Quick, what’s the first thing you do in the morning? Have a smoke, get some coffee, or check your Facebook updates?

It would be seriously interesting to see how many smartphone users indeed wake up in bed and look at their Facebook walls through one barely-open eye. And it seems that while we were busy sharing George Takei’s photos and playing CastleVille, we’ve all developed a bit of a creeping addiction. A study may have actually confirmed that Facebook has addictive properties, not entirely unlike that of alcohol and tobacco.

The Guardian reports that researchers distributed more than 200 BlackBerry handsets to 18 to 25 year old users, and what’s more interesting, the young adults actually used the BlackBerrys to like, go on Facebook and check things. Participants were pinged over periods lasting 14 hours or seven days, and asked to respond about how strong their social media craving was at that particular time. More than 10,000 responses were logged, and more than 7,200 responses indicated a strong urge to update.

While sex and sleep often won out over posting an update or farming crops, alcohol and booze were less compelling- mainly perhaps because, researchers surmise, they carry more financial and other types of costs to indulge, while Facebooking is still free. (Provided you post this picture to your wall and say “we won’t pay for Facebook.” Kidding!)

Researchers noted:

“With cigarettes and alcohol there are more costs – long-term as well as monetary – and the opportunity may not always be the right one. So, even though giving in to media desires is certainly less consequential, the frequent use may still ‘steal’ a lot of people’s time.”

Are you addicted to Facebook, Twitter or other forms of social media?

Facebook More Addictive Than Booze and Cigs? Study Says Perhaps is a post from: The Inquisitr

A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has some pretty disturbing numbers when it comes to the drinking, and binge drinking, in the United States. Now to be clear on what is meant by binge drinking the CDC classifies you as a  binge drinker if you consume excessive amounts of alcohol four or more times in a month.

Using that as the classification the CDC says that one in six American adults are binge drinkers and after breaking all the data down into segments like geography, age, and income level they say that Wisconsin has the most binge drinkers at 25% of the population and Utah comes in last with only 11%.

“Binge drinking falls into a category of risky drinking,” Dr. Marc Galanter, director of the NYU School of Medicine’s Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, told The Daily. “As someone who treats people with alcohol problems, I’ve seen people start with binge drinking and carry on to more severe alcoholism.”

The CDC report noted that half of all alcohol consumed in the U.S. is consumed during binge drinking. For young people, that rate shoots up to 90 percent.

via The Daily

The problem is that binge drinking, especially among college and university students, is considered to be socially acceptable but is also responsible for more than 40,000 death per year as well as contributing to violence and drunk driving.

Ever wondered which the drunkest state in the Union was? Now you know. is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Daily Beast has posted a revealing list of the 25 drunkest cities in the U.S., after filling up the mother of all spreadsheets with market research data.

Among the stats that were analyzed, the site examined how many monthly drinks are consumed per person, the percentage of binge drinkers in the population, and well, you get the idea. The point is: Boston, I’m proud of you, you lovable drunk swines! *raises glass, swaying*

Here’s how the site explained its methods:

“The Daily Beast first analyzed data from Experian Simmons, a leading market-research firm, which provided data on the average number of alcoholic drinks per month the residents of more than 200 cities across the country reported to have consumed in a survey from earlier this year. As well, we considered the percent of the population that are either binge drinkers or heavy drinkers for each metro area, according to the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control. The average number of drinks was given twice the weight of the heavy- and binge-drinking population for the final rank.”

Boston took top spot with 7.4% of the population classed as ‘heavy drinkers’ and a 20.1% (!) termed binge drinkers. It was followed closely by Springfield, Mass., which took silver position thanks to a lofty average number of monthly drinks consumed per person – 14.6. Milwaukee, Wisconsin came in third.

There’s a further 22 spots to fill, so head here to read the rest. And if your city doesn’t register, bottoms up for next year!

[Via The Daily Beast]

Drunkest Cities in U.S. Revealed is a post from: The Inquisitr

It’s easy to “give up” alcohol after a night of heavy New Year’s Eve drinking but experts say the “I’m gonna stop drinking” resolution could actually be detrimental to your health.

