Heavy Drinkers Still Can’t Hold Their Liquor

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2 years ago

June 22, 2023

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Share on Pinterest People who drink an excessive number of drinks will be impaired, even if they are heavy drinkers. Narcisa Palici / 500px/Getty ImagesA new study found that when people with alcohol-use disorder consumed the equivalent of seven to eight drinks they showed impairment on fine motor and cognitive tasks.This impairment was more than double what they experienced after consuming the smaller intoxicating amount of alcohol. Heavy drinkers and people with AUD both reported feeling less impaired than the light drinkers. Tolerance also does not reduce the damage that can be caused by alcohol, experts say.

While under some conditions, heavy drinkers may be better at holding their liquor, this is only true up to a certain level of alcohol intake, say researchers from the University of Chicago.

In a study published June 18 in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research, they tested the effects of alcohol consumption on young adults with different patterns of alcohol use light and heavy social drinkers, and those with alcohol use disorder (or AUD, previously known as alcoholism). Differences between heavy and light drinkers

Researchers found that heavy drinkers and those with AUD showed less overall impairment on fine motor and cognitive tasks after consuming the equivalent of four to five drinks, compared to light drinkers.

This amount of alcohol is sufficient to produce a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.08-0.09%, the lower limit in the United States for drunk driving.

However, when people with AUD consumed the equivalent of seven to eight drinks which researchers say is more in line with their usual drinking habits, and produces a BAC of around 0.13% they showed impairment on both of those tasks.

In fact, this impairment was more than double what they experienced after consuming the smaller intoxicating amount of alcohol. Three hours after drinking, their performance on these tasks still hadnt returned to their baseline level.

In addition, people with AUD had greater impairment after consuming the larger amount of alcohol than what light drinkers experienced after drinking the lesser amount.

Theres a lot of thinking that when experienced drinkers (those with AUD) consume alcohol, they are tolerant to its impairing effects, study author Andrea King, PhD, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Chicago, said in a news release.

[Our study] supported that a bit, but with a lot of nuances, she added. When [young people with AUD] drank alcohol in our study at a dose similar to their usual drinking pattern, we saw significant impairments on both the fine motor and cognitive tests that was even more impairment than a light drinker gets at the intoxicating dose. Health effects of alcohol

Dr. Lawrence Weinstein, chief medical officer of American Addiction Centers, who was not involved in the new research, said the study highlights that technically, no one can handle their liquor.

There may be a marked difference in the amount of alcohol at which someone becomes intoxicated, which is a worrying issue in itself, but ethanol, acetaldehyde and other metabolites are toxicants that will affect anyone who consumes alcohol despite the tolerance theyve developed, he told Healthline.

Tolerance also does not reduce the damage that can be caused by alcohol, he said, adding: It is illogical to believe that one would remain unaffected by regular consumption [of alcohol].

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 140,000 people die from excessive alcohol use in the United States each year, making it the fourth-leading preventable cause of death in the country.

In addition, almost 30% of U.S. traffic fatalities in 2019 involved alcohol-impaired driving, reports the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Over the long term, excessive alcohol use can increase the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, liver disease, certain types of cancer and other health problems.

[Alcohol is] costly to our society for so many reasons, said King in the release. Im hoping we can educate people who are experienced high-intensity drinkers who think that theyre holding their liquor or that theyre tolerant and wont experience accidents or injury from drinking. Different drinking patterns

In the new study, researchers enrolled almost 400 young people, most in their 20s, with different drinking patterns:light drinkers: consumed six or fewer drinks per week, with few binge drinking episodesheavy drinkers: consumed at least 10 drinks per week, with one to five heavy drinking episodes during that timedrinkers with AUD: consumed 28 or more drinks per week (21 or more for women), with at least 11 heavy drinking episodes per month; they also had to meet two or more clinical criteria for AUD

Binge drinking means consuming five or more drinks within about two hours for men, and four or more drinks for women.

Participants underwent two rounds of testing, one after consuming a high alcohol dose (the equivalent of four to five drinks) and the other after consuming a placebo drink containing only 1% alcohol (to create a similar taste). Both contained a flavored drink mix.

Researchers told participants they would receive a drink containing alcohol, a stimulant, a sedative or a placebo. This was to reduce the effect that peoples expectations might have on the results.

Participants consumed each drink over a 15-minute period.

