High alcohol intake can damage DNA

 by Waldirene Biernath

Source photos: Google image

Drinking too much alcohol increases the risk of developing a long list of health conditions including breast cancer, oral cancers, heart disease, strokes and cirrhosis of the liver. A high alcohol intake can also damage our mental health, impair memory skills and reduce fertility.

The direct link between alcohol and the liver is well understood - but what about the impact of alcohol on other organs?

Studies have shown that drinking more than three drinks a day has been found to have a direct and damaging effect on the heart. Heavy drinking, particularly over time, can lead to high blood pressure, alcoholic cardiomyopathy, congestive heart failure and stroke. Heavy drinking also puts more fat into the circulation of the body.

Cancer experts say that for every additional 10g per day of alcohol drunk, the risk of breast cancer increases by approximately 7-12%. For bowel cancer, previous studies show that increasing alcohol intake by 100g per week increases the cancer risk by 19%.

A recent report in BioMed Central's Immunology journal found that alcohol impairs the body's ability to fight off viral infections. Studies on fertility suggest that even light drinking can make women less likely to conceive while heavy drinking in men can lower sperm quality and quantity. Even a single binge-drinking dose of alcohol during pregnancy may be sufficient to cause permanent damage to a baby's genome.

Last year, a study in The Lancet concluded that alcohol is more harmful than heroin or crack when the overall dangers to the individual and society are considered.

The negative effect on all elements of our health could be down to acetaldehyde - the product alcohol is broken down into in the body. Acetaldehyde is toxic and has been shown to damage DNA.

So how much alcohol is too much? What can we safely drink?

Most of people don't realize what they are drinking and can very easily slip beyond acceptable limits. Few people have the notion that there are 16g of alcohol in a 175ml glass of red or white wine, for example.

Alcohol is undoubtedly a public health issue. The government guidelines on drinking are being reviewed at present. They currently say that a woman should not drink more than two to three units (a unit=1 drinking cup) of alcohol per day and a man three to four units a day - no more than 21 units for men, 14 units for women per week.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health

Vocabulary:

oral cancer includes cancers of the lips, tongue, cheek, floor of the mouth, hard and soft palate, sinuses, and pharynx (throat);

bowel cancer /baʊəl/: also known as colorectal cancer or colon cancer,  is any cancer that affects the colon (large bowel) and rectum (back passage);

(to) conceive /kənˈsiːv/: to think of something such as a new idea, plan, or design;

binge-drinking (noun): the drinking of large amounts of alcohol in a short period of time, in order to get drunk.

Brazil’s growth gets foreigners to learn Portuguese

By Waldirene Biernath

Source: Google images

The Brazilian economy growth and the multinational companies’ presence in the country have increased the interest of foreigners to learn the Portuguese language.

While Europeans and Americans face high unemployment and risk of recession, Brazil has become the fashion’s country abroad - and consequently, the Portuguese language has getting more prominence.

Google images

In the last decade, the number of students enrolled in Celpe-Bras, the Portuguese proficiency exam recognized by the Ministry of Education, skyrocketed from 1155 to 6139.

"The importance of the Portuguese language has been growing, since Brazil has stood out internationally regarded for its stable economy and its international relations. The value of a language is highly associated with the market," said Matilde Scaramucci, the Unicamp Institute of Studies Language’s director.

The Celpe-Bras exam is applied in 48 countries, and it can be taken, for example, by an executive who wants to prove language proficiency to work at multinational companies in Brazil or by a foreigner interested in studying at a Brazilian university.

Dutch companies have encouraged senior executives to take on functions in countries considered strategic. The "boom" of foreigners taking Portuguese courses is also noticeable abroad. The number of enrolled people in Brazilian cultural centers; defrayed by Itamaraty (Ministry of External Relations) and spread over several countries; rose from 17,500 in 2004 to 31,700 last year.

Vocabulary:

(to) skyrocket (verb) if an amount, value, or cost skyrockets, it rises quickly to a very high level, e.g.: “The number of calls we received skyrocketed”.

take on (phrasal verb) to begin to perform or deal with; assume; e.g.: took on new responsibilities

(to) defray  (verb): to provide money to pay for something.

Source:

http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mercado/991439-crescimento-do-brasil-leva-estrangeiros-a-aprenderem-portugues.shtml

Latino children education in crisis in the United States

by Waldirene Biernath

The United States President Barack Obama said last year that Hispanic school children faced "challenges of monumental proportions". Hispanics make up the fastest growing segment of the American population, but are lagging when it comes to education. The consequences are huge not just for individual families, but the entire American economy.

Less than 50% of Latino children are enrolled in pre-school; just 50% earn their high school diploma on time and, those who do are only half as likely as their peers to be prepared for college. Just 13% have a degree.

Hispanics make up 16% of the American population now and will account for 29% of the population by 2050. The issue has essentially reached a tipping point. It's harder to ignore the problems facing a minority group when they affect a third of the population. There are economic reasons to care.

In 50 years the majority of workforces will be Hispanic in the United States. Imagine if they are uneducated, what hope there is for American global competitiveness.

Source photos: Google Image

“If we allow these trends to continue, it won't just be one community that falls behind - we will all fall behind together”, said US President Barack Obama.

Many of the problems facing Hispanics affect all minority groups - for example the difficulty of accessing high-quality schooling. But there are problems unique to this group. Consider the language barrier - four million Latino children struggle in class because they are still learning English, even though three quarters of them were born in the United States.