Referred to by a group of researchers as “Janopause” the doctors say people who stop drinking even for the entire month of January are performing a “medically futile” stunt which fails to help the liver over the long term.

Those same researchers also found that once someone participates in “Janopause” they end up harming their liver once they start drinking again because it piles extra stress on the organ. In many cases the pause will even lead to excessive “catch up” drinking that lasts for the rest of the year.

Andrew Langford, chief executive of the British Liver Trust explained to the DailyMail:

‘A one-hit, one-month attempt to achieve long-term liver health is not the way to approach it.

‘You’re better off making a resolution to take a  few days off alcohol a week throughout the entire year than remaining abstinent for January only.’

In the meantime researchers continue to preach the same type of sensible practices they always have, warning alcohol drinkers to avoid large amounts of alcohol (binge drinking) while not partaking in alcoholic beverages every single day of the year.

Do you find that you feel better after a month of not drinking or light drinking? If nothing else the lack of hangovers for some people might be a welcomed Janopause side effect of it’s very own.

[Image via ShutterStock.com]

New Year’s Resolution To Stop Drinking Could Be Bad For Your Health [Study] is a post from: The Inquisitr

When my daughter goes off to college, I’m posting this on the wall of the dorm.

Alcohol and Pregnancy Warning is a post from: The Inquisitr

It seems as if the governments war on tobacco is paying dividends.  After years of raising cigarette taxes, curtailing advertising, taking tobacco out of pro sports and stepped up enforcement on stores selling to minors the number of kids smoking cigarettes is finally dropping.  Funny enough they are gravitating to another form of smoke…WEED!

According to thew 37th Monitoring the Future Survey, which asks about 47,000 8th, 10th and 12th graders about usage of drugs and alcohol, weed smoking is at a thirty year high.

Interestingly also is that the survey has found that alcohol use among teenagers is also at 15 year lows.

While some experts beleive3 that the use of the so called legal drugs are down because of increased enforcement, and education.  Truth of the matter is it is probably easier for teens to get marijuana than any other drug, legal or not.

Also, with the increased awareness of the drugs attributes and lack of risks being fairly common to find online, teens are most likely deciding that Marijuana is the safest choice of mind altering substances.

For instance, while alcohol and tobacco are responsible for more than 7 million deaths annually worldwide, while there has never been a single recorded death from marijuana use.  Also, while both alcohol and tobacco are highly addictive, marijuana is not known to posses any physically addictive properties.

Should Marijuana be legalized and regulated or kept away from as many people as possible?

Teenage Cigarette Smoking Down, Weed Smoking On The Rise is a post from: The Inquisitr

A 55-year-old bottle of Scotch sold at auction this week for a record breaking $72,630, the most ever paid for a single malt whiskey.

Glenfiddich Janet Sheed Roberts Reserve was created to honor Janet Sheed Roberts, the granddaughter of the founder of the Glenfiddich distillery.

A specialist at the Edinburgh based Bonhams auction house told the BBC:

“It’s not often a whisky of this stature comes up at auction,” and “The rarity and quality of the liquid, the exquisite bespoke packaging and the story behind its creation makes this a collectible that’s hard to value.”

In the meantime the sale is about to become a little less rare with 11 more bottles of the same scotch to be sold later this year. Proceeds from the sale of each bottle will go to international charity Water Aid. 

While I think that price for a single bottle of whiskey is beyond ridiculous I would still love to try it just to satisfy my own whiskey loving mind.

Would you be willing to pay nearly $75,000 for a bottle of whiskey if you had the cash to spare?

Really Expensive Bottle Of 55-Year-Old Scotch Breaks Auction Record is a post from: The Inquisitr

John Rich was kicked off of a Southwest Airlines plane yesterday after crew members decided he was too hammered to travel from Vegas to Nashville.

According to TMZ, the inebriated 37-year-old country singer was ejected from the 10:50am (!) flight while he was boarding. Before stumbling aboard, Rich had already argued with two passengers, and his behavior didn’t improve massively once on the plane.

