Tag: alcohol

Categories : Substance Use Surgeries & ProceduresTags :

Bariatric Surgery Increases the Risk of Alcohol Problems

On By ModernMedia
Sleeve gastrectomy. Credit: Scientific Animations CC4.0

The body absorbs alcohol much more rapidly after bariatric surgery, researchers from Norway have found. Patients need to know this when they choose the kind of surgery they will have.

“Bariatric surgery can come with a price. Patients have a significantly higher risk of developing alcohol problems than if they did not undergo surgery,” said Magnus Strømmen, a researcher at the Centre for Obesity Research at St. Olavs Hospital and a PhD research fellow at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Between one and two per cent of the population in Norway has undergone bariatric surgery. The most commonly used surgical methods are gastric bypass and gastric sleeve.

Both methods make patients eat less and feel full faster. This is partly due to reduced volume on the stomach, and partly due to hormonal changes. But a person’s changed anatomy also has consequences for what happens when they drink alcohol.

“In a normal stomach, a significant part of the alcohol will be broken down and thus not pass into the bloodstream. This is due to an enzyme that is secreted in the lining of the stomach. It is this protective mechanism that we deprive the patient of when we operate on the stomach. In addition, what you drink passes much faster into the intestine,” says Strømmen.

The small intestine’s big job is absorption. Since the stomach’s ability to break down alcohol more or less stops, significantly more alcohol passes directly into the bloodstream. That’s true even if the patient drinks the same as before the operation.

You get drunk faster

In a new study, Strømmen and his colleagues have had 33 adult patients undergo stress tests with alcohol. The participants consumed measured amounts of vodka mixed with orange juice both before bariatric surgery, and 3, 12 and 36 months after the operation, after which they had their blood alcohol levels measured after they had consumed the alcohol.

“Our findings show that alcohol uptake almost doubles, both after gastric bypass and gastric sleeve. Perhaps an even more dangerous finding, from a substance-abuse perspective, is that patients reach the maximum blood concentration in only half the time. These effects are lasting, probably lifelong,” Strømmen said.

In other words: The patients were intoxicated faster, and to a much greater extent, by the same amount of alcohol, and it took longer to get sober.

“The effects were more pronounced for people who had gastric bypass surgery. But that does not mean that the sleeve operation is harmless in terms of subsequent alcohol abuse,” Strømmen said.

Gastric bypass (left) and gastric sleeve are the most common forms of bariatric surgery today. In gastric bypass, a corner of the stomach is connected directly to the small intestine, so that both the stomach and one meter of the small intestine are disconnected. In gastric sleeve surgery, part of the stomach is removed so that the volume is reduced, without reconnecting the intestines. Illustration: Kari C Toverud, CMI

Bypass had a 69 per cent higher risk than sleeve

In another study, the researchers compared the risk of getting an alcohol abuse diagnosis after the two bariatric surgeries. The researchers analysed data from the Norwegian Patient Registry linked to the Norwegian Prescription Database for 17,800 patients operated on in the period from 2008 to 2018.

They found that patients who had gastric bypass surgery had a 69 per cent higher risk of being diagnosed with an alcohol-related problem than patients with a gastric sleeve. Bariatric patients who were given an alcohol-related diagnosis also had a higher mortality rate and used specialist health services more than patients who underwent bariatric surgery and who did not receive an alcohol diagnosis.

“It is important that patients, their relatives and health personnel, especially in general medicine, substance abuse and gastro medicine, share this knowledge. These Norwegian studies, based on different data sources and different methodologies, indicate that some of our patients struggle with alcohol problems as a complication from the surgery. Alcohol problems can cost the patient, their relatives, and society a great deal,” Strømmen said.

He likes to tell patients that they need to practice saying no.

“They will suddenly be in social contexts where friends and surroundings expect you to drink as much as before the operation. But your physiology has changed. That means you need to be more careful than before,” he said.

Risk factors for bariatric surgery must be investigated

“We can’t just tell people what to do or not to do,” says Associate Professor Magnus Strømmen. “I believe more that patients need to be educated about the mechanisms behind it. Knowledge can motivate people to be more careful with alcohol. They need to know how altered alcohol absorption can affect their actions while under the influence and that all alcohol intake doubles the stress on their organs. Photo: Aleksander Mjøen

He himself has been involved in building up the obesity outpatient clinic at St. Olavs Hospital in Trondheim. Now he wants to be sure that clinics incorporate this new information into their daily practice. Patients must be assessed individually in relation to the risk of alcohol problems.