Before drinking the beverage, and 30, 60, 120 and 180 minutes after drinking, participants took a breathalyzer and completed two performance tasks.

One task involved inserting a grooved metal peg into randomly slotted holes; this measured fine motor skills. The other was a pencil-and-paper task designed to test cognitive skills.

At the 30- and 180-minute intervals, participants also reported how impaired they felt. Impacts of higher alcohol intake

Heavy drinkers and people with AUD both reported feeling less impaired than the light drinkers.

In addition, these two groups showed less overall alcohol impairment on the fine motor and cognitive tests; although all groups had similar impairment on the fine motor test at the 30-minute interval.

The performance of heavy drinkers and people with AUD returned to baseline more quickly than that of light drinkers, suggesting they may have greater alcohol tolerance.

However, people with AUD often drink more than four or five drinks in a session. So researchers asked a subset of participants with AUD to repeat the tasks after consuming the equivalent of seven to eight drinks.

At this dose, they had more than double the impairment they experienced at the lower intoxicating dose. Their performance also did not return to baseline during the testing, even after three hours.

They also experienced greater impairment from that higher dose than light drinkers did after the lower intoxicating dose.

I was surprised at how much impairment that group had to that larger dose, because while its 50% more [alcohol] than the first dose, were seeing more than double the impairment, King said in the release.

US

Leaks plunge success of ‘Operation Midnight Hammer’ into serious doubt

Published

1 hour ago

June 25, 2025

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Leaks plunge success of 'Operation Midnight Hammer' into serious doubt

There is a critical question hanging over the events of the past few days.

Behind the chest-thumping from Donald Trump, and the bewilderment beyond at his statecraft-by-social-media, doubts have now reached fever pitch about the success of the American bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites.

Leaks from the US Defence Department suggest the bunker busting bombs dropped on Iran’s three nuclear enrichment sites might only have set the country’s nuclear capabilities back by months.

“We were assuming that the damage was going to be much more significant than this assessment is finding,” said one of three sources, speaking to NBC News.

“This assessment is already finding that these core pieces are still intact. That’s a bad sign for the overall programme.”

NBC News has spoken to three sources – all of whom say that the initial assessment by the Defence Intelligence Agency has concluded that the US airstrikes were not as effective as Mr Trump claimed.

Similar leaks were made to The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN.

Follow latest developments in our live blog

Responding to the CNN leak, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community.”

She continued: “The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear programme. Everyone knows what happens when you drop 14 30,000lb bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.”

In his address to the nation on Saturday night, Mr Trump had said: “I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has also dismissed the leaks, saying: “Based on everything we have seen – and I’ve seen it all – our bombing campaign obliterated Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons.

“Our massive bombs hit exactly the right spot at each target – and worked perfectly.”

“The impact of those bombs is buried under a mountain of rubble in Iran, so anyone who says the bombs were not devastating is just trying to undermine the president and the successful mission.”

Battle Damage Assessments (BDAs) take a long time to be close to conclusive and require extensive intelligence analysis.

Speaking to Sky News, former director of the CIA and top US General David Petraeus cautioned about drawing any conclusions at this stage.

“Well, the truth is, it is just too soon. And those who are leaking should know that it takes a long time to do the battle damage assessment. And those who have actually pushed back in very conclusive ways also probably should have wait for the full results,” Gen Petraeus said.

“This is a very painstaking process. It’s an effort by the overall intelligence community, not just Defence Intelligence Agency. In fact, the CIA would be the lead in this effort to mine all sources of intelligence, imagery, intelligence of all types, signals, cyber, even open-source intelligence.”

Beyond the debate over the extent of the damage, questions remain over whether Iran might have managed to move equipment including centrifuges. Critically too, the whereabouts of about 400kg of highly enriched uranium is unknown.

The classified assessment of the military’s operation in Iran has been transmitted to Congress and has been viewed by some senators in a secure location, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

“I’ve reviewed the classified material,” Democratic Party Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said.

“I’m a little bit disappointed that my colleagues went and looked at it and mainly started talking about it publicly. That’s not we’re supposed to do with a classified report,” he added.

Speaking on Sunday to NBC’s Meet The Press, Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon insisted Iran’s nuclear capability had been dramatically set back.