The ‘Big & Rich‘ singer was confronted by Southwest crew members who asked him to vacate the plane. There was reportedly no resistance from Rich – indeed, witnesses said that he remained peaceful and cooperative as he exited the plane.

A spokesperson for Southwest confirmed a passenger had been kicked off the flight Rich was on, but in line with company policy could not reveal the person’s name. Which is no fun, really.

TMZ pressed for a statement, and got the following:

“Our crew assessed the situation and determined that the passenger was not fit for travel under governing federal aviation regulations. The customer was rebooked on a later Southwest flight out of Las Vegas, but chose to make alternative travel arrangements. We have processed a refund for the customer and his travel companion.”

Rich’s rep was less cooperative, denying there was ever an altercation, and refusing to comment any further.

Rich, meanwhile, joins the list of famous people thrown off flights in 2011, a line-up that includes Leisha Hailey, Billie Joe Armstrong, Gerard Depardieu, almost Whitney Houston, and quite a few more.

John Rich Kicked Off Plane For Being Drunk is a post from: The Inquisitr

Drinking a glass of beer, sipping on some wine or having a bourbon three times a week can cause a slight increasing in breast cancer in women according to a recent study of more than 100,000 U.S. nurses.

The association between drinking and breast cancer has been studied for years however previous studies found no link between the often deadly disease and light alcohol consumption.  The new breast cancer research conducted over a 30 year time period is the most extensive of it’s kind to date.

It should be noted that the study only shows an association between light drinking and breast cancer and not a direct link to the disease. The study did find that light drinkers tend to be less active that nondrinkers and they tend to have less healthy diets, both aspects that could bring about an increased risk in breast cancer.

The study also revealed that women who consumed three to six drinker per week had a 15 percent higher chance of developing breast cancer than their non-drinking counterparts. Research then showed for that every 10 grams of alcohol consumed daily over those amounts the chance of breast cancer increased by an additional 10 percent.

In any case drinkers must weigh the potential risks against the potential benefits, for example various studies have shown how red wine can help reduce the risk of heart disease.

The study took into account various risk factors for breast cancer in women including family history, weight, menopause, etc.

Interested parties can pick up the full study in this Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association. 

Do you believe alcohol consumption leads to an increased risk of breast cancer?

Image via @ShutterStock

Study Associates “Light Drinking” To Breast Cancer Risk is a post from: The Inquisitr

Elite Transportation Limo and Security Services is suing Lindsay Lohan for availing their services but not paying $90,000, including chauffeured services and private security.

Reports had it that the company made attempts to resolve the issue with the actress, but Lohan never responded. The lawsuit alleged that Lohan booked limo services for her friends and family between February 2009 and May 2009. The cost of VIP limo service from the company is placed within the range of $55 and $1,000. She was picked up and dropped off at her Hollywood residence, different airports, hotels, Staples Center for a Lakers basketball game, and even at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program.

Lohan initially owed the company $32,515. With late charges piling up, the total amount has ballooned to $90,585.79.

A statement from Lohan’s representative said:

“Lindsay has not been served with any lawsuit and we cannot comment on a lawsuit we have not yet seen.”

Records, however, show that the lawsuit was originally filed last October 7, so it seems that we will be seeing Lohan in the courtroom again.

Lindsay Lohan Sued for Not Paying $90,000 Limo Service is a post from: The Inquisitr

I wonder why this type of thing only seems to happen at chains and not small, mom-and-pop joints? (Actually, theory unlocked.)

Perhaps the chain instances are a bit more high-profile- children have gotten accidentally sauced at locations of Olive Garden, Chili’s and Applebee’s scattered around the US, and now an Outback Steakhouse has been accused of inadvertently helping a toddler get their drink on.The fourth known incident of way, way, way, way way underage drinking, occurred at an Ohio Outback Steakhouse.