“We find that many patients have a clear idea of what type of surgery they want when they are referred. And for a long time, this was given very great importance in the decisionmaking. But obesity is not just a single phenotype. Despite having a large body, patients are very different, also in terms of health,” he said.

Some patients may have type 2 diabetes, others struggle with heartburn. Some may have more extensive obesity and thus desire greater weight loss.

“For a patient like this, gastric bypass may be best. Other conditions may make you want to recommend gastric sleeve. Now we know that the operations result in different risks of alcohol problems. This means we must also investigate the patient’s risk factors for substance abuse before we decide which operation the patient should have. Where patients have several risk factors, gastric sleeve may be a better alternative, but we must also ask whether high-risk patients should be operated on at all,” Strømmen said.

Patients need to know

He wants patients to receive more specific information before the operation.

“It is important that patients make their decision to undergo surgery on a genuinely informed basis. It is not enough to say that their alcohol uptake will change. Patients should be educated about the mechanisms behind increased risk after surgery, and not least how to react differently to alcohol intoxication after surgery as a result of the sudden increase. This information can at best prevent patients from developing alcohol-related problems,” he said.

The patient’s risk factors for substance abuse should be considered before the type of surgery is chosen.

“I think most obesity clinics can get much better at their alcohol history, ie, a thorough conversation about the patient’s alcohol habits and any risk factors. We need to get better at asking the right questions, and make a more precise assessment. But this also requires transparency from the patients. I believe that good patient education can make patients understand why it is important to be honest about these things,” says Strømmen.

Drugs can replace bariatric surgery

In recent years, more effective drugs have been developed against obesity. Strømmen believes these should be considered for everyone before surgery, but especially for those at increased risk of alcohol abuse.

“The current guidelines state that we should not operate on patients with an active substance abuse problem, and that high-risk patients should abstain from alcohol after surgery. However, the guidelines do not provide any guidelines for how patients should be screened.  The lack of specification is a problem because this is information that many clinicians are reluctant to ask for, and which patients may be afraid to share,” he said.

By Ingebjørg Hestvik – Published 25.06.2026

References:

Strømmen, M., Dale, O., Klöckner, C. et al. Ethanol pharmacokinetics before and after sleeve gastrectomy and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass: a 3-year prospective study (the BAR-TRIAL). Int J Obes (2026).https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-026-02113-3

Strømmen, M., Bakken, I.J., Sandvik, J. et al. Alcohol use disorders and related morbidity and mortality after sleeve gastrectomy and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass: a nation-wide registry study (the BAR-REGISTER). Int J Obes (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-026-02123-1

Source: Norwegian SciTech News

Categories : Substance UseTags :

Even Low Alcohol Consumption Linked to Cancer and Heart Risks

On By ModernMedia

Study provides much-needed benchmark with finding that alcohol consumption is associated with increased risk above one drink per day for both men and women

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels

Even what many consider to be moderate drinking is linked to an increased risk of death, disability, and chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease, according to a new study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

“This study provides the most comprehensive US estimates to date of lifetime risks of alcohol-attributable mortality and morbidity, showing that even moderate levels of consumption increase the risk of premature death and disability,” said study co-author Katherine M. Keyes, PhD, professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. “No protective effect of drinking was observed even at low levels,” noted Keyes, whose research focuses on alcohol use and other substances epidemiology across the life course.

The findings show mortality risk from alcohol of 1 in 25 for people who consumed an average of 14 drinks per week. In contrast, drinking up to 7 drinks per week was associated with only minimally elevated risks for most conditions.

“Even low levels of alcohol use come with health risks,” says first study author Kevin Shield, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Toronto and a senior scientist who leads the World Health Organization (WHO)/Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Collaborating Centre in Addiction and Mental Health. “And that risk continues to increase the more someone drinks.”

The researchers, from the United States and Canada, aimed to estimate how lifetime drinking habits affect Americans’ risk of illness and death related to alcohol. After medical experts reviewed more than 7200 scientific articles on alcohol-related diseases and injuries to determine the level of risk for each condition, the researchers applied those risks to large national health data sets. They then used statistical modelling to estimate how different drinking levels influence long-term health outcomes.

