Major Study of Drinking Should be Stopped, N.I.H. Says

[Devil Child]

Source: New York Times

An extensive government trial was intended to settle age-old questions about alcohol and the American diet. Does a daily cocktail or beer protect against heart attacks and stroke? What about diabetes?

To find out, the National Institutes of Health gave scientists $100 million to fund a global study comparing people who drink alcohol with those who don’t. Its conclusions could have enshrined alcohol as part of a healthy diet.

As it turned out, much of the money for the study came from the alcohol industry. Earlier this year, The New York Times reported that officials at the National Institute on Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse, part of the N.I.H., had solicited that funding from alcohol manufacturers, a violation of federal policy.

On Friday, an advisory panel to Dr. Francis Collins, director of the N.I.H., recommended that the trial be stopped altogether. Shortly afterward, Dr. Collins agreed that the trial should be terminated.

Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/major-study-of-drinking-should-be-stopped-nih-says/ar-AAyHowG?ocid=ientp

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Appears as if some in N.I.H. were soliciting funds for the study from reps in the alcohol industry.

[BigmanPigman]

1. Doesn't surprise me a bit.

Did the tobacco industry pay doctors to say cigarettes aren't killing YOU? Did the Pharm Industry pay doctors to prescribe Oxy and painkillers knowing they were addictive?

[elleng]

2. Exactly.

Unregulated capitalism will be the end of us all.

[Maxheader]

20. Yes to both....and more.

[Freethinker65]

3. My 60 yo husband came home last month complaining of his foot slapping the ground

He went to see the doctor and now is getting an MRI of the cerebellum for possible alcohol polyneuropathy. He would typically have a cocktail after coming home from work. I would never call his drinking alcoholism, but after reading about his symptoms there does appear to be a link between his current condition and life long casual drinking of alcohol.

We are hoping the outcome of the MRI is unremarkable and that his symptoms have another cause (perhaps a damaged nerve, etc.), but alcohol neuropathy needs to be ruled out.

I, though not a drinker, was one that believed a daily drink was not harmful and perhaps had benefits. Now I am not so sure.

[pnwmom]

16. It seems that that condition is connected to chronic alcoholism -- a drink a day

wouldn't fall in that category. (I say that as an almost tea-totaler.)

But it has been also linked to vitamin deficiencies. I had a b-12 deficiency myself, which can cause nerve damage, and this is pretty common at your husband's age. I hope they're testing him for that and other vitamin deficiencies.

This nerve damage causes an individual to experience pain and motor weakness, first in the feet and hands and then progressing centrally. Alcoholic polyneuropathy is caused primarily by chronic alcoholism; however, vitamin deficiencies are also known to contribute to its development.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_polyneuropathy

[elias7]

19. I would doubt alcohol as etiologic here

The list of potential causes is huge, and ranges from peripheral to central processes, and can be related to certain systemic diseases, metabolic, nutritional, toxicologic, trauma, malignancies, etc. One drink a night is not typically going to result in the liver toxicity, cardiomyopathies, neurologic or cognitive. I am assuming the doctor he saw is a neurologist. If not, a PCP is not generally able to adequately work up neuromuscular or neurologic disorders and although MRI gives a lot of info and may suggest a diagnosis, a neurologist is key here. Good luck!

[FakeNoose]

4. $100 million could have built the damn wall

Not that I want a wall, but what is WRONG with these people?
Fund the ACA, feed some hungry people, do something useful.

[LisaL]

7. No.

Minimum cost for the all is 20 billions.

[FakeNoose]

9. OK but my point is ...

... there are far better ways to spend $100 dollars.
Mmmm-kay?

[appalachiablue]

5. Cancer risks and alcohol.

https://www.cancer.net/navigating-cancer-care/prevention-and-healthy-living/alcohol

[Marie Marie]

6. That is why I take all of these "studies" with a grain of salt.

Until you know who is funding the research, it is hard to know what is legit and what has been fudged.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

8. The Margarita Study, in particular, should be taken with a grain of salt.

I have done some unpaid research on the topic.

[Marie Marie]

12. Well, as long as you were unpaid and not beholden to special interests,

I will happily take your results as fact, despite your wonderful username.

[YOHABLO]

10. I guess what they're saying is the Alcohol Industry is paying for the study ..therefore it's skewed

Does anyone else have relatives who drink and they're living to be in their 90s and eve 100s?

[Devil Child]

11. Also seems to imply study is skewed not just because of alchol industry funding

But also N.I.H. solicitation of Alcohol Industry funding while implying the study results would favor the industry.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

21. K&R. Good point. That fact destroys their independence and impartiality.

.....

[Mosby]

15. when I was a kid and went with my dad

To the morning weekday minyan (Jewish prayer service) there was a breakfast afterwards. Some of the old timers would do a couple shots from the whiskey or scotch bottles on the tables. my dad said it was good for them somehow and was traditional.

[Midnight Writer]

18. Not yet, but I plan to break the trend.

[former9thward]

13. If the study is put together well who cares where the money comes from?

It seems some are afraid of what the answers will be so they would rather hide their head in the sand.

[Devil Child]

14. I am in agreement.

If there is way to fund impartially I have no qualms where the money comes from. Seems the main concern was N.I.H. solicitation of funding while implying certain research outcomes.

[Major Nikon]

17. I'll drink to that