Unlike the prior incidents, this one doesn’t seem to involve a kid-sized cocktail, but rather those small samples provided to waiting diners until their table become available. Diner Kelly Kerwin describes the incident- which in fairness to the restaurant, seems like a simple and rather harmless scenario:

“My sister asked if there was alcohol in them and she said no and so we all took one and the kids had a couple… I couldn’t believe it… I thought they were serving alcohol-free samples and I called over the manager and before I said anything to him my first question [was] ‘Is there alcohol in these?’ and he said ‘Yes.’”

Kerwin says that the manager apologized profusely, and even offered to make a donation to her sister’s church. But when she called to follow up, the manager went back on the offer and referred Kerwin to the chain’s legal department. The chain addressed the incident in a statement, reading in part:

“We sincerely regret this mistake and we have terminated the server’s employment.”

Do you think this was an honest mistake? Should someone lose their job for it?

[via Consumerist]

Another Child Served Booze Slushy at Chain Restaurant is a post from: The Inquisitr

The ground breaking article from the NY Times, “Rethinking Addiction’s Roots, and Its Treatment” finally gets it right. After years, if not decades, of blaming the victims of drug addiction, this refreshing and important article makes the bold statement that addiction is disease. By saying addiction is much the same as diabetes or a thyroid condition, new possibilities are opened up for the treatment of addiction. This change in attitude allows medical professionals to develop sound, medically based treatment modalities and just as importantly, opens the door for insurance policies to pay for treatment.

The past history of addiction treatment put a heavy focus on psychiatry and paid little, if any attention to the possibility of the underlying physical or genetic causes of addiction. Even when patients had a long term, multi generational history of addiction in their families, specialists treated this as offhand information and continued to emphasize psychotherapy as the primary method of treatment. “In the past, the specialty was very much targeted toward psychiatrists,” said Nora D. Volkow, the neuroscientist in charge of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “It’s a gap in our training program.” She called the lack of substance-abuse education among general practitioners “a very serious problem.”

As pointed out in the Times article, new treatments are being developed. One very encouraging step is the first accredited residency program in addiction medicine started by 10 prominent medical institutions including St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York, the University of Maryland Medical System, the University at Buffalo School of Medicine, the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, the University of Minnesota Medical School, the University of Florida College of Medicine, the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii, the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Marworth and Boston University Medical Center. Designed for doctors who have completed medical school, they will be able to spend a one year residency studying the relationship between addiction and brain chemistry.

“This is a first step toward bringing recognition, respectability and rigor to addiction medicine,” said David Withers, who oversees the new residency program at the Marworth Alcohol and Chemical Dependency Treatment Center in Waverly, Pa.

The new program will treat patients with addictions to alcohol, drugs, prescription medicines and nicotine. Starting July 1, 2011 with 20 students at the various institutions, the doctors will study brain chemistry and the important role of heredity.

The change in the thinking about addiction has been a gradual process that has taken place over the last two decades. The catalyst was when researchers using high-resonance imaging began to notice actual physical changes occurring in the brains of addicts. Once this was understood, many forward looking professionals began to realize that the treatment of addiction required an ongoing medical program. Much like the way diabetes treatment requires continuing medication and regular medical care, addiction specialists have begun to develop treatment programs for the long term care of the addict. It is now realized that there is more to successfully treating addiction than 28 days in a detox and will power.

One of the most successful treatments for opiate addiction has been long term methadone maintenance. While many of the traditionalists in addiction treatment complain that methadone just replaces one addiction with another, advocates point out that methadone has enabled many of its users to lead productive lives while preventing the use of illegal drugs or the abuse of prescription drugs. Long term methadone treatment has also enabled patients to avoid many of the destructive and often fatal consequences of drug addiction including further exposure to aids and the risk of death due to overdose.

Another promising new treatment for opiate addiction is Buprenorphine which is marketed under the name Suboxone. Buprenorphine is used to ease patients withdrawal symptoms from opiate detoxification. Buprenorphine binds more strongly to receptors in the brain than do other opioids, making it more difficult for opioids (or opiates) to react when buprenorphine is in the system. This makes the drug useful for long term use in the treatment of addiction as an alternative to methadone.