The study offers more concrete guidance than the new US Dietary Guidelines, which currently advise Americans to “limit alcoholic beverages” without specifying how much alcohol is safe to drink. Previous guidelines recommended a daily limit of two alcoholic drinks for men and one for women. The definition of a ‘drink’ varies by beverage type, typically 12 ounces (340mL) for beer, 5 ounces (140mL) for wine, and 1.5 ounces (40mL)for spirits, although that too can vary by alcohol concentration.

While the new US Dietary Guidelines contain a useful ‘less-is-best’ message, they provide no quantitative framework, according to the authors. This study was designed to do just that across the drinking spectrum. 

It turns out that an average of two drinks per day, which might be considered ‘moderate’ from a social standpoint, is associated with a substantially elevated risk of a premature death caused by alcohol, they explain.

In addition to mortality risk, researchers examined how drinking patterns influence chronic and acute alcohol-related conditions such as cancer – including oesophageal, oral, and breast – cardiovascular disease, liver disease, and injury. 

The study overturns a common misconception that alcohol can protect health. The researchers did not observe a significant protective effect of alcohol on overall health at any level of consumption. They noted that at low levels, alcohol may be associated with a reduced risk of ischemic heart disease and stroke. But when you look across the full range of health outcomes, including cancer and other chronic diseases, those potential benefits are outweighed by the risks even at 7 drinks per week.

Statistical modelling used in the study to determine health risks was based on “the best possible data,” according to the team. But they caution one should not assume that means one person’s individual health risk is the same as what is reported here – that depends on other factors like lifestyle, genetics, drinking patterns, and other choices that differ person to person.

The researchers estimated risk for all health conditions known to be causally related to alcohol and then aggregated these estimates to determine the total health risk. Yet, new research continues to emerge that links alcohol with additional health conditions, such as pancreatic cancer. “Understanding those relationships, and how much alcohol contributes to those risks, is an area that still needs further work,” says Keyes and Shield.

By finding that alcohol consumption is associated with increased risk above one drink per day for both men and women, the study offers a much-needed benchmark.

“Having a clearer threshold helps people better understand what level of drinking is associated with increased risk and make more informed decisions when drinking.”

In an accompanying editorial, Robert M. Vincent, a former associate administrator for the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, discusses his view of the behind-the-scenes environment in which the study was produced. “The Alcohol Intake and Health report was explicitly invited to inform alcohol guidance during development of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030,” he writes. “Despite the study’s adherence to its mandate, its findings were sidelined.”

See the paper for a full list of co-authors and their institutions.

Source: Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Categories : CancerTags :

How Does Lifetime Alcohol Consumption Affect Colorectal Cancer Risk?

On By ModernMedia

Results from a cancer screening trial indicate that consistent heavy alcohol intake and higher average lifetime drinking are associated with increased risk.

Photo by Apolo Photographer on Unsplash

Studies have demonstrated a link between alcohol consumption and an elevated risk of colorectal cancer. New research now reveals that higher lifetime alcohol consumption is also associated with a higher risk, especially for rectal cancer, and that quitting drinking can lower a person’s risk. The findings are published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

When investigators analysed data on US adults enrolled in the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Prostate, Long, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial who did not have cancer at baseline, they observed that 1679 colorectal cancer cases occurred among 88 092 participants over 20 years of follow-up.

Current drinkers with an average lifetime alcohol intake of ≥ 14 drinks per week (heavy drinkers) had a 25% higher risk of developing colorectal cancer and a 95% higher risk of developing rectal cancer compared with those with an average lifetime alcohol intake of < 1 drink per week (light drinkers).

When further considering drinking consistency, heavy drinking throughout adulthood was linked to a 91% higher risk of colorectal cancer compared with consistent light drinking. In contrast, no evidence of increased colorectal cancer risk was observed among former drinkers, and former drinkers had lower odds of developing noncancerous colorectal tumours, or adenomas (which may go on to become cancerous) than current drinkers averaging < 1 drink per week, suggesting that alcohol cessation may lower individuals’ risks. These data were limited, however.

The association between alcohol consumption and increased risks observed in this and other studies might be explained by carcinogens produced from alcohol metabolism or alcohol’s effects on gut microbes. Additional studies are needed to test whether these mechanisms are involved.