Undocumented children and the US-born children of undocumented parents can be at a disadvantage because their parents may be reluctant to access the full range of support services available for their children.

According to the Census bureau, 50% of immigrants are from Latin America.

President Obama tried and failed in 2010 to pass the Dream Act - a law that would give undocumented Latino students, brought to the US as children, the right to US citizenship so they can attend University.

There is much debate among politicians and policy makers about whether Hispanic children should get special attention or whether they should be treated like any other low income group in terms of educational inequity.

Whichever way that particular debate shakes out one thing is for certain - the political power of Hispanics is rising. Politicians cannot afford to ignore these challenges much longer.

Obama appoints the latino singer Shakira to Hispanic education commission

Colombian singer Shakira has been appointed to US President Barack Obama's education committee to share her advice on how to provide the best education for Hispanics living in America.

"There is no better investment than investment in our kids, especially when they are very little," she said. "The Obama administration has made a point to improve Latino education and – as I spoke to the President previously – I am extremely passionate about working with the White House to plan an early childhood education summit in the coming year...”

"I am convinced that early childhood development strategies, promoting those strategies and initiatives, is the way to ensure that our kids, our Latino kids especially, will stick to their secondary education," the 34-year-old superstar said.

What do you think about Obama’s indication to Hispanic education commission? Do you think Shakira was a good choice?

See the Shakira’ s discourse at the White House video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Ffp0U6_9M&feature=related ;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wz9O_WKZvo&feature=relmfu

Vocabulary:

Lagging (verb to lag): to not be as successful or advanced as another person, organization, or group; to walk more slowly than someone who you are with;

Tipping point: a time when important things start happening in a situation, especially things that you cannot change;

Struggle (verb): to try hard to do something that you find very difficult.

Source:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine

Three women honored with the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize

by Waldirene Biernath

Source photos: Google image

This year's Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded jointly to three women - Mrs Sirleaf is Africa's first female elected head of state, Ms Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist and Ms Karman is a leading figure in Yemen's pro-democracy movement. They were recognized for their "non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work".

Ms Sirleaf, who had been widely tipped as a winner, said the award was "for all Liberian people" and a recognition of "many years of struggle for justice". She was elected in 2005, following the end of Liberia's 14-year civil war which left 250,000 people dead, caused thousands to flee abroad and financially ruined the country. Upon coming to office, the US-educated economist and former finance minister - known as Liberia's "Iron Lady" - pledged to fight corruption and bring "motherly sensitivity and emotion to the presidency" as a way of healing the wounds of war. She is popular among women and the country's small elite, but disliked by more traditional male-dominated sections of society.

Ms Gbowee was a leading critic of the violence during the Liberian civil war, mobilizing women across ethnic and religious lines in peace activism and encouraging them to participate in elections. In 2003 she led a march through the capital, Monrovia, demanding an end to the rape of women by soldiers, which had continued despite a peace deal being signed three months earlier.

Mrs Karman heard of her win from Change Square in the capital Sanaa, where she has been living for several months in a protest camp calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to stand down. She was recognized for playing a leading part in the struggle for women's rights in Yemen's pro-democracy protests "in the most trying circumstances" and is the first Arab women to win the prize.

The women will share the $1.5m (£1m) prize money.

Source:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/nobel-peace-prize-goes-to-three-women/2011/10/07/gIQAJdwBSL_story.html?hpid=z1;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15211861

Scientists have found a way to prevent HIV

by Waldirene Biernath

Source photos: Google image

Researchers from the United States and Europe have found the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is unable to damage the immune system if cholesterol is removed from the virus's membrane. The study was published last month in the journal Blood.

The team plans to investigate how to use this way of inactivating the virus and possibly develop it into a vaccine.

Cell model for

  human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)

Usually when a person becomes infected with HIV, the body's innate immune response puts up an immediate defense. But some researchers believe HIV causes the innate immune system to overreact. This weakens the immune system's next line of defense, known as the adaptive immune response. The team removed cholesterol from the membrane around the virus and found that this stopped HIV from triggering the innate immune response. This in turn led to a stronger adaptive response, orchestrated by a type of immune cells called T cells.

HIV takes its membrane from the cell that it infects, the researchers explained in their study. This membrane contains cholesterol, which helps keep it fluid and enables it to interact with particular types of cell.

Adriano Boasso, from Imperial College London, who led the study, said the virus could not activate pDC cells when cholesterol was removed.

Normally, a subset of immune cells called plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) recognize HIV quickly and react by producing signaling molecules called interferons. These signals activate various processes which are initially helpful, but which damage the immune system if switched on for too long. 

Researchers believe the discovery could lead to the development of a vaccine against the disease, which kills 1.8 million people worldwide each year. An estimated 33.3 million people are living with the virus.

Vocabulary:

(to) damage (verb): to harm something physically so that it is broken, spoiled, or injured;

(to) put up (verb): to provide;

(to) overreact (verb): show an exaggerated response to something;

triggering (noun):  an act that sets in motion some course of events or causes something to happen;

subset (noun): a small group of people or things that is a part of a larger group;

(to) switched on (verb): if you switch on something such as a light or a machine, or if it switches on, you make it start working.

Source:

http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/equilibrioesaude/978262-cientistas-descobrem-forma-de-desarmar-virus-da-aids.shtml;

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/19/us-aids-hiv-disarm-idUSTRE78I5O820110919