Many other promising new drugs are being developed to treat a range of addictions including opiates, alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamine and nicotine. As the focus evolves towards a fuller understanding that addiction is a physical disease and not a reflection on the personality of the addict, new hope is to be found among medical professionals and addicts alike. As stated in the NY Times article by Derek Anderson, 53, who credits Suboxone and the medical doctor who diagnosed his addiction with helping him kick his 35-year heroin habit.  “I used to go to detoxes and go back and forth and back and forth,” he said. But the Suboxone “got me to where I don’t have the dependency every day, consuming you, swallowing you like a fish in water. I’m able to work now, I’m able to take care of my daughter, I’m able to pay rent — all the things I couldn’t do when I was using.”

Guest post by Wolff Bachner

Addiction Treatment: A New Way To Look At An Old Problem is a post from: The Inquisitr

Data collected from two previous studies suggests children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are far more likely to become dependent on certain substances, including alcohol, cigarettes and drugs.

The studies revealed that kids with ADHD were one and a half times more likely to develop substance dependent behaviors, and a third of the children in the study eventually exhibited the substance issues. 268 children were studied- one study dealt with girls with ADHD, and the other measured boys who had the condition.

Dr. Timothy Wilens, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, commented on the study in a news release:

“Our study, which is one of the largest set of longitudinal studies of this issue to date, supports the association between ADHD and substance abuse found in several earlier studies and shows that the increased risk cannot be accounted for by co-existing factors such as other psychiatric disorders or family history of substance abuse.”

Family history and gender did not impact the results, but the presence of a “conduct disorder” did. Only a quarter of the kids who did not have conduct disorders developed substance abuse issues, versus the third who were diagnosed with ADHD as children.

Study: Kids With ADHD More Likely to Develop Substance Abuse Problems is a post from: The Inquisitr

Okay, it’s not really an epidemic, but by alarmist media standards it’s practically a pandemic. An italicized pandemic.

If you didn’t see it in the news, there were three incidents in the past few weeks were toddlers got schwasted in sucky mass-feeding trough chains like Applebee’s, Chili’s and Olive Garden when their sippy cups were refilled with cocktails masquerading as chocolate milk or juice. (And I shall pause to point out that isn’t that in and of itself kind of gross because who knows if people actually wash their kids’ stuff very thoroughly at home?)

Anyway, none of the kids suffered ill-effects, but at least one became belligerent and talked loudly, which is kinda funny. And since consumer-stuff is sorta their thing, Consumerist managed to find out why this happened three times in the period of a few weeks that we know about. It turns out, it’s not at all an uncommon occurrence, and here’s why:

Several people who work in these types of restaurants say that servers often help themselves to “happy juice” – make alcoholic drinks and put them in sippy cups so they can drink on the job.”

“I’ve worked for a few years in restaurant­s and both: servers and bartenders using sippy cups to hide their own booze is a routine mode of operation. The type of work most of these people do is both long (10-12 hours per day) and rather stressful. Many combat this by abusing alcohol, some start drinking as early as noon on a weekday.”

Sound plausible? Have you seen servers supping sangria from Handy Manny cups behind the scenes? If you were serving Poppin’ Jalapeno Zingers to the post-Walmart crowd, would you be getting hammered on the clock, too?

Consumerist explains booze in sippy cup chain restaurant epidemic is a post from: The Inquisitr

“Babies Drink Free!” seems to be the order of the month at our nation’s chain restaurants, with scandals erupting of toddlers inadvertently intoxicated at a Florida Olive Garden location and a Michigan Applebee’s.

Since the message of “you should never eat at chain restaurants unless your fridge lost power and everything else in town is closed” has not yet been absorbed, another family has witnessed their preschooler tie one on while out enjoying a family meal. Tyree Davis, mother of 4-year-old Brooklyn, was surprised to find her little girl was uninterested in finishing her chocolate milkshake at a Chicago Chili’s location Sunday night. The family claims this is because the milkshake was actually a mudslide.

