Medicine stuff from the week 4-10/6/12

A recent announcement stated that the ideal amount of alcohol for a statistically average adult to drink is just 5 grams per day (3.5 units), well below the upper threshold of safety guidelines - 21/week for men, 14/week for women
"The "Goldilocks" level of consumption turned out to be 5 grams per adult per day. At this level, the model predicted that about 840 more people would die every year from heart disease, because alcohol's beneficial effects kick in at higher intakes. But there would be 2670 fewer deaths from cancer and 2830 fewer deaths from liver disease - saving in the region of 4600 lives overall. But there were still net health benefits if average consumption was more than double this level - closer to the 13 grams per day that English drinkers actually averaged in 2006, when the study's underlying data was gathered."
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21428681.600-the-right-amount-of-alcohol-is-not-always-less.html

The world's first vaccine against Parkinson's disease has been formulated
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21428682.000-worlds-first-parkinsons-vaccine-is-trialled.html

Pregnancy's still a death sentence for many women, especially in Liberia, it seems. Are you listening, anti-abortion campaigners? Do you not care about the mothers at all?
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-pregnancy-death-sentence-liberian-women.html

The urbanishness of surroundings correlates with frequency of food allergies in children, a study has found. But, curiously, not strongly with how bad the allergies are.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-city-kids-food-allergies-rural.html

A Mexican man has become the first person in not-North America to have a double arm transplant
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-mexican-arm-transplant.html

Dairy products news:
Dairy food reduces arterial stiffness and risk of cardiovascular disease.
As far as i am aware, this was not funded by the Dairy industry.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-relationship-dairy-food-intake-arterial.html
In Australia, 73% of women and 58% of men are failing to get their minimum recommended intake of dairy products.
This one was, though, but then, it isn't research about dairy's effects - just its consumption
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-highlights-significant-dairy-shortfall.html
An ingredient in milk - nicotinamide riboside - has been found to improve the health of mice, even when they're on high-fat diets
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-ingredient-waistline-good.html
(Nicotinamide is a variant of the B-vitamins)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotinamide
The gene that nicotinamide encourages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir2
[video] A link with a video... if you like that kind of thing
http://phys.org/news/2012-06-miracle-molecule-video.html

As you ponder which of a wide variety of breakfast cereals to tuck into for breakfast, bear in mind that capitalism has absolutely *failed* these people!
"Key interventions include vaccinating against the major causes of pneumonia and diarrhea, encouraging infant breastfeeding, improving access to clean water and sanitation, offering antibiotics for pneumonia and rehydration solutions for diarrhea."
Employing a mixture of these would cut the death rate from 2,000,000 to 0.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-pneumonia-diarrhea-killers-kids-unicef.html

Why women have a worse prognosis if they develop Cystic Fibrosis:
Oestrogen promotes the mucoid form of the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the lungs of women with CF.
This mucoid form surrounds itself with a thick, gelatinous mucus which is poorly penetrated by antibiotics.
Because it is difficult to treat, women with CF who contract Pseudomonas aeruginosa have poor prospects.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-cystic-fibrosis-breakthrough-reveals-females.html