Ramanisblog

Tag: hard liquors

  • DARKER LIQUOR MAKES YOU SICKER

    A new study may help drinkers pick their poison. In a head-to-head comparison, bourbon gave drinkers a more severe hangover than vodka, report Damaris Rohsenow of Brown University and colleagues in an upcoming issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

    But vodka drinkers aren’t off the hook: Drinkers’ sleep suffered equally with both drinks, as did their performance on tasks requiring attention and quick responses. Understanding the lingering effects of alcohol after a night of heavy drinking is important for people who engage in safety-sensitive tasks, such as driving, while hung over Rohsenow says.

    The researchers recruited 95 healthy young adults, ages 21 to 33, and gave them caffeine-free cola mixed with bourbon, vodka or tonic water. The drinking ended when participants’ breath alcohol concentrations hit an average of 0.11, well over the legal intoxication limit. Participants were then hooked up to sleep monitors, which record brain activity, and allowed to sleep it off. At 7 a.m. the next day, the researchers roused the subjects from bed (a wake-up that did not include coffee or aspirin) and asked them to rate the severity of their hangovers.

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    Overall, bourbon drinkers reported feeling worse than vodka drinkers, rating higher on scales that measure the severity of hangover malaise, including headache, nausea, loss of appetite and thirst. It should come as no surprise that alcohol drinkers said they felt much worse than those who had drunk only tonic water.

    One reason for the different effects of vodka and bourbon, Rohsenow says, could be that bourbon contains 37 times more toxic compounds than vodka does, including nasty organic molecules such as acetone, acetaldehyde, tannins and furfural. A good rule of thumb for liquors, she says, is that the clearer they are, the less of these substances they contain.

    Both the bourbon drinkers and vodka drinkers slept poorly compared to the nondrinkers, the team found. The next morning, when the participants performed cognitive tests that required attention and quick reaction times, the drinkers performed worse than the nondrinkers, but the type of alcohol had no effect on performance. Both groups of drinkers were impaired equally.

    http://news.discovery.com/human/darker-liquor-alcohol-hangover.html

  • Alcohol: Is it really good for you?

    Alcohol is bad for you. Red wine is good for the heart. It’s all about moderation… Confused? You’re not alone.
    Government guidelines state that men and women should not consume more than 21 or 14 alcoholic drinks each week.
    Yet the Million Women study reported that just one drink a week increases your risk of breast, pharynx and liver cancer.
    No wonder a recent UK survey for the World Cancer Research Fund found that people are deeply sceptical about claims for what causes or prevents cancer.
    In exploring the alcohol-cancer connection, Radio 4’s Frontiers reveals a frightening lack of knowledge about how alcohol interacts with the body.
    Toxic compounds
    Scientists do not know definitively why we get hangovers or how alcohol may be causing cancer.

    In high doses it does seem to enhance the lifespan of mice – but you need huge doses
    Professor Roger Corder
    Alcohol is metabolised in the body into toxic compounds – but how these compounds cause damage is unknown.
    Since genetics, gender and age play an important role in how we interact with alcohol, a safe amount for one is not safe for another.
    The negative effects of alcohol on health and the economy are reported regularly in the media and highlighted by the government.
    But despite the link between alcohol and cancer being known for over 100 years, it is an area of research that is little understood and, according to many scientists, underfunded.
    This means that drinkers, no matter how moderate their consumption, are not fully aware of the risks or damage, as the science is not there.
    In fact, many drinkers believe they are improving their health.
    Myth
    “It’s an absolute myth that red wine is good for you,” says Professor Valerie Beral from the University of Oxford and lead author of the Million Women study.
    “The evidence is not there.”
    Professor Roger Corder, author of The Red Wine Diet, would disagree.
    “Our research identified a group of chemicals called procyanadins which are polyphenols, and the key component in terms of protecting from heart disease.”
    Polyphenols, such as the antioxidant resveratrol, are found in the skins of red wine grapes.
    “In high doses it does seem to enhance the lifespan of mice. But,” he adds crucially, “you need huge doses.”
    In humans, it equates to thousands of litres of wine.
    Professor Corder dismisses wines that effectively promote themselves as a health drink, with ‘rich in polyphenols’ or ‘rich in antioxidants’ on the label.
    But, he says, two small glasses of a very tannic, procyanadin rich wine would confer a benefit.
    “The problem is that most supermarket wines are low procyanadin and high alcohol,” he said.
    “We’re promoting bad wine for bad habits.”
    Frontiers is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Monday 8 June at 2100 BST.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8079816.stm