Davis said staff tried to confiscate the cocktail, but the family refused and began snapping pics:

“She (waitress) tried to take the drink and leave the shake and I said no, leave the drink and go get your manager. And that’s when I pulled out my camera phone and I took pictures. And after I took the pictures, I called the police,” Davis says.

The child was treated at a hospital for an alcohol ingestion overdose. In this case, however, the restaurant “disputes” the Davis family’s version of events and has not issued an apology.

Third drunken toddler story surfaces, this time at a Chicago Chili’s is a post from: The Inquisitr

Earlier this week, the tale of a child served a margarita in a sippy cup at an Applebee’s location in Madison Heights, Michigan shocked the nation, as parents everywhere asked, “where is my margarita, and why was it not offered to me in a sippy cup?”

Now a report of a second child served a cocktail in a lidded cup at a chain restaurant has emerged, with the mother of a Central Florida toddler claiming her son, too, was introduced to the sauce early. The second incident, which allegedly occurred in late March, involves an Olive Garden location in Florida and a white wine concoction called a “Tropical Sunrise.”

Mom Jill Van Heest says son Nikolai got most of the way through his cocktail when it was confiscated:

“We’re eating our meals when the waiter came over and said there’s been a mistake, I need to get you a new one and took the glass and kind of scurried away,” Van Heest said.

She asked him what was in the cup and was told Tropical Sangria, a mixed drink of orange juice, pineapple juice and white wine. Van Heest spoke to the restaurant manager. “He was very sympathetic, very apologetic, but no real explanation as to how it happened, just that it was a mistake,” she said.

God have mercy on my soul, here’s where Van Heest’s account gets a bit hilarious:

“He was visibly drunk. His eyes were dilated, they were red. He was now getting loud.”

Nikolai was taken to a local ER and given IV fluids until he sobered up. Olive Garden commented on the situation, saying:

“We take the responsibility that comes with serving alcohol seriously. This was an extremely regrettable accident caused by the failure of an employee to follow our strict operating procedures. We take this situation very seriously, and we are especially grateful that the child involved was not seriously harmed.

“We have absolutely no tolerance for failure to follow our operating procedures and we took swift, appropriate action to deal with this situation. We are also taking immediate steps to reinforce our standards. We offer our sincerest apologies to the family of the child, and to all of our guests, whose trust we work so hard to earn. We recognize that trust has been jeopardized by this isolated event, and we are focused on ensuring our guests experience the high standards of service that they’ve come to expect from us.”

The moral of the story? Stop eating at horrible chain restaurants. If they can so badly screw up juice in a cup, can you imagine what they might be doing to your jazzy jalepeno sizzlers that you don’t even know about?

Another toddler got drunk, this time at Olive Garden is a post from: The Inquisitr

The subject of alcohol consumption by pregnant women is a hotly contested one, and while heavy drinking is universally discouraged, many people disagree on the implications of mild drinking.

Some pregnant women look forward to a glass of wine a day, often on the advice of an OB-GYN. When I was pregnant with my now ten-year-old, my doctor advised me to drink a glass of wine each night to cope with chronic insomnia, although I was too afraid to follow that particular instruction. I knew many women who did engage in the odd or even nightly unit of alcohol, though, and it was always considered a bit of an acceptable risk to indulge in moderate alcohol consumption. A study released today in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health suggests that light drinking carries little to no risk, and seems to indicate that previous advice on the subject was a bit conservative:

Using data from the Millennium Cohort Study in Britain, a data-rich look at 11,500 children born in the U.K. during the first two years of this century, researchers at University College in London concluded that the children of women who drank “lightly” — meaning up to one to two drinks a week — during pregnancy did no worse on cognitive tests at age 5 than children of mothers who did not drink at all. Actually, they did slightly better on the tests, which included things like “naming vocabulary,” “picture similarities” and “pattern construction.”

Some doctors are concerned that women will see the data as a”green light” to consume alcohol while pregnant:

“You can walk on a railroad track and not be hit by a train, but that doesn’t mean it’s a safe thing to do,” said Dr. Michael Katz, senior vice president for Research and Global Programs with March of Dimes, and professor emeritus of Pediatrics at Columbia University. “I worry about this article because it could be over-interpreted, and over-interpreting data of this nature is probably dangerous.”

