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Businessman's bar bill hits £105,805
By Richard Alleyne
Last Updated: 2:25am BST 26/07/2007

The businessman's night out with friends started quietly enough with a £25 bottle of wine. It ended a few hours later with a bar bill for £105,805.

The businessman and his circle of friends consumed £80,000 worth of champagne

In between, the businessman and his circle of friends, which had swelled by closing time, had polished off 80 bottles of champagne, including a six-litre methuselah of Cristal worth £30,000 and a £9,600, three-litre jeroboam.

The bill for champagne alone came to more than £80,000. One bottle of vodka cost £1,400.

The celebration took place at Crystal in Marylebone, central London, a nightclub launched with the help of Prince William and Prince Harry's friend Jacobi Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe.

A favourite with the horsey set, its founding members include Lady Victoria Hervey and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson.

Fraser Donaldson, a spokesman for the club, said: "I have been in the nightclub business for 20 years and this is an all-time record."

The spending spree began when the businessman, who is believed to be based in Dubai, arrived on Saturday night with about 18 friends.

He started by ordering a £25 bottle of Pinot Grigio but before long he told club staff: "I want the drinks to be flowing all night."

Along with some cheaper drinks, the revellers consumed: one methuselah of Cristal (£30,000); two jeroboams of Cristal (£9,600), 36 bottles of Cristal (£12,960); six magnums of Dom Perignon (£4,200); 12 bottles of Dom Perignon Rose (£4,200); 15 bottles of Dom Perignon 1999 (£3,600), three magnums of Dom Perignon 1995 (£2,700) and four bottles of Cristal Rose (£2,400).

The drinkers drifted away at 5am but not before a nightcap of vodka, a Belvedere Methuselah, the equivalent of eight bottles.

http://tinyurl.com/ywof2s

:shock:
 
LaurenChurchill said:
It's making me hungry. The guy up the road used to catch bronze whalers and make little bitey bits covered in breadcrumbs and spices. It was so good, almost made up for continually asking my mother to watch gay porn with him. :D

You what? :shock:
 
Yeah they were a weird family. The 8yo daughter wasn't allowed to watch the Simpsons but they let her watch Rocky Horror.
Husband turned up at our place in fishnets and a g-string once too.
And whenever we went there, to use the puter or something (coz we didn't have one then) they'd both ask her to watch gay porn with them. Mum almost choked the first time.
Made it awkward to babysit for a while until I realised they were kinky, but not... dangerous.
Never tried anything on me anyway and they were really great people. Just bizarre. Really, really bizarre.
 
When I lived in Backpool (I've done so on numerous occasions) there was a 'bloke' round the corner who used to take orders for stuff and go and do the 'French' run - and get loads of the booze and stuff dead cheap.

Nothing too strange there. But once - it was my turn to collect the cashe / stash off of 'him' only to find out he was a transvestite! Nothing wrong in that! I just wish I'd been told before hand! Before I'd been enticed into 'his' lair!

Moral - never trust your friends! They are b*sr*rds! All of them!
 
LaurenChurchill said:
It's making me hungry. The guy up the road used to catch bronze whalers and make little bitey bits covered in breadcrumbs and spices. It was so good, almost made up for continually asking my mother to watch gay porn with him. :D

Reminds me of when a female friend got a dvd from an online rental.
It was called The Fluffer.
I cheerily stated it might be about the post midnight spookiness of those who clean the London Tube. Then as it started with a buff, obviously gay guy walking into a video store I suggested the film may be about an aspiring actor who keeps forgetting his lines. When he took the video home and his TV was opposite his bed and it started, I had had quite enough.

Despite this, I still think the experience better than the last star wars movie.
 
Cider hits billion-pint record
Last Updated: 2:37am BST 28/07/2007

Britons are drinking more than a billion pints of cider a year for the first time.

Latest industry figures report sales - up 26 per cent - on last year, well past the billion pint mark. This equates to more than 2,700,000 pints sold every day.

