Skyline Happenings

Here’s why: by Paul Offit (thanks to Ed M.)

In May 1997, a 3-year-old boy died in Hong Kong of influenza. His death wasn’t unusual. Every year in every country in every corner of the world healthy children die from the disease. But this infection was different; health officials couldn’t figure out what type of influenza virus had killed the boy. The CDC sent a team of scientists to Hong Kong to investigate. Standing in a wet market, where local farmers slaughtered and sold their chickens, they found the source of the deadly virus.

The H5 strain of influenza virus that infected birds in Southeast Asia—named for the type of hemagglutinin on the viral surface—was particularly deadly, killing seven of every ten chickens. On December 30, 1997, health officials, to control the outbreak of bird flu before it spread to more people, slaughtered more than a million chickens. But the virus continued to spread. Bird flu attacked chickens in Japan, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, China, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Then, to the horror of local physicians, the virus infected 18 more people, killing six: a death rate of 33 percent. (Typically, influenza kills fewer than two percent of its victims.) Soon the virus disappeared. Officials waited for an outbreak the following year, but none came. And it didn’t come the year after that or the year after that.

In late 2003, six years after the initial outbreak, bird flu reappeared in Southeast Asia. This time health officials found the virus even harder to control. Again, the virus first infected chickens. Officials responded by slaughtering hundreds of millions of them. Despite their efforts, bird flu spread from chickens to ducks, geese, turkeys, and quail. Then the virus spread to mammals: first to mice, then to cats, then to a tiger in a Thai zoo, then to pigs, then to humans. By April 2005, bird flu had infected 97 people and killed 53: a death rate of 55 percent. (continued)

Recent research makes it clear that any amount of drinking can be detrimental. Here’s why you may want to cut down on your consumption beyond Dry January.

Ed note: When I developed A-fib, I asked my cardiologist if there was a common lifestyle causative factor. He said that alcohol was highly suspect. I said, “What?! I thought red wine was protective!” He shook his head saying, “it may help socially, but there’s no proof that it helps your heart.”

By Dana G. Smith in the NYT

Sorry to be a buzz-kill, but that nightly glass or two of wine is not improving your health.

After decades of confusing and sometimes contradictory research (too much alcohol is bad for you but a little bit is good; some types of alcohol are better for you than others; just kidding, it’s all bad), the picture is becoming clearer: Even small amounts of alcohol can have health consequences.

Research published in November revealed that between 2015 and 2019, excessive alcohol use resulted in roughly 140,000 deaths per year in the United States. About 40 percent of those deaths had acute causes, like car crashes, poisonings and homicides. But the majority were caused by chronic conditions attributed to alcohol, such as liver disease, cancer and heart disease.

When experts talk about the dire health consequences linked to excessive alcohol use, people often assume that it’s directed at individuals who have an alcohol use disorder. But the health risks from drinking can come from moderate consumption as well.

“Risk starts to go up well below levels where people would think, ‘Oh, that person has an alcohol problem,’” said Dr. Tim Naimi, director of the University of Victoria’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research. “Alcohol is harmful to the health starting at very low levels.”

If you’re wondering whether you should cut back on your drinking, here’s what to know about when and how alcohol impacts your health.

How do I know if I’m drinking too much?

“Excessive alcohol use” technically means anything above the U.S. Dietary Guidelines’ recommended daily limits. That’s more than two drinks a day for men and more than one drink a day for women.

There is also emerging evidence “that there are risks even within these levels, especially for certain types of cancer and some forms of cardiovascular disease,” said Marissa Esser, who leads the alcohol program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The recommended daily limits are not meant to be averaged over a week, either. In other words, if you abstain Monday through Thursday and have two or three drinks a night on the weekend, those weekend drinks count as excessive consumption. It’s both the cumulative drinks over time and the amount of alcohol in your system on any one occasion that can cause damage. (continued)