health 42

Researchers discovered that not only does LDN cause cancer cells to stop growing, it also alters their internal machinery, making them more likely to kill themselves. This can lead to other treatments becoming more effective. The research team, led by Dr Wai Liu and Professor Angus Dalgleish and working with the company LDN Pharma, discovered that the drug, when used in these small doses, can alter the genes that regulate how a cancer cell behaves. LDN can reactivate genes that promote cell killing, as well as modify the genes that interact with the immune system to make it more unfriendly to cancer. Dr Liu said: "We have shown that the genetic fingerprint of naltrexone differs according to the different doses used, which identifies new ways of using it as an anti-cancer treatment. "Rather than stopping the cancer cells from growing, patients want to be rid of them. We saw that by giving the drug for two days, then withdrawing it, cancer cells would stop cycling and u...

But the correlation between weight and substance use shows up only when the data are broken down by the subjects' racial or ethnic group and sex. Previous research that didn't take those categories into account found only a weak relationship between childhood weight and substance use. "Childhood weight status and timing of first substance use in an ethnically diverse sample," published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, is the first study to examine the relationship between childhood weight and the timing of first substance use while taking into account the sex and race or ethnicity of the subjects. Authors are Jennifer C. Duckworth and Kelly A. Doran, doctoral students in the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology , and Mary Waldron, associate professor in the department. "Early drinking and drug use are associated with increased risk of problem substance use," Duckworth said. "Identifying predictors of early substance use,...

A study led by Dr Michael Livingston of Australia's Centre for Alcohol Policy Research at La Trobe University analysed the drinking habits of 124,440 Australians aged 14 to 79 years, surveyed over 18 years. The results show that recent declines in per-capita consumption appear to be driven by two major changes: (1) the aging of heavier drinking cohorts into lighter drinking stages of the life-course and (2) sharp reductions in drinking among recently born cohorts . Alcohol consumption among Australians peaks in middle-age, between 40 and 60 years. As drinkers move into their 60s and 70s, they tend to ease up, a trend that helps to explain the recent decline in drinking. But the main driver of reduced drinking in Australia is the markedly less drinking among Australians born in the 1990s, suggesting that a significant generational shift is underway. This shift has the potential to create long-term public health gains, given the body of research showing that the drinking pat...

A new psychology study conducted at Florida Atlantic University is the first to delve into the specific subcomponents of inhibition behavior as it relates to binge drinking to help predict who may be at high risk, and to better develop targeted education, intervention, and support programs. "There are many aspects of inhibition behavior, which is essentially the ability to stop yourself from a particular behavior," said Andres L. Paz, lead author of the study and a psychology student in FAU's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science who will be receiving his Ph.D. in August. "Looking specifically at risk factors, I wanted to see if there was one particular aspect of inhibition that could better predict propensity in young adults to binge drink." Previous studies on binge drinking have used a blanket approach on inhibition to gauge behavior. Over the course of one month, Paz investigated three specific subcomponents of inhibition behavior: the ability to stop ...

Now, researchers at the University of Iowa have found another negative health outcome linked to discrimination: alcohol abuse. "We've had this idea that discrimination is associated with heavier drinking and drinking-related problems, but we didn't have a clear understanding of the evidence underneath that," says Paul Gilbert, assistant professor of the Department of Community and Behavioral Health at the UI College of Public Health and lead author of the study. "I wanted to uncover what we know and how we know it. What does the science actually say?" The paper, "Discrimination and Drinking: A Systematic Review of the Evidence," was published online in June in  Social Science & Medicine . Experts have known for decades that drinking is a common coping response to stress--a phenomenon called stress-reactive drinking, Gilbert says. "We recognize discrimination as a stressor, and we recognize people drink in response to stress,...

Researchers examined 25 veterans who had been diagnosed with AD and PTSD and were participating in a randomized treatment trial. At baseline, participants' PTSD symptoms and drinking quantity and frequency during the three-month pretreatment period were assessed. During the session, the participants were exposed to neutral, stressful, and traumatic imagery in random order. The main outcomes included craving, anxiety, mood states, salivary cortisol, and cardiovascular responses. Both stress and trauma cues produced greater increases in craving, negative affect (anxiety, fear, anger), and cardiovascular reactivity when compared to neutral cues. Traumatic images produced significantly stronger craving for alcohol and greater cardiovascular reactivity than stressful images. Also, trauma-induced but not stress-induced craving was positively correlated with baseline levels of drinking. These findings are consistent with prior observations of a relationship between PTSD symptoms and ...