“Our study is one of the first to explore how drinking alcohol over the life course relates to both colorectal adenoma and colorectal cancer risk. While the data on former drinkers were sparse, we were encouraged to see that their risk may return to that of the light drinkers,” said co–senior author Erikka Loftfield, PhD, MPH, of the NCI, part of the National Institutes of Health.

Source: Wiley

Categories : NeurologyTags :

No ‘Beneficial’ Level of Alcohol Consumption for Dementia Risk

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Apolo Photographer on Unsplash

Any amount of alcohol consumption may increase risk of dementia, according to the most comprehensive study of alcohol consumption and dementia risk to date.

Led by the University of Oxford, Yale University, and the University of Cambridge, the research challenges previous suggestions that light-to-moderate drinking may have a protective effect against dementia. The study is published in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine.

Alcohol consumption is widespread and is linked with an increased risk of many diseases. Heavy drinking has previously been linked to higher risk of dementia. The connection between moderate levels of drinking and higher risk of dementia was uncertain with some studies suggesting that moderate drinking may even reduce dementia risk. However, recent studies involving brain scans have shown that drinking alcohol even at low levels may increase the risk of dementia.

This study combined observational data from more than half a million participants in two large and diverse population studies: the US Million Veteran Program and UK Biobank to assess whether self-reported alcohol use was linked with risk of developing a broad range of types of dementia.

The researchers also investigated links between genetically-predicted likelihood of drinking alcohol and alcohol use disorder for more than 2.4 million participants in 45 individual studies. This approach helped the researchers overcome some of the difficulties in distinguishing correlation from causation.

Key findings:

  • Observational analyses seemed to support previous findings that current low and moderate drinking is associated with lower risk of dementia when compared with non-drinking and heavy drinking; however, some current non-drinkers were previously heavy drinkers, which could account for their increased dementia risk compared to consistently low drinkers;
  • Genetic analyses, however, revealed a continuously increasing trend of higher dementia risk with greater alcohol intakes, suggesting that any level of alcohol consumption increases the risk of dementia, with no evidence that drinking alcohol may have a protective effect;
  • A doubled increase in a person’s genetically-predicted risk of alcohol use disorder was associated with a 16% higher risk of dementia, while a three times higher increase in number of alcoholic drinks per week increased the risk of dementia risk by 15%;
  • The study also showed that people who later developed dementia reduced their alcohol intake before diagnosis, another explanation for prior findings of protective effects of alcohol, rather than true benefit.

Dr Anya Topiwala, Senior Clinical Researcher at Oxford Population Health, Consultant Psychiatrist, and lead author of the study, said ‘Our findings challenge the common belief that low levels of alcohol are beneficial for brain health. Genetic evidence offers no support for a protective effect – in fact, it suggests the opposite. Even light or moderate drinking may increase the risk of dementia, indicating that reducing alcohol consumption across the population could play a significant role in dementia prevention.’

Dr Stephen Burgess, Statistician at the University of Cambridge, said ‘The random nature of genetic inheritance allows us to compare groups with higher and lower levels of alcohol drinking in a way that allows us to make conclusions that untangle the confusion between correlation and causation. Our findings do not only hold for those who have a particular genetic predisposition, but for anyone who chooses to drink, our study suggests that greater alcohol consumption leads to higher risk of dementia.’

Dr Joel Gelernter, Professor at Yale University and senior author of the study, said ‘These results, which add to our understanding of the relationship between alcohol and dementia, have clinical implications – there was a time when medical knowledge seemed to support that light drinking would be beneficial to brain health, and this work adds to the evidence that this is not correct’.

This study adds to growing evidence that alcohol use, even at moderate levels, may have no safe threshold when it comes to brain health, reinforcing the case for preventive strategies that reduce alcohol consumption in the general population.

The study, ‘Alcohol use and risk of dementia in diverse populations: evidence from cohort, case–control and Mendelian randomisation approaches‘, is published in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine.

Source: Oxford University

Categories : Metabolic Disorders Substance UseTags :

GLP-1 Receptor Agonists Protect the Liver During Alcohol Consumption

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Apolo Photographer on Unsplash

GLP-1 receptor agonists are also promising for the treatment of alcohol use disorder and alcohol-associated liver disease, as growing evidence suggests they reduce the motivation to drink alcohol. Now, surprising new findings reveal that the medications may have direct protective effects on the liver as well.