Irish producer Magners is credited with both rejuvenating cider's image and benefiting from the resurgent interest. But big UK producers have also benefited from the "over ice" phenomenon and smaller producers have boosted the market by offering a broader range than ever before.

The latest ACNielsen figures for the year March 2006 to March 2007 show that cider sales reached 1,003,050,401 pints a year.

Cider has enjoyed a three-year surge in popularity after many producers launched new products.

Simon Russell, the spokesman for the National Association of Cider Makers, said: "These figures prove that the recent rise in the popularity of cider has changed the fortunes of the industry for good."

Andrew Pring, the editor of the Morning Advertiser, a pub trade paper, said: "With so many interesting types of cider to choose from, more and more people are discovering that it satisfies all types of tastes. The recent wet weather may dent overall pub sales, but cider is still on course to break new records next year."

http://tinyurl.com/2w6yo5
 
Confused about booze and health? You will be!

Daily glass of wine increases risk of bowel cancer, scientists find
By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Published: 31 July 2007

The argument has raged for decades - is a daily alcoholic drink good for you or not? That pint of beer on the way home may set you up for the evening, but does it set you up for life?

Conventional medical wisdom has been that moderate drinking - a pint of beer or a couple of glasses of wine a day - boosts health by cutting the risk of heart disease. But new research has muddied the water. A study published yesterday suggests that a daily pint of beer or large glass of wine increases the risk of bowel cancer by 10 per cent. Two pints or two large glasses of wine increases the risk by 25 per cent, according to the results of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study, which questioned almost 480,000 people across 10 European countries about their drinking habits.

Cancer and heart charities were left perplexed over how to interpret the findings, published online in the International Journal of Cancer. Weighing up relative risks is tricky and each charity preferred to highlight the dangers or benefits to their chosen disease.

The British Heart Foundation said there was "some evidence" that moderate drinking had a beneficial effect on heart disease, but if it raised the risk of cancer then "it becomes a matter of personal choice".

Cancer Research UK, which part-funded the bowel cancer study, said moderate drinking only caused a small increase in risk. Cat Arney, senior information officer, said: "The key thing is the more you drink the more your risk goes up."

This leaves ordinary drinkers in a difficult position. In addition to bowel cancer, a drink a day is known to increase the risk of breast cancer in women by 7 per cent, and some other cancers. Bowel cancer is the second-most common form of the disease in men and women with 35,000 new cases a year and 16,000 deaths. Breast cancer is the commonest cancer in women with 40,000 new cases and 12,000 deaths. Heart disease and stroke kill more than 200,000 people a year.

A major study published in the British Medical Journal last year found frequent drinking was an effective way of preventing a heart attack - but only if you were a middle-aged man.

Men who drank daily cut their risk of a heart attack by 41 per cent compared with those who drank on only one day a week, who reduced their risk by 7 per cent.

Among women, drinking on one day a week was enough to reduce their risk almost as much as the men - by 36 per cent. Increasing the frequency of their drinking made no difference.

The study was conducted in Denmark among 50,000 men and women aged from 50 to 65. Previous research has suggested that the benefits of regular drinking are confined to people in middle age.

What the studies all agree on is that people who drink some alcohol live longer than those who drink nothing - teetotallers.

Even this, however, is not as simple to interpret as it appears. Critics have argued that people who don't drink often have a reason for being teetotal, such as that they are reformed alcoholics or suffer from an illness that prevents them drinking. So their poorer health may account for their earlier deaths, not their lack of alcohol.

To drink or not to drink? That is the question. Weighing the risks and benefits of alcohol will remain a matter of individual choice. Heart disease carries the higher odds, but many people fear cancer more.

Raising a glass

* Going to the pub is the most popular social pastime in Britain.

* In modest amounts, alcohol is safe and may be beneficial.

* The Government's recommended "safe" limits are three to four units of alcohol a day for a man and two to three units for a woman.

* At least a quarter of men and a fifth of women drink above the recommended safe limits.

