Living near heavy traffic increases dementia risk, say scientists

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Study tracking 6.6 million people estimates effect on one in 10 cases of Alzheimer’s while those living by busy roads are 12% are more likely to be diagnosed with dementia

People living near a busy road have an increased risk of dementia, according to research that adds to concerns about the impact of air pollution on human health.

Roughly one in 10 cases of Alzheimer’s in urban areas could be associated with living amid heavy traffic, the study estimated – although the research stopped short of showing that exposure to exhaust fumes causes neurodegeneration.

Related: Ageing test could highlight patients at risk of dementia

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Living near heavy traffic increases dementia risk, say scientists

Heavy drinkers should get early screening for liver disease, says Nice

Heavy drinkers should be screened for early signs of liver disease, health officials have said.

Harmful drinkers – women who drink more than 35 units a week and men who drink more than 50 – should also be sent for scans to detect liver scarring, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) said.

A bottle of wine is estimated to contain 10 units of alcohol and a pint of beer is estimated to contain 2.3 units. Across England there are estimated to be 1.9 million “harmful drinkers”.

In a bid to identify early liver problems among these people, Nice said GPs should refer them for scans to detect liver cirrhosis, or scarring.

In its new draft quality standard, the health regulator said diagnosing cirrhosis would ensure patients received the treatment and support needed to manage their condition.

The document, which is out for consultation until February, also says people with cirrhosis should be sent for ultrasounds twice a year to check for liver cancer.

Dr Andrew Fowell, consultant hepatologist at Portsmouth hospitals NHS trust who helped draft the document, said: “Identifying people who are at risk of liver disease and offering them non-invasive testing to diagnose cirrhosis is key to ensuring they are given the treatment and support they need early enough to prevent serious complications.

“Ten years ago diagnosis of cirrhosis would often require a liver biopsy, but now with advances in non-invasive testing, it is much easier for patients and health professionals to make a diagnosis.”

Prof Gillian Leng, deputy chief executive of Nice, said: “Many people with liver disease do not show symptoms until it is too late. If it is tackled at an early stage, simple lifestyle changes or treatments can be enough for the liver to recover.

“Early diagnosis is vital, as is action to both prevent and halt the damage that drinking too much alcohol can do.”

Liver disease is the fifth largest cause of death in England and Wales.

Heavy drinkers should get early screening for liver disease, says Nice

Heavy drinkers to be deemed for NHS liver transplants

About a fifth of liver transplants already involve sufferers whose condition is linked to their drinking, which includes the late footballer George Very best. Photograph: Kieran Doherty/Reuters

People with a extreme drink-associated liver disease are to be considered for transplant for the 1st time, reopening the debate in excess of regardless of whether individuals who are considered to deliver ill well being on themselves deserve pricey therapy.

The determination by the NHS’s blood and transplant service (NHSBT) comes at a time when there is a national shortage of suitable organs, and amid concerns that donors would be reluctant to assistance schemes of this nature.

Well being officials concede they are acutely mindful of the sensitivities surrounding their selection, but argue that a pilot scheme is worthwhile. “We transplant humans, not angels,” NHSBT’s associate health care director James Neuberger advised the Guardian.

The new scheme concerns people with significant alcohol linked hepatitis (SAAH) who have been excluded from consideration due to the fact the prognosis was so poor. There is occasionally not enough time to judge the prospects of them giving up alcohol and they frequently suffer infection and bleeding as properly as getting deep jaundice and psychological confusion.

The sufferers the doctors are hunting to deal with in the pilot scheme have to be fairly young – between 18 and forty – seeing a physician for the first time with liver disease, and getting diagnosed with a drink dilemma for the 1st time.

There has been some concern amongst transplant specialists above the number of candidates they could have to assess, which includes for publish-transplant abstinence, and the influence on other individuals awaiting transplants.

Study suggesting that this kind of individuals may escape a speedy death via this kind of intervention persuaded the NHS to set up a trial involve 20 sufferers who may get up to two many years to recruit – a modest proportion of people with the disease.