In a new study, published in npj Metabolism Health and Disease, Yale School of Medicine (YSM) researchers found that in mice, GLP-1RAs reduced an enzyme that metabolises alcohol. That, in turn, decreased the production of toxic alcohol metabolites.

“This is the first time that GLP-1 receptor agonists have been shown to regulate alcohol metabolism in the liver,” says principal investigator Wajahat Mehal, MD, professor of medicine (digestive diseases) at YSM. “If you’re taking semaglutide, then your body will likely handle alcohol differently.”

However, because these drugs slowed the metabolism of alcohol, the mice also had higher blood alcohol levels, the researchers found.

“GLP-1 receptor agonists seem to have very similar effects in mice and humans,” says Mehal. “If these results are also reproduced in humans, people using GLP-1 receptor agonists might be drinking an amount of alcohol that does not normally put them above the legal blood alcohol level, but because they are taking this drug, it does.”

Further studies in humans are needed to understand these impacts of GLP-1 receptor agonists more fully, he stresses.

GLP-1 receptor agonists decrease toxic alcohol metabolites

In the study, researchers gave mice either a GLP-1 receptor agonist or a placebo. They observed that mice receiving the medication had decreased levels of a liver enzyme known as Cyp2e1, which breaks down alcohol into a toxic metabolite called acetaldehyde.

“This is significant because alcohol itself is actually not the most toxic molecule to the liver,” explains Mehal. Rather, acetaldehyde is one of the major drivers of alcohol-related harm to the liver. “These drugs are resulting in less acetaldehyde.”

The findings suggest that not only might GLP-1 receptor agonists help the liver by acting on the brain to reduce alcohol consumption, but also through slowing metabolism of alcohol in the liver, and in turn reducing the levels of toxic metabolites.

Ongoing clinical trials are currently testing the benefits of semaglutide for people living with alcohol-induced liver disease. The study suggests that GLP-1 receptor agonists may offer greater benefits to the liver than previously thought, and that the drug may still help patients who are not abstaining from alcohol.

“Even if some individuals don’t reduce their alcohol intake while they’re on a GLP-1 receptor agonist, they will probably still have hepatic protection, because fewer toxic metabolites will be produced in the liver,” Mehal says.

GLP-1 receptor agonists increase blood alcohol concentration

In another experiment, the researchers measured blood alcohol concentrations of mice 30 minutes after giving them alcohol. They found that mice who had received a GLP-1 receptor agonist had higher blood alcohol concentrations compared to controls, and that these levels took longer to drop.

More research is needed to better understand the consequences of elevated blood alcohol levels on the rest of the body, Mehal says.

“If the liver is not metabolizing alcohol as quickly, the alcohol load could be shifted to other organs,” he poses. “Then, not only might people have a high blood alcohol level, but may also experience more cognitive effects like discoordination.”

The number of people taking these drugs is rapidly increasing—as many as one in eight adults in the U.S. have used or are currently using a GLP-1 receptor agonist. Meanwhile, about half of U.S. adults drink alcohol and 6% report drinking heavily.

As the use of these medications for a range of conditions continues to rise, it is increasingly important to study the interactions between these medications and alcohol, Mehal says.

“There already are large numbers of people who are taking GLP-1 receptor agonists and are drinking either social amounts or excess amounts of alcohol,” says Mehal. “We need to know the effects of these drugs in that setting.

Source: Yale School of Medicine

Categories : Substance UseTags :

Long-term Alcohol Use Suspends Liver Cells in Limbo, Preventing Regeneration

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels

Excessive alcohol consumption can disrupt the liver’s unique regenerative abilities by trapping cells in limbo between their functional and regenerative states, even after a patient stops drinking, as described in a new study from researchers at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and collaborators.

This in-between state is a result of inflammation disrupting how RNA is spliced during the protein-making process, the researchers found, providing scientists with new treatment pathways to explore for the deadly disease. The researchers published their findings in the journal Nature Communications.

The liver has a remarkable ability to regenerate itself after damage or partial removal. However, it loses that ability in patients with alcohol-associated liver disease – the leading cause of liver-related mortality worldwide, resulting in roughly 3 million deaths annually.

“We knew that the liver stops functioning and stops regenerating in patients with alcohol-related hepatitis and cirrhosis, even when a patient has discontinued consuming alcohol, but we didn’t know why,” said U. of I. biochemistry professor Auinash Kalsotra, who co-led the study with Duke University School of Medicine professor Anna Mae Diehl. “The only real life-saving treatment option once a patient reaches the liver failure stage in those diseases is transplantation. But if we understood why these livers were failing, maybe we could intervene.”

