Mes: septiembre 2019

Heavy drinking can lead to a number of serious health problems, including increased risk of cancer, heart disease, and dementia, but consuming even moderate levels of alcohol could be dangerous, as well, new research suggests. The study, published in The BMJ, finds that moderate drinkers were three times more likely to experience a decline in mental skills than people who drank no alcohol at all. For the study, researchers analyzed data on weekly alcohol intake in 550 healthy British men and women over a period of 30 years. The participants had an average age of 43 at the start of the study in 1985 and none were alcohol dependent. They were given brain function tests at regular intervals, and during the last three years of the study participants underwent an MRI brain scan. The results showed heavy alcohol consumption over the 30-year period was associated with increased risk of hippocampal atrophy, a form of brain damage that affects memory and spatial navigation. Heavy consumption was defined as more than 30 units of alcohol per week, with one unit of alcohol equivalent to 8 grams. “So a 175ml glass of wine [14% alcohol] has 2.4 units, and a pint of beer [5.2% alcohol] has 3 units,” explains study author Anya Topiwala, a clinical lecturer in the department of psychiatry at the University of Oxford. While previous research has suggested light-to-moderate drinking...

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Some persist in believing, against all evidence, that the city of Krymsk and its 57,000 people were intentionally sacrificed to prevent the flood waters from damaging Novorossiysk, a major Black Sea port essential for exporting Russian oil and grain. Death toll from Russian floods hits 150 This deep distrust of the government poses a challenge to Putin, who depends on the support of ordinary Russians across the country to counter the growing challenge in Moscow to his 12-year rule. At the very least, the flooding has Russians once again questioning the government’s ability to keep them safe. Still fresh in their memory are a string of disasters — from the bungled response to the sinking of the Kursk submarine in 2000, to the wildfires that swept seemingly unopposed through a swath of western Russia in 2010, to the capsizing of an overloaded river boat that killed more than 120 people last year. The Emergencies Ministry acknowledged Monday that it had failed to warn residents about the flash flood that turned Krymsk streets into swirling muddy rivers and filled one-story homes practically up to the ceiling in the middle of the night. Many of the 171 who died were elderly residents unable to escape in time. A total of 29,000 people in Krymsk and the seaside resort town Gelendzhik lost all of their possessions, while about 300 homes in Krymsk...