accuracy
09-11-2007, 08:15 AM
Don't shy to post here ;)
accuracy
09-11-2007, 08:18 AM
Nicotine Plus Alcohol May Be Tough to Beat
By Carolyn Colwell, HealthDay Reporter
posted: 06 November 2007
(HealthDay News) -- As many bar patrons know all too well, drinking and smoking tend to go together. Now, research in mice suggests why that might be so.
It's well known that, "The success rate for stopping drinking is much lower if someone continues smoking," noted lead researcher Thomas J. Gould, a neuroscientist and associate professor of psychology at Temple University in Philadelphia. The concurrent use of "ethanol [alcohol] and nicotine can lead to very serious problems," he added.
His team found that mice suffer deficits in their ability to learn and remember as they are withdrawing from nicotine. Furthermore, alcohol use appears to have negative effects on nicotine withdrawal. Interactions between the two addictions may generate a "negative spiral" of tolerance and dependence on both substances, Gould said.
That could explain why a smoker who walks into his favorite smoke-filled bar may feel like drinking. In the same situation, a social drinker who normally doesn't smoke may start craving a cigarette if they're having a drink, Gould said.
He was slated to present the findings Tuesday at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, in San Diego.
The mouse model's demonstration of the effects of withdrawal from chronic smoking also suggest an explanation of why light smokers may initially feel stimulated by nicotine but lose that stimulation as the habit continues, Gould said. When smoking becomes chronic, the initial stimulation is blocked and, instead, cognitive deficits begin to show up.
"So, it takes any of the positive effects and shifts the dose-response to the negative end quicker," Gould explained.
Similarly, someone addicted to alcohol has "pretty strong memories of the first time they drank," Gould said. But because of the cognitive deficits created by alcohol abuse and their impact on new learning, alcoholics have a harder time remembering the adverse effects alcohol has now. These later memories aren't as "driving" as the fonder and stronger memory of that first drink, he believes.
The genetic make-up of mice and humans is 96 percent alike, so the results of these animal studies "gives you clues of where to look and allows you to analyze things at different levels than you might be able to do in the human population -- it provides a stepping stone," Gould said.
The next step in his research will be to identify where in the brain tobacco and alcohol interact, he explained.
"If we can understand what changed and how it changed, then you can perhaps devise better interventions" for people, Gould said.
"There is a lot of clinical sense" behind Gould's findings, said Dr. Rob Vorel, a psychiatric fellow at Columbia University Medical Center's division of substance abuse in New York City.
Vorel said there is a lot of interest in how cigarette smoking affects cognitive function and thinking. For example, when smokers stop smoking, they often find that they can't get any work done -- and then start smoking again, so they can be more productive.
Without having seen the study's data, Vorel said, "it sounds like they actually found a correlation between alcohol and nicotine at the mouse level. Nicotine and alcohol dependence are so common, and it [the study] may reveal some mechanisms that reveal why so many alcoholics smoke."
The limits of this type of animal study, Vorel added, are that the findings are "not more than predictions of ideas to test. From an intellectual level, it's an important step forward."
Barbara Flannery, a research psychologist for RTI International, a scientific institute in Baltimore, agreed.
"Certainly, this can translate to humans. It's harder to learn when you're addicted to alcohol," she said. "I think that multiple abuse dependence on various substances like nicotine and alcohol definitely has an additive effect in that's it's more damaging than either alone."
http://www.livescience.com/healthday/609787.html
accuracy
12-12-2007, 10:13 AM
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM THE PERFECT "ORGANIC" POISON
Shane Ellison M. Sc.
The People's Chemist
December 9, 2007
NewsWithViews.com
http://www.newswithviews.com/Ellison/shane32.htm
If it tastes sweet spit it out, it might be DEG – a deadly ingredient commonly found in cough syrup, toothpaste and even vaccines. So deadly, it single handedly gave rise to the FDA in 1938. But the self appointed watch-dog has failed miserably at protecting the public from this perfect “organic” poison. The New York Times recently showed that “Over the years, the poison has been loaded into all varieties of medicine.”
A perfect poison is hard to come by. Most taste so nasty that the victim spits it out upon tasting it. This isn’t the case with DEG. It tastes like maple syrup. Therefore, it is easily swallowed. Victims have no idea that their kidney’s are about to fail. That breathing will become exceedingly difficult. That paralysis will set in and life end rapidly – before the word “poison” even crosses their mind.
The CIA loves perfect poisons like DEG. And so do governments – so it seems. A Chinese health official allowed the drug industry to unleash it on the open market. He was eventually sentenced to death. The Panamanian government mixed DEG into 260,000 bottles of cold medicine. In the US, the FDA “warns” against it. But it is still found on the shelves of our grocery stores.
Avoiding DEG can is as simple as reading labels. It is a cheap replacement to glycerin, which is commonly used in toothpaste, over-the-counter meds, vaccines as well as hair and skin products. If used, it is listed in the ingredient list – the fine print ingredient list. In general, if you can’t pronounce the ingredients listed on the back, don’t use it. But you can look for it listed as: 3-Oxa-1,5-pentanediol, Bis(2-hydroxyethyl)ether, 2,2'-Oxydiethanol, Diglycol, Dihydroxydiethyl ether; 2,2'-Dihydroxyethyl ether, Ethylene diglycol, 2,2'-Oxybisethanol, 2-(2-Hydroxyethoxy)ethanol.
© 2007 Shane Ellison - All Rights Reserved
Shane holds a Master's degree in organic chemistry and has first-hand industry experience with drug research, design and synthesis. With his keen ability to sift through scientific literature and weed out fact from fiction, Shane has empowered thousands to assert their health freedom by saying "no" to prescription drugs. Learn more about his books Health Myths Exposed and The Hidden Truth about Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs.
Get 6-months of his FREE Life-Saving Health Briefs at www.healthmyths.net.
E-Mail: shane@health-fx.net