Both the Kalsotra and Diehl labs havestudied the molecular and cellular underpinnings of liver regeneration. Over the last five years, they found that in order to regenerate, liver cells reprogram their gene expression to revert to fetal-like progenitor cells, multiply and then reverse the process back to become mature functioning cells again. Armed with this knowledge, the group turned to the question of how those mechanisms were disrupted in alcohol-associated liver disease.

The researchers compared samples of healthy livers and samples of livers with alcohol-associated hepatitis or cirrhosis obtained from Johns Hopkins University Hospital through an initiative supported by the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health.

The first thing the researchers noticed in diseased livers was that, although damaged cells had begun the process of reverting to the regenerative state, they did not complete the process and instead remained in transitional limbo.

“They are neither functional adult cells nor proliferative progenitor cells. Since they are not functioning, more pressure builds on the remaining cells. So they try to regenerate, and they’re all ending up in this unproductive quasi-progenitor state, and that’s what is causing liver failure,” said U. of I. graduate students Ullas Chembazhi and Sushant Bangru, the co-first authors of the study.

To figure out why the cells were getting stuck in this state, the team investigated which proteins were being made by the liver cells and, in turn, the RNA molecules carrying the instructions for those proteins from the DNA to the cell’s protein-building machinery.

While most studies focus only on the total amounts of RNA or protein in a cell, Kalsotra’s team used deep RNA sequencing technology and computational analyses to zoom in on the splicing of RNA fragments, a key step in stitching together different parts of genetic instructions to make proteins.

“In comparing the samples, we saw RNA was getting mis-spliced broadly in alcohol-related liver disease, across thousands of genes, and it was affecting major functions of proteins,” said Kalsotra.

The researchers found a possible driver of the RNA mis-splicing: Alcohol-damaged liver cells had a deficiency of the protein ESRP2, which binds to RNA to splice it properly.  

“Proteins function at a very specific place in the cell, and that is directed by sequences within the protein that take the protein to that particular spot. We found that, in many cases, the sequence that dictates where the protein localizes within a cell was mis-spliced. That’s why it was important that we did the multiple analyses we did,” said Kalsotra. “There was the same amount of RNA and protein, but the protein was not at the right place to function. Due to mis-splicing, key proteins that are required for productive liver regeneration were getting stuck in the cytoplasm, when they needed to be in the nucleus.”

To verify that ESRP2 deficiency was a likely culprit, the researchers studied mice without the gene that produces ESRP2. They displayed similar liver damage and regeneration failure to that seen in patients with advanced alcohol-related hepatitis.

But why was ESRP2 missing from liver cells from patients with alcohol-related hepatitis? Upon investigation, the researchers found that liver support cells and immune cells, drawn to the liver tissue damaged by alcohol processing, released high amounts of inflammatory and growth factors. Those factors suppress ESRP2 production and activity.

To verify this finding, the researchers treated liver cell cultures with a molecule that inhibits the receptor for one of the inflammation-promoting factors. ESRP2 levels recovered and splicing activity was corrected, pointing to the pathway as a possible treatment target.

“I’m hopeful these findings will become a launching pad for future clinical studies. We can use these mis-spliced RNAs as diagnostic markers or develop treatments that can curb the inflammation. And if we can correct the splicing defects, then maybe we can improve recovery and restore damaged livers,” Kalsotra said.

Source: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Categories : Substance Use Surgeries & ProceduresTags :

Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome is a Hidden Surgery Risk

On By ModernMedia
Credit: Pixabay CC0

Alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) is a potentially life-threatening condition that may complicate patients’ recovery after surgery.

Previous studies have estimated that up to 50% of hospitalised patients with AUD will develop some degree of AWS. Up to 7% of these patients may progress to severe withdrawal, including delirium tremens (DT) that can range in severity from irritability and confusion to tremors, nausea, vomiting and seizures.

A new study by surgeons at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) looked at a national sample of 3 million adult surgical patients between 2016-2019.

Of those patients, 16 504 (0.5%) were diagnosed with AWS, including 6591 (0.2%) with DT. 

