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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Binge and heavy drinking may trigger a long-lasting genetic change, resulting in an even greater craving for alcohol, according to a Rutgers-led study in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
"We found that people who drink heavily may be changing their DNA in a way that makes them crave alcohol even more," said Distinguished Professor Dipak K. Sarkar, senior author of the study and director of the Endocrine Program in the Department of Animal Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. "This may help explain why alcoholism is such a powerful addiction, and may one day contribute to new ways to treat alcoholism or help prevent at-risk people from becoming addicted."
In 2016, more than 3 million people died from the harmful use of alcohol, according a World Health Organization report. That is 5 percent of all global deaths. More than three-quarters of alcohol-caused deaths were among men. The harmful use of alcohol also caused 5.1 percent of the worldwide toll of disease and injuries.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Thursday January 31 2019, @07:50AM
This seems like a real chicken and egg folly.
They have found that binge drinkers cravings can be expressed and highlighted in DNA. With that info, they want to be able to look at DNA to see if you might be at risk for binge drinking. Seems to me you could just ask these same people if they want a drink. Wouldn't it give you the same information?
It also seems to me that to figure out this same information, you could ask the known binge drinker down at the local bar what cures her hangover. That would give you that same information without having that awkward conversation about, "Hi, what's your sign? I'm a Taurus. May I swab your cheek?"
Its an interesting science project for school, but I'm not sure where it gets you down the line unless you're trying to confirm that the people in the current fraternity pledge class are telling the truth about being a bunch of binge drinkers. Don't want posers getting through?