While no one wants to be a literal buzzkill, the naysaying doctors raise the eternally relevant point about the “occasional glass of wine”- chances may be overwhelming that your baby will turn out fine, but is it worth the risk?

[ABC, NYT, image]

Doctors conflicted about safety of light drinking during pregnancy is a post from: The Inquisitr

I remember back in my bartender days the pride I use to take in being able to pour perfect B-52′s or Sex on the Beach shots without having to use a spoon, not to mention the fact that practicing at home was something you could look forward to.

But jello-shots are a different beast altogether and take creating alcoholic treats to a whole new level, even more so when you are the people behind My Jello Americans. You see the blog is all about the art form of Jello shots and comes from the fermented imaginations of Cory Kete, Moe Sheehan, and Megan Booth. The really neat thing is that they also give you the ingredient list in each of their creations for you to experiment with on your own.

As you can see from the images there isn’t much that they don’t seem to be able to make a Jello shot out of.

via Gizmodo who also have a bit of an interview with the team behind My Jello Americans.

8 Jello shots that looks like art. Art that will get you loaded is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you’re not getting your drunk on, you might want to start.

Science has known for a while that drink affects lifespan in strange, variable ways. But it’s now been proven that those who tend to hit the sauce pretty much live longer than those who are totally boring, even when controlled for factors like socio-economic status.

Interestingly, abstainers tend to not even outlive those who drink like fish, which would seem to be counterintuitive. Yahoo News explains the study’s results concerning class, drinking habits and lifespan:

But why would abstaining from alcohol lead to a shorter life? It’s true that those who abstain from alcohol tend to be from lower socioeconomic classes, since drinking can be expensive. And people of lower socioeconomic status have more life stressors – job and child-care worries that might not only keep them from the bottle but also cause stress-related illnesses over long periods. (They also don’t get the stress-reducing benefits of a drink or two after work.)

But even after controlling for nearly all imaginable variables – socioeconomic status, level of physical activity, number of close friends, quality of social support and so on – the researchers (a six-member team led by psychologist Charles Holahan of the University of Texas at Austin) found that over a 20-year period, mortality rates were highest for those who had never been drinkers, second-highest for heavy drinkers and lowest for moderate drinkers.

So while moderate drinking is your best bet, you’re still better off as a boozehound than a Baptist:

Just over 69% of the never-drinkers died during the 20 years, 60% of the heavy drinkers died and only 41% of moderate drinkers died.

The study’s authors pointed out the boring stuff, like how drinking can increase your risk of doing stupid things like headstands on balconies or getting married. But it’s an interesting finding nonetheless- will the findings influence your likelihood of indulging in alcohol?

Breaking: Drinkers live longer, proven by science! is a post from: The Inquisitr

Doctors can vary a bit in the recommendations about drinking and pregnancy.

Some medical professionals say as much as a glass of wine daily is okay, while some believe there is no way to determine how much alcohol, if any, is safe to consume while pregnant. But a new study indicates that even moderate drinking during pregnancy can have lasting effects on a male fetus:

In a study of almost 350 young men, sperm levels were a third lower in those whose mothers had drunk more than four drinks a week during pregnancy compared with teetotallers.

The Danish researchers told a fertility conference these men may have a harder time getting their partner pregnant.

The study grouped participants one of four ways: women who abstained totally, those who consumed 1-2 units of alcohol per week, those who consumed 3-4 units of alcohol per week and those who drank more than 4 units a week. Men whose mothers belonged to the latter groups had a concentration of sperm 32% lower than men in the first group.

The BBC goes on to state that UK researchers believe drinking while pregnant may not so much cause the reduced fertility in affected males so much as indicate other markers leading to the findings. Dr. Alan Pacey of the University of Sheffield elaborated:

“It needs following up but it might help us understand factors which affect testicle development in the womb.”

[Image]

Drinking while pregnant can reduce future fertility in a male fetus is a post from: The Inquisitr