“We found that alcohol withdrawal syndrome is linked with poorer surgical outcomes, extended hospitalisations and increased costs. These findings underscore the need for standardised perioperative screening and targeted management strategies to reduce these risks,” said study lead author Timothy Pawlik, MD, PhD, professor and chair of Ohio State’s Department of Surgery.

The study findings were published in the Journal of American College of Surgeons.

Patients with AWS were generally younger, male and more likely to have Medicaid, according to Pawlik, who holds the Urban Meyer III and Shelley Meyer Chair for Cancer Research at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.

AWS raises the risk of postoperative complications, especially respiratory failure and sepsis. The study found that patients with AWS had longer hospital stays (median 11 vs 6 days) and higher costs ($44 300 vs $28 800). 

AWS was associated with a $10 030 higher adjusted hospitalisation cost per patient undergoing surgical care, contributing to an overall excess cost of $165.6 million, said study first author Azza Sarfraz, MBBS, a surgical oncology fellow at Ohio State. 

“The lack of standard screening delays early detection and intervention,” Pawlik said. “Developing strategies for early identification, inpatient withdrawal management, and perioperative risk stratification may improve surgical outcomes, lower healthcare costs, and enhance patient care.” 

Source: Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

Categories : NeurologyTags :

Eight or More Drinks per Week Linked to Signs of Injury in the Brain

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels

Heavy drinkers who have eight or more alcoholic drinks per week have an increased risk of brain lesions called hyaline arteriolosclerosis, signs of brain injury that are associated with memory and thinking problems, according to a study published on April 9, 2025, online in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN).

Hyaline arteriolosclerosis is a condition that causes the small blood vessels to narrow, becoming thick and stiff. This makes it harder for blood to flow, which can damage the brain over time. It appears as lesions, areas of damaged tissue in the brain.

“Heavy alcohol consumption is a major global health concern linked to increased health problems and death,” said study author Alberto Fernando Oliveira Justo, PhD, of University of Sao Paulo Medical School in Brazil. “We looked at how alcohol affects the brain as people get older. Our research shows that heavy alcohol consumption is damaging to the brain, which can lead to memory and thinking problems.”

The study included 1781 people who had an average age of 75 at death. All had brain autopsies. Researchers examined brain tissue to look for signs of brain injury including tau tangles and hyaline arteriolosclerosis. They also measured brain weight and the height of each participant. Family members answered questions about participants’ alcohol consumption. Researchers then divided the participants into four groups: 965 people who never drank, 319 moderate drinkers who had seven or fewer drinks per week; 129 heavy drinkers who had eight or more drinks per week; and 368 former heavy drinkers.

Researchers defined one drink as having 14 grams of alcohol, which is about 350mL of beer, 150mL of wine or 45mL of distilled spirits. Of those who never drank, 40% had vascular brain lesions. Of the moderate drinkers, 45% had vascular brain lesions. Of the heavy drinkers, 44% had vascular brain lesions. Of the former heavy drinkers, 50% had vascular brain lesions.

After adjusting for factors that could affect brain health such as age at death, smoking and physical activity, heavy drinkers had 133% higher odds of having vascular brain lesions compared to those who never drank, former heavy drinkers had 89% higher odds and moderate drinkers, 60%.

Researchers also found heavy and former heavy drinkers had higher odds of developing tau tangles, a biomarker associated with Alzheimer’s disease, with 41% and 31% higher odds, respectively. Former heavy drinking was associated with a lower brain mass ratio, a smaller proportion of brain mass compared to body mass, and worse cognitive abilities.

No link was found between moderate or heavy drinking and brain mass ratio or cognitive abilities. Justo noted that, in addition to brain injuries, impaired cognitive abilities were observed only in former drinkers. Researchers also found that heavy drinkers died an average of 13 years earlier than those who never drank.

“We found heavy drinking is directly linked to signs of injury in the brain, and this can cause long-term effects on brain health, which may impact memory and thinking abilities,” said Justo. “Understanding these effects is crucial for public health awareness and continuing to implement preventive measures to reduce heavy drinking.”

A limitation of the study was that it did not look at participants before death and did not have information on the duration of alcohol consumption and cognitive abilities.

Source: American Academy of Neurology

Categories : Diet and NutritionTags :

Is Red Wine a Healthier Choice than White Wine? Uncorking the Cancer Risks

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Apolo Photographer on Unsplash

Epidemiologists in the School of Public Health conducted a meta-analysis to assess whether red wine protects against cancer, comparing the cancer risks of red wine vs. white wine. It is published in the journal Nutrients.

