Word: alcoholisms
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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What causes alcoholics to develop cirrhosis and other frequently fatal liver diseases? Many doctors, noting the tendency of alcoholics to drink more than they eat, believe that poor nutrition plays a key role. But two researchers from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Bronx Veterans Hospital in New York now claim that it is drink alone that does the damage. A four-year study has convinced them that even in the well-nourished, alcohol can be lethal to the liver...
...their study because the primates live as long as 15 years, far longer than most other laboratory animals, and have livers that are similar to man's. The researchers put 26 baboons on highprotein, high-vitamin diets, but for 13 of the animals substituted ethanol, or grain alcohol, for much of the carbohydrate portion of the dietary requirements. The alcohol provided the animals with fully half their caloric intake...
...baboons responded to the booze -equivalent to about a fifth per day for a man-just as humans would. They became intoxicated and, ultimately, dependent upon drink. Two of the animals became so addicted to alcohol that they experienced withdrawal symptoms, including what seemed to be delirium tremens, or DTs, when off the bottle...
...study provided other insights into alcoholism, which Rubin and Lieber consider to be one of man's worst "environmental" ailments. Because pure alcohol was used exclusively, it became evident that the toxic effects were the result of the alcohol itself and not, as some researchers have suggested, caused by any of the impurities or additives found in beer, wine or hard liquor. Concludes Rubin: "You can't protect yourself against alcoholic damage by eating well; what counts is the total amount of alcohol you drink...
...appointed Raymond Porelle in December 1972 to clean up Walpole. Porelle had a reputation as a strict law enforcement officer and his assignment was to discipline both the prisoners and the guards. Porelle instituted a lock-up and shakedown in late December to rid Walpole of contraband drugs and alcohol. The tension between guards and prisoners increased so much during the lock-up that Porelle could not unlock a cell block without creating a disturbance...