Alcohol use was a “very complex and emotive region”, stated Neuberger. “We need to retain public self-assurance that organs donated are utilized properly. That trust has to be earned it can be misplaced very speedily. We have to operate difficult to ensure we are honest and that organs are utilised in the correct way.”

The move comes amid mounting concern above rises in deaths from alcohol-relevant liver disease. The Workplace for National Statistics unveiled in February that in England and Wales these had gone up from three,269 in 2002 to 4,265 in 2012, a rise of 18%. The most significant enhance – a third – was seen in men and women more than 60. Liver condition of all varieties is going up steadily, the only major ailment class in which premature mortality is growing in Britain whilst falling elsewhere in Europe, a trend that will mean steeply enhanced demand for replacement organs.

Already about a fifth of liver transplants involve patients whose liver situation has been linked to their consuming, such as the late footballer George Ideal.

The most current rethink was prompted by a study by a French and Belgian staff published in the New England Journal of Medication in November 2011 which reported encouraging outcomes amid SAAH individuals. It discovered early transplantation worked in some targeted sufferers, with 6-month survival prices of 77% amid 26 who had transplantation in contrast with 23% amongst patients who did not.

The transplant support normally lists people for transplant if they are expected to have a much more-than-50% opportunity of getting alive with a excellent high quality of lifestyle right after five many years. Its recommendations for those with drink-linked condition say prospective recipients must abstain from alcohol prior to transplant, and be required to continue to be abstinent for the rest of their lives.

Andrew Langford, chief executive of the British Liver Trust, said some people explained they would not donate organs because of the George Ideal situation or desired to be certain the organ would go to an individual who would seem following it.

Instead of seeking at the cause of a potential recipient’s condition, “we should be hunting at what their healthcare demands are and not be judgmental”, Langford said. Most liver condition was caused “a single way or one more” by personal selections.

“The vast vast majority of folks who have transplanted organs do search soon after them and lead a far healthier life,” he said.

Heavy drinkers to be deemed for NHS liver transplants

Study: Heavy Drinking Is Toxic To The Brains Of Guys, But Not Individuals Of Women

A single of the biggest scientific studies ever performed on the extended-phrase results of alcohol consumption suggests that heavy drinking is linked to considerable cognitive decline in middle-aged guys. The brains of girls, nonetheless, look to be protected towards the identical effects for motives that are not clear.

Cognitive decline in the examine was defined in two techniques: a decrease in executive function (the brain’s processing pace and efficiency), and deterioration in memory.

Researchers analyzed information from the Whitehall II cohort research, which began in the mid-1980s with roughly 10,000 British civil servants who agreed to full lifestyle questionnaires and undergo a physical exam at specified instances in the course of a almost 20-yr span. The research design and style allowed researchers to track results of way of life selections, including drinking alcohol, more than extended intervals of time.

The examine identified that middle-aged males (average age 56)  who drank 36 grams, the equivalent of about 1.two fluid ounces, or more of alcohol a day for 10 years knowledgeable greater memory reduction and slowing of executive function as compared to “occasional” or “moderate” drinkers who consumed in between .03 and 1.one ounces a day.

To put this in point of view, a standard shot of 80-proof whiskey is 1.5 fluid ounces, only .6 fluid ounces of which is pure alcohol. So a heavy drinker, as defined in this research, drank at least two shots of their booze of option a day. If the review participants were wine or beer drinkers, they drank at least ten fluid ounces of wine or 24 fluid ounces of beer a day to attain the identical alcohol degree.

The kind of alcohol manufactured no big difference in the research benefits drinking the equivalent of one.two or far more fluid ounces of alcohol in beer, wine or challenging liquor had the same outcome.

Heavy consuming for women was defined in a different way due to the distinctions in how the sexes metabolize alcohol. To qualify as a heavy drinker in this research, a girl had to drink at least 19 grams (.6 fluid ounces) of alcohol a day—about half of the male degree.