“I think it’s still very early to jump into conclusions. We have to wait for the assessment. I can tell you one thing for sure. If you look where Iran was 12 days ago and where they are today, you understand that both Israel and the US were able to degrade the capabilities, push them back decades, and if we had an imminent threat, it doesn’t exist anymore.”

UK

In dramatic move, UK to buy F-35 stealth jets that can carry US nuclear warheads

Published

1 hour ago

June 25, 2025

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In dramatic move, UK to buy F-35 stealth jets that can carry US nuclear warheads

The UK will buy at least 12 F-35 stealth jets that can carry nuclear warheads in the most significant strengthening of its nuclear capability in a generation, the government has said.

Today, Sir Keir Starmer will tell a summit of NATO allies in The Hague that the new squadron will join an alliance mission that can be armed with US nuclear weapons.

The dramatic move will doubtless draw condemnation and concern from Russia and China.

But it comes at a time of growing global insecurity – and as the prime minister and his European and Canadian counterparts scramble to convince Donald Trump they are serious about bolstering their ability to defend Europe, instead of overly relying on the United States.

The US president, a long-standing NATO sceptic, raised questions about whether he would uphold the alliance’s founding Article 5 principle – that an attack on one is an attack on all – before he even arrived in the Dutch city last night.

An urgent need to keep Mr Trump on side has prompted NATO allies to agree to increase spending on defence and national resilience to a new target of 5% of GDP by 2035.

As part of this push to rearm, Sir Keir will give the Royal Air Force the ability to carry airborne nuclear warheads for the first time since the 1990s.

“In an era of radical uncertainty we can no longer take peace for granted,” he said.

“These F-35 dual capable aircraft will herald a new era for our world-leading Royal Air Force and deter hostile threats that threaten the UK and our allies.

“The UK’s commitment to NATO is unquestionable, as is the alliance’s contribution to keeping the UK safe and secure, but we must all step up to protect the Euro-Atlantic area for generations to come.”

It was not immediately clear when the F-35 jets would be bought or how much they will cost, but the new squadron will be part of a NATO-led nuclear deterrence mission.

That is in contrast to the UK’s national nuclear deterrence, based on a fleet of four nuclear-armed submarines, though they too are used to defend the whole of the alliance.

Mark Rutte, the head of NATO, applauded the plan – saying: “The UK has declared its nuclear deterrent to NATO for many decades, and I strongly welcome today’s announcement that the UK will now also join NATO’s nuclear mission and procure the F-35A.

“This is yet another robust British contribution to NATO.”

Aircraft operated by a small number of NATO countries, including Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, are cleared to carry US-provided nuclear weapons in a war.

The RAF and the Royal Navy already operate F-35B jets that can fly off Britain’s two aircraft carriers, but they are not equipped to drop nuclear warheads.

The new planes will be the F-35A variant, operated by the air force, that take off from land but can fly further and be armed with nuclear or conventional weapons.

The government said they would all be based together at RAF Marham in Norfolk.

The government has long planned to purchase a total of 138 F-35 aircraft, but has so far only acquired around three dozen – seven years since the first jets entered service.

The decision to purchase 12 of the A-variant does not mean extra aircraft.

It just means a diversification in the fleet – something the RAF has long been pushing for – though it’s a decision some in the Royal Navy have long pushed back against, believing it would reduce even further the number of the B-version that operate from their carriers.

The government described the plan to purchase nuclear-capable aircraft as the “biggest strengthening of the UK’s nuclear posture in a generation”.

Defence Secretary John Healey said a major defence review published earlier in the month highlighted new nuclear risks.

“It recommended a new UK role in our collective defence and deterrence through a NATO-first approach,” he said.

However, the public version of the Strategic Defence Review stopped short of making any specific recommendation.

It merely said “the UK must explore how to support the US and its NATO allies in strengthening extended deterrence across the Euro-Atlantic”.

The F-35 aircraft is made by the US defence giant Lockheed Martin, but the British defence company BAE Systems is also a key contributor.

The order will support 20,000 jobs in the F-35 programme in the UK.

Politics

Coinbase claims ‘key role’ in Secret Service’s biggest-ever crypto seizure

Published

2 hours ago

June 25, 2025

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Coinbase claims ‘key role’ in Secret Service’s biggest-ever crypto seizure

Coinbase says it helped the US Secret Service seize $225 million in crypto allegedly stolen by scammers, the largest crypto seizure in the agency’s history.