Hot MedFax

When was the last time you saw a drunk rat ? Seriously.  Scientists are studying them to see if they can identify what in the brain makes them become alcoholics, well, compulsive drinkers. A research team has "identified circuitry in the brain that drives compulsive drinking in rats, and likely plays a similar role in humans," according to newswise.com. The scientists found neural pathways that run between the part of the brain associated with critical thinking and risk assessment, and another part that is "a critical area for reward and motivation," the article states. Medications do exist to target these areas of the brain, but this new discovery could possibly provide "an accelerated track to new treatments for compulsive drinking." But don't think the rats had a wild party.  They were regularly given a liquid that was 20% alcohol.  But they also drank both unmixed alcohol "and alcohol mixed with extremely bitter quinine," new

We had the horsemeat scandal in Europe.  Then a fake vodka -- high levels of methanol and bleach -- was produced and sold in England.  Even good chocolate and olive oil are adulterated these days.  Are we really eating what we think we are? A story in today's New York Times points out that investigators "have uncovered thousands of frauds, raising fresh questions about regulatory oversight as criminals offer bargain-hunting shoppers cheap versions of everyday products, including counterfeit chocolate and adulterated olive oil, Jacob’s Creek wine and even Bollinger Champagne." “Around the world, food fraud is an epidemic — in every single country where food is produced or grown, food fraud is occurring,” Mitchell Weinberg, president and chief executive of Inscatech, a company that advises on food security, told The New York Times. “Just about every single ingredient that has even a moderate economic value is potentially vulnerable to fraud.” Even scarier, "many

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