* Deaths resulting from excessive drinking have doubled in the past 20 years.

http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article2819599.ece
 
Bronze Age brew proves a vintage ale
By Tom Peterkin in Headford, Co Galway
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 13/08/2007

Bronze Age man was a bit of a boozer, according to a team of archaeologists who claim to have uncovered evidence of the world's largest prehistoric brewing industry.

After four years of research, which has seen them travel from Belgium to Bavaria to investigate ancient beer-making methods, the team has concluded that Ireland's love affair with alcohol predates the 1759 foundation of the Guinness brewery by many thousands of years.

An archaeological consultancy based in Co Galway has demonstrated that enigmatic man-made Bronze Age features, which are common throughout Ireland, could well have been ancient microbreweries.

The research by the Moore Group has culminated with the archaeologists recreating Bronze Age brewing methods and producing a modern version of the ale, which our forefathers would have drunk by the beaker after a hard day's hunting and gathering.

The research, which is to be published in Archaeology Ireland magazine next month, focuses on the 4,500 "fulacht fiadhs" (pits or recesses), which date from 1,500 BC and are dotted across the island.

The purpose of the horseshoe-shaped mounds surrounding an indentation has been a mystery since they were first identified in the 17th century.

In the 1950s it was proposed that they were filled with water, which was brought to the boil by adding heated stones and used to cook mutton. But a lack of animal bones around the sites led to Declan Moore and his colleague, Billy Quinn, suggesting an alternative use.

The Moore Group's deductions suggest large-scale beer drinking was carried out in Ireland long before the 6th century AD when brewing is first documented.

Early writings show that the brewer was a highly important member of the monastic communities in the early Christian era.

Studies of residues found at prehistoric sites in the Far East have dated beer back to 5,000 BC. But the Moore Group claims the proliferation of fulacht fiadhs in Ireland suggests ancient brewing on an unprecedented scale.

"It means that there were up to 4,500 breweries in Ireland in the Bronze Age, which means it was the most widespread brewing industry in prehistory in the world," Mr Moore said.

Mr Quinn added: "We were not simply on a quest for beer. We were only interested in fulacht fiadhs and we were trying to find out what they were used for. It just so happens that they make an acceptable quality of beer."

At the weekend The Daily Telegraph was able to sample the fruits of this process.

The verdict? The cloudy, yellowish brew with no discernible head was dangerously drinkable with a yeasty taste reminiscent of weiss beer.

The brewers were unsure of its strength, but there was enough bite to suggest that a Bronze Age binge would be quite an event.

http://tinyurl.com/3xjcdn
 
I've heard of Snakebite - how about Waspsting...?

Wine tainted with venom triggers allergic reactions
22:00 15 August 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Roxanne Khamsi

Wasp venom in wine and grape juice appears to have caused several cases of severe allergic reactions in people, according to a group of Spanish doctors. They suspect that the venom came from wasps accidentally crushed along with the grapes at the first stage of winemaking.

Alicia Armentia of the Rio Hortega Hospital in Valladolid, Spain, and her colleagues treated five people who had developed severe allergic reactions after drinking either wine or grape juice. Three of the patients had facial flushing and swollen lips, while another experienced asthma-like symptoms. The fifth patient developed anaphylaxis, a whole-body allergic reaction that can cause death as a result of constricted airways.

Armentia and her colleagues successfully treated all of these patients, but they remained baffled over the cause of the allergic responses. A battery of tests on the patients ruled out the most likely suspects, such as egg white, which is sometimes added to wine to clarify it and reduce harshness, and grape extract.

More elaborate analysis of the patients' blood revealed antibodies suggesting a recent bee or wasp sting. However, none of the patients reported being stung.

Grapes of wrath
So the doctors looked for allergic responses to red and white grape juice, along with a newly pressed wine and three aged wines, all from different vineyards.

Both types of juice and the freshly made wine all triggered reactions in blood samples taken from the patients. Further chemical tests provided strong evidence that this was due to trace amounts of venom from yellow-jacket wasps – not from bees – in the beverages.