Oddly, heavy drinkers amongst female participants didn’t demonstrate almost the exact same degree of cognitive decline as males.

The examine authors didn’t speculate as to why this big difference exists, but it is feasible that the hormone, estrogen, plays a part.  A research conducted in 2001 by University of California-Davis researchers showed that estrogen acts as a guardian of brain cell health, and increased amounts of the hormone are linked to a reduced threat of creating Alzheimer’s disease. Estrogen may possibly also act as a hormonal shield against alcohol toxicity.

It is worth mentioning that even however this examine did not demonstrate the same toxic results of alcohol in women’s brains, there are plenty of other factors to drink in moderation, not the least of which is liver well being.

As with any cohort examine, this one has a handful of drawbacks—chief amongst them that so numerous elements have an effect on brain health more than extended intervals, it is difficult to isolate particular aspects, like alcohol consumption, as the real culprit of cognitive decline.

On the other hand, this study’s strength is in the numbers. About 10% of guys in the examine experienced as hefty drinkers—more than 700 participants—and the signs of cognitive decline across this group have been consistently significant.

The brains of drinkers in the occasional and moderate classes seemed to climate the many years fairly properly, about the identical as people who either quit drinking or chose to not drink at all.

The examine was published in the journal Neurology.

Study: Heavy Drinking Is Toxic To The Brains Of Guys, But Not Individuals Of Women

Heavy consuming linked to early onset of memory decline in guys

Males who are habitual heavy drinkers, downing more than two pints of beer every single day, are very likely to start possessing the kind of memory lapses, that are generally connected with ageing, up to six many years early, in accordance to a new research.

The long-phrase effect of alcohol on the brain has not been extensively researched. Most research have looked at elderly folks, who have typically stopped or considerably diminished their consuming.

The paper by scientists at University College London published in the journal Neurology looks at the consuming habits of a big group of middle-aged guys and girls and their overall performance in cognitive working exams – how effectively they consider and remember factors – ten years later.

It appears to demonstrate that hefty consuming, at least in males, leads to considerable deterioration over the lengthy phrase.

Not ample women in the study have been hefty drinkers for the scientists to conclude the exact same items occurred to them.

The researchers, led by Séverine Sabia of the division of epidemiology and public overall health, analysed data that has been produced by the Whitehall II research, a substantial group of civil servants whose well being has been investigated above several years.

They focused on a lot more than five,000 men and 2,000 ladies who had been aged 45 to 69 at the starting of the examine.

Their consuming habits have been assessed 3 instances over a decade. They took memory and executive perform exams on three events. Executive functioning consists of reasoning, job flexibility and dilemma-solving capacity.

Hefty consuming males – defined in the review as those who drank far more than 36g of alcohol a day, which is about four and a half units – started to endure memory failures and deterioration in their cognitive processes among 18 months and 6 many years earlier than those who drank significantly less.

Light and reasonable drinkers did not show declines.

Simon Ridley, head of research at the dementia research charity Alzheimer’s Study Uk, mentioned: “These most recent final results could serve as one much more explanation to stick to any new year’s resolutions to reduce back on alcohol. Observational studies this kind of as this can be critical for identifying elements that may influence the chance of memory decline or illness, but it is difficult to pinpoint result in and effect with this type of research.

“The individuals in this study did not have dementia but memory decline can be a precursor to dementia and knowing the chance elements for this decline could be critical for preventing the issue.

“This big study has yielded helpful final results, even though it truly is not clear how far the findings from this group of civil servants can be generalised to the wider population.

“It’s essential to proceed investing in study if we are to realize how to maintain our brains healthier as we age and avoid the illnesses that lead to dementia.

“In the meantime, the greatest proof suggests that in addition to not drinking to excess we can reduce the threat of dementia by eating a wholesome, balanced diet regime, retaining an eye on our blood stress and weight, and taking standard exercise.”

Heavy consuming linked to early onset of memory decline in guys