol and were able to reproduce them. http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/drink-with-impunity-take-the-hangover-pill/12997?tag=nl.e660&s_cid=e660&ttag=e660

Are there really things you can eat to ward off the flu? Some docs think so.  Believe it or not, zinc-rich foods like seafood, chicken and red meat.  Though who wants to think about a nice juicy burger when your throat's so sore even water hurts.  Probably the worst thing about the flu?  Forget those hot toddies.  Absolutely no alcohol. http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/01/17/what-foods-to-seek-or-avoid-during-cold-and-flu-season/