Alcohol and sauna bathing: effects on cardiac rhythm, blood pressure, and serum electrolyte and cortisol concentrations.

The effect of heavy drinking and sauna bathing on cardiac rhythm, blood pressure, and serum electrolyte and cortisol concentrations was studied in 10 healthy male volunteers. Sauna bathing induced a comparable, significant increase in heart rate with and without alcohol consumption. During sauna bathing without alcohol, systolic blood pressure remained at the baseline level, whereas sauna and alcohol together decreased systolic blood pressure markedly from 136 +/- 4 to 113 +/- 3 mmHg (P less than 0.01). Neither sauna alone, nor sauna combined with alcohol intake, increased the frequency of premature ventricular complexes. Serum potassium, calcium and cortisol concentrations changed slightly during sauna, but alcohol consumption did not contribute further to this. In conclusion, sauna bathing, even in combination with heavy drinking, does not appear to provoke cardiac arrhythmias in healthy young men. However, the risk of hypotension is increased when sauna bathing is combined with alcohol consumption.     

Klippel-Feil anomaly combined with fetal alcohol syndrome

Summary Alcohol is the most frequent and most important teratogenic noxa for the embryo and fetus. It may lead to deformation of all cells and organs. A case of Klippel-Feil anomaly associated with fetal alcohol syndrome is described. The diagnosis of Klippel-Feil anomaly, even a late diagnosis made on the basis of rare deformities, is very important as the affected patients are at a high risk of alcoholism. The combination of Klippel-Feil anomaly with numerous other syndromes and deformities suggests a basic general disorder of skeletal maturation. Diverse cases of Klippel-Feil anomaly possibly originate., in reality, in an unrecognzied fetal alcohol syndrome.     

POSITIVE INTERACTION OF ETHANOL AND KAVA RESIN IN MICE

1. The lipid soluble extract of the psychoactive beverage kava has hypnosedative properties which can be measured by the length of time that the righting reflex is lost. 2. Ethanol and the lipid soluble extract (kava resin) have been shown greatly to increase each others hypnotic action in mice. Ethanol also increases the toxicity of kava markedly. 3. This interaction of kava and alcohol has important clinical and social consequences since, in contrast to traditional usage, kava is now often taken in conjunction with alcoholic drinks.     

The death drive exemplified in a case of alcohol dependence

• ? When Freud first advanced the death drive it was considered a highly controversial theoretical idea. However, with the passage of time it has been slowly gaining support in certain psychoanalytical quarters.
• ? This paper aims to demonstrate the clinical usefulness of this theory in accordance with the Freudian and Kleinian model.
• ? Although the case history to be discussed is a severe case of alcohol dependence which had, previously, been unresponsive to treatment, many other maladies, both mental and physical, can be better understood in the context of the death drive being the principal motivating factor.

     

A twin study of ethanol metabolism

Blood alcohol measurements were obtained for 206 pairs of twins who had ingested a standard dose of alcohol (0.75 g/kg body weight) and repeat measurements were obtained for 40 of these pairs on a second occasion. The repeatability of the peak blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was 0.66, that of the rate of elimination was 0.39, and that of the time to peak BAC was 0.27. Only a small portion of the nonrepeatable variance could be explained by measurement error or drinking experience. It is concluded that short-term environmental factors exercise considerable influence on alcohol metabolism, particularly in the absorption phase. All of the repeatable variance in peak BAC and rate of elimination was due to genetic factors. Only a small proportion of any of the genetic variance could be explained by individual differences in weight, adiposity, or lung function. Likewise, these three factors were unable to account for the fact that females had higher BACs than males during both absorption and elimination.This work was supported by a grant in aid from the Australian Associated Brewers.     

Detection of the homology among proteins by immunochemical cross-reactivity between denatured antigens. Application to the glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenases from different species

It was previously proposed that an immunological cross-reaction between two denatured proteins is evidence for an homology betweeen their amino sequence (Arnon &; Maron, 1971; Arnheim et al., 1971) and that detection of such a cross-reaction could then be a rapid method to detect sequence homologies (Zakin et al., 1978). In order to test the possibilities of such a methodology, using proteins of known structure, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenases from different sources are compared by immunochemical techniques. The antibodies raised against the native enzyme from E. coli K 12 can only recognize the homologous antigen, the glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase from B. stearothermophilus and to a lesser extent that from halibut. In contrast, the antibodies raised against the denatured enzyme from E. coli K 12 can recognize the glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenases from man, ostrich, chicken, sturgeon, halibut, lobster and yeast, when in their denatured state. The present results show unambiguously that through exposure of buried sequences, the immunochemical detection of sequence homologies among proteins is more discriminating when unfolded proteins are used, rather than native ones. It is also proposed that the use of denatured proteins both as immunogens and antigens would be a useful tool in studying biochemical evolution.     

Pregnancy: Alcohol and risk of spontaneous abortion

The objective of this study was to assess the association betweenalcohol drinking before and during pregnancy and the risk ofspontaneous abortion using data from a case-control study conductedin Milan, Italy. A total of 462 women (median age 30 years)were admitted for spontaneous abortion (within the 12th weekof gestation) to a network of obstetrics departments in thegreater Milan area. Of these, 148 (32%) were between the fourthand the eighth week of gestation and 314 (68%) between the ninthand the 12th week. A control group was made up of 814 women(median age 29 years) who gave birth at term (>37 weeks gestation)to healthy infants (Apgar 5th minute 8, weight 3000 g) on randomlyselected days at the same hospitals where cases had been identified.A total of 212 cases (46%) and 355 controls (47%) reported alcoholdrinking before conception. Considering non-drinkers as thereference category, the relative risks (RR) of spontaneous abortionwere 1.2 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.9–1.6] and 0.8(95% CI, 0.6–1.1), respectively, in drinkers of one toseven and more than seven drinks per week before conception.No association emerged between the duration of alcohol drinkingand the risk of spontaneous abortion. A total of 166 cases (35.9%)and 263 (32.3%) controls reported any alcohol drinking duringthe first trimester of pregnancy. The corresponding relativerisk was 1.1 (95% CI, 0.9–1.4) and no relationship emergedbetween the number of drinks per week and the risk of abortion.Likewise, maternal wine and beer drinking in the first trimesterof pregnancy was not associated with the risk of spontaneousabortion. Evidence available from this and previous studies,although partially controversial, indicates that moderate (oneor two drinks per day) alcohol consumption does not increasemarkedly the risk of miscarriage.     

Effect of recent alcohol intake on acceptor properties of high-density lipoproteins and their interaction with liver cells

Institute of Therapy, Siberian Branch, Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, Novosibirsk. All-Union Preventive Medicine Research Center, Ministry of Health of the USSR, Moscow. (Presented by Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR Yu. P. Nikitin.) Translated from Byulleten' Éksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 110, No. 12, pp. 611–613, December, 1990.