How children respond to the smell of alcoholic beverages is related to their mothers’ reasons for drinking, according to a new study from the Monell Chemical Senses Center. When asked to smell both the odor of beer and an unpleasant odor and then indicate which they liked better, children of mothers classified as ‘Escape drinkers were more likely than children of Non-escape drinkers to select the unpleasant odor over beer.
“Children’s responses to odors provide us with a window into their emotions, says study lead author Julie Mennella, PhD, a Monell biopsychologist. “When given a choice between beer and pyridine – the smell of rotten eggs – children of mothers who drink to relieve tension and worry choose pyridine as smelling better. That’s pretty powerful.
In the study, which appears in the journal Alcohol, 145 children between the ages of 5 and 8 years were presented with seven pairs of odors. One of the odors was always beer; the others were bubblegum, chocolate, cola, coffee, green tea, pyridine, and cigarette smoke. For each pair, the children indicated which odor they liked better. [continue reading…]
It’s often perceived that one glass of red wine can be good for you but current research is challenging this view. So, are there any health benefits from drinking alcohol?
Dr Tanya Chikritzhs, an epidemiologist from Curtin University in Western Australia, has been researching hundreds of studies to find out if there’s any evidence that alcohol can protect against heart disease and cancer. While Creina Stockley, a pharmacologist from the Australian Wine Research Institute, has reviewed and researched the apparent health benefits of alcohol.
Not surprisingly, the findings from the two scientists are quite different.
Dr Norman Swan distils fact from fiction to in order to answer the question, how much is too much?
Link to watch Catalyst Video 6:30mins ( requires windows media or real player)
Source: Catalyst, ABC
The advertising of alcohol, the marketing of alcoholic products, peer pressure and parental influence all play a part in the level of alcohol consumption among young people.
These are the findings of a team of University of Leicester experts who have been investigating the effect of alcohol advertising on young people, which also indicate that advertising seems to be most effective in the case of alcopops and cider.
The study was funded by the Alcohol Education and Research Council. [continue reading…]
Published: April 16, 2008
Heavy drinkers and heavy smokers develop Alzheimer’s disease years earlier than people with Alzheimer’s who do not drink or smoke heavily, according to research that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 60th Anniversary Annual Meeting in Chicago, April 12–19, 2008.“These results are significant because it’s possible that if we can reduce or eliminate heavy smoking and drinking, we could substantially delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease for people and reduce the number of people who have Alzheimer’s at any point in time,” said study author Ranjan Duara, MD, of the Wien Center for Alzheimer’s Disease at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, FL, and Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology. [continue reading…]
