Forcing mice to hibernate might lead to medical treatments\nWASHINGTON -- It sounds like science fiction, yet an experiment in which mice were forced into hibernation and then revived with no apparent ill effects might ultimately lead to new ways to treat the critically ill.\nConsider it hibernation-on-demand, a way to drastically reduce the amount of oxygen needed to survive, researchers from Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center report Thursday in the journal Science. It works essentially, like hypothermia.\nDoctors now sometimes use ice to chill stroke victims in hopes of minimizing the damage to their brains. Chilling might help other illnesses, too, such as by buying time for surgeons to stop a trauma victim's hemorrhaging. But inducing hypothermia is difficult and can take time that patients might not have, so scientists are hunting for ways to lower body temperature more effectively from the inside-out.\nThe new experiment does that in a novel way by using a small amount of hydrogen sulfide gas to force the mice into a state of hibernation for six hours.\nOverall, their metabolic rate dropped by 90 percent -- meaning normal cellular activity slowed to almost a standstill, thus reducing the need for oxygen.\nFresh air revived the mice, and testing uncovered no differences in behavior or functional ability between the treated mice and untreated ones, the study concluded.\nThe next step is to see whether large animals can be pushed into this hibernating state, too, and if doing so while an animal is ill actually helps.
Study says moderate drinking might not benefit health\nATLANTA -- The government Tuesday warned that a few drinks a day may not protect against strokes and heart attacks after all.\nSome studies in recent years have touted the health benefits of moderate drinking. Some have even said that up to four drinks a day can significantly reduce the risk of heart disease in people 40 and older.\nBut researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed data from 250,000 Americans who participated in a 2003 telephone survey. They found that the nondrinkers had many more risks for heart disease not associated with drinking -- such as being overweight, inactive, high blood pressure and diabetes -- than the moderate drinkers. Based on those results, the agency could not say that moderate drinking actually was a factor in reducing the risk of heart disease.\nModerate drinkers tended to be in better health, better educated, wealthier and more active than their nondrinking counterparts, and that likely influenced their lower risk of heart disease, the study said.\nThe American Heart Association say drinking alcohol increases the dangers of alcoholism, high blood pressure, obesity, stroke, breast cancer, suicide and accidents.\nSome organizations say the CDC's findings should be treated with caution because the average person interviewed in the phone-based study might not be completely forthcoming about his or her alcohol consumption.
