Middle Ages, alcohol

A middle-aged alcoholic ingested about 30 ml of carbon tetrachloride under the impression that it was alcohol. He was seriously ill but recovered. On his admission to hospital the serum concentration of carbon tetrachloride was 20 pg/ml. The first 24-hour urine collection contained 8 pg/ml and the first peritoneal dialysate contained 1 pg/ml of carbon tetrachloride (S. L. Tompsett, personal communication, 1967). The following postmortem tissue concentrations were reported in a fatality due to the inhalation of carbon tetrachloride kidney 32 pg/g, liver 142 pg/g, lung 39 pg/g, muscle 46 pg/g (H. D. Korenke and O. Pribilla, Arch. Tox., 1969,25, 109-126). 

Kristenson H, Ohlin H, Hulten-Nousslin M, et al Identification and intervention of heavy drinking in middle-aged men results and follow-up of 24-60 months of long-term study with randomized controls. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 7 203-209, 1983... 

Hernandez-Avila, M., Colditz, G. A., Stampfer, M. J., Rosner, B., Speizer, F. E., Willett, W. C., Caffeine, moderate alcohol intake, and risk of fractures of the hip and forearm in middle-aged women, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 54, 157, 1991. 

In contrast, moderate alcohol consumption in the middle-aged and elderly slightly reduced overall mortality risk. 

Thun MJ, Peto R, Lopez AD, et al. Alcohol consumption and mortality among middle-aged and elderly U.S. adults. N Engi J Med 1997 337 1705-1714. 

By the Middle Ages, the upper classes consumed alcohol in abundance, while the peasant population made beer at home. In Italy and France, wine became an important product in commercial markets and continued to be an integral part of the European economy throughout the Renaissance period. Home brewing was largely replaced by the commercial manufacture of beer and wine in Europe by the early eighteenth century. 

Cirrhosis, alcoholic hepatitis, pancreatitis, gastric or duodenal ulcer, esophageal varices, middle-age onset of diabetes, gastrointestinal cancer, hypertension, peripheral neuropathies, myopathies, cardiomyopathy, cerebral vascular accidents, erectile dysfunction, vitamin deficiencies, pernicious anemia, and brain disorders including Wemicke-Korsakoff syndrome (mortality rate of untreated Wernicke is 50% treatment is with thiamine)... 

The Hebrew and Arabic word for antimony is kohl, which was altered to alcool or alkohol in other languages thus the Spanish translation of the above passage from Ezekiel is, alcoholaste tus ojos. As a matter of fact, the word. alcohol wa in the Middle Ages, used to designate anything in the form of fine powder and it was only at later periods that it was used to mean spirit of wine. 

Librium is useful in preventing delirium tremens in clients withdrawing from alcohol. The majority of clients diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis (75%) are middle-aged males who also have chronic alcoholism. 

As can be seen, the admissions to public-sector treatment facilities are mosdy male, nonworking, young to middle-aged adults who have been in treatment before. There are a high percentage of non-whites and relatively few are alcoholics only. The criminal j ustice system gets a lot of these folks into the treatment system. 

Renaud SC, Gueguen R, Schenker J, and d Houtaud A, Alcohol and mortality in middle-aged men from eastern France, Epidemiology, Mar 1998 9(2) 184—188. 

But even if one were to accept the epidemiologic data at face value and assume that the entire correlation was due to a causal link flowing in only one direction (from alcohol to breast cancer), how strong is that association anyway The largest study to bear on that question is the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). It examined data collected on self-reported alcohol consumption and cancer diagnoses in 274,688 middle-aged and elderly women from ten countries for up to 9.4 years (median 6.4 years). 

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