Alcohol – specifically, the ethanol in alcoholic beverages – metabolises into compounds that damage DNA and proteins, contributing to cancer risk. In 2020, excessive alcohol consumption was linked to more than 740 000 cancer cases worldwide, accounting for 4.1% of all cases.

Despite the classification of alcoholic beverages as Group 1 carcinogens, meaning they are carcinogenic to humans, a common perception is that not all alcoholic beverages are alike. Red wine, in particular, is often considered a healthier choice, and its consumption is on the rise. The popularity of red wine may stem from the widespread belief that its high resveratrol content, an antioxidant with anti-inflammatory properties, offers protective effects against cancer.

Researchers from the Brown University School of Public Health have conducted a study that scours “the vast and often contradictory literature on the carcinogenicity of red and white wine” to assess whether this assumption holds up, and to compare the cancer risks associated with wine type.

“In an effort to better understand the potential impact of wine consumption on cancer risk, we conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis to assess whether red wine is truly a healthier choice than white wine,” said Eunyoung Cho, co-lead author of the study and associate professor of epidemiology and of dermatology at Brown. “Our analysis included as many published epidemiological studies as possible that separately explored the relationship between red and white wine consumption and cancer risk.”

Analyzing 42 observational studies (20 cohort and 22 case-control) involving nearly 96,000 participants, Cho and her team found no overall increased cancer risk from wine consumption, regardless of type. However, they also found no clear evidence that red wine mitigates cancer risk.

Paradoxically, when focusing on cohort studies that follow participants over a long period of time, researchers found that white wine is associated with a 22% increased risk of skin cancer compared to red wine intake.

“The results of our meta-analysis revealed no significant difference in cancer risk between red and white wine overall,” Cho said. “However, we did observe a distinction when it came to skin cancer risk. Specifically, the consumption of white wine, but not red wine, was associated with an increased risk of skin cancer.”

The reasons for this are indeterminate. Researchers suggest that heavy consumption of wine may correlate to high-risk behaviors, such as indoor tanning and inadequate sunscreen use. However, it is unclear why white wine, in particular, is the culprit. 

In an additional twist, the study also found a stronger association between white wine intake and increased overall cancer risk among women. This finding warrants further investigations into potential underlying mechanisms.

The meta-analysis, the first study of its kind, challenges the belief that red wine is healthier than white. It also points to the need for further study into the association between white wine consumption and cancer risk, particularly in women.

Source: Brown University

Categories : Substance UseTags :

Long Ring Fingers are Associated with a Preference for Alcohol

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels

People’s finger lengths may hold a vital clue to their drinking habits, a new study suggests. There is evidence that alcohol consumption is influenced by prenatal sex steroids – so experts from Swansea University and colleagues from the Medical University of Lodz decided to use a sample of students for their research into the subject.

Their findings, published in the American Journal of Human Biology, revealed relationships between high alcohol consumption and long 4th  digits (ring fingers) relative to 2nd  digits (index fingers). This showed that high prenatal testosterone relative to oestrogen is linked to high student alcohol consumption.

Professor John Manning said: “Alcohol consumption is a major social and economic problem. Therefore, it is important to understand why alcohol use shows considerable differences across individuals.”

The study used a sample of 258 participants – 169 of them female  –  and it revealed consumption rates varied between the sexes. In comparison to women, men show higher alcohol consumption and higher mortality from alcohol abuse.

He said: “A pattern like this suggests an involvement of sex hormones, such as testosterone and oestrogen. Digit ratio (2D:4D: the relative lengths of the 2nd and 4th fingers) is thought to be an index of early testosterone (long 4th digit) and oestrogen (long 2nd digit).

“It is known that alcohol-dependent patients have very long 4th digits relative to their 2nd digits, suggesting high testosterone relative to oestrogen exposure before birth. As expected, the associations were stronger for men than women.”

Now the researchers hope their conclusions will bring a better understanding of the factors underlying the pattern of alcohol consumption, from abstinence to occasional use to harmful dependence. 

This is the latest paper which has highlighted Professor Manning’s work in the field of digit ratios. Previous research  has examined how digit ratio may provide vital information concerning outcomes after contracting Covid-19, as well as oxygen consumption in footballers.

Source: University of Swansea