"It's likely the insects fell into the grape juice when the grapes were pressed," says Armentia.

Wasps abound on grapes in late summer, explains Lee Townsend, an entomologist at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky, US. "They will come to anything that's overripe, because they're running out of food by this time of year," he says.

Armentia suspects the aged wines did not produce an allergic reaction in the blood tests because any venom proteins they might have contained would have degraded as the wine matured. Even a few weeks’ ageing probably breaks down the venom enough that the risk of a dangerous allergic reaction is minuscule-but if they want to be on the safe side, people with bee and wasp allergies may want to avoid drinking freshly made wine, she adds.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12488-wine-tainted-with-venom-triggers-allergic-reactions.html
 
This is not exactly 'News', but some of it was new to me:

In the beginning, there was ale .....
In the Middle Ages, Benedictine monks came up with an ingenious solution to the problem of keeping ale fresh during the summer - and that is how lager was born
Richard Brass

High in the Bavarian Alps in the Middle Ages, Benedictine monks came up with an ingenious solution to a serious problem.

The monks had been happily brewing beer in their hilltop monasteries for centuries, keeping their strength up with fresh ale and fulfilling their requirement to be self-sufficient. But, like brewers all over Europe, they had a problem with summer.

The summer months were a nightmare for brewers in those pre-refrigeration days. Stopping beer becoming infected was tricky at the best of times, but when the temperature rose the chances of keeping microbes out of the sweet, sticky ale were slim. The Prince of Bavaria even laid down the law on the matter, ruling that no beer could be made between April and September.

Keeping beer that was brewed in March fresh and drinkable all through the summer was out of the question. So, with a good few hundred years to wait until the first fridge was delivered, the monks came up with their own way around this pressing problem.

After brewing and fermenting their beer, they began storing it in caves deep in the mountains, some of them filled with ice, where the beer stayed cold enough to keep the bugs at bay all summer long.

Not only did this cold storage prevent infection, but to the monks’ delight they found that it also triggered a second round of fermentation, much slower and gentler than the first, creating a new kind of beer that was more subtly flavoured and clearer than usual, and gently fizzing from months of carbonation.

This new process of cold storage quickly became popular with brewers in nearby Munich, who soon found caves of their own and every spring began carting fresh beer up to the mountains to store – or, in German, to “lager”. It was a little Bavarian secret, but not for long.

In the early 19th century, steam engines and better transport revolutionised brewing, and the lager brewers of Munich were quick to seize the opportunity. The owners of the Spaten brewery were among the first, introducing steam power to bump up production, plugging into the fast new transport system and digging chambers deep beneath the brewery where they lagered their beers to create the distinctive flavour, cooled by ice first cut from rivers and lakes and later made by machine.

The word about this Bavarian beer began to spread, and soon lager breweries appeared in Vienna, Bohemia, Budapest and Copenhagen. Carried easily around the region on the new railways, the taste for lager started to catch on.

The beers produced by these pioneering breweries would be largely unrecognisable to today’s lager drinkers. The key difference was colour. The customers were used to dark beers and that’s what they got with lagers - dark brown in Bavaria, red in Vienna, and variations on those colours everywhere else, along with a strong added flavour of the wood used in the fires to kiln the malted barley.

But at a new brewery in the city of Pilsen, in today’s Czech Republic, a major step in the development of what we know as lager today took place in the 1840s when the brewer used a coke-fired kiln imported from England and created the world’s first golden beer.

Beer-drinkers had never seen anything like it. Beer, including lager, was traditionally dark and served in a mug you couldn’t see through, but here, shining out of the new glasses only just available to ordinary people, was a sparkling golden nectar, a delicious balance of malt and hops and the softest water, cold and gently bubbling. They couldn’t get enough.

First Pilsen, then the rest of Bohemia, then whole chunks of Europe went Pilsner-mad. The new golden lager became the hottest drink of the day in the fashionable salons of Paris and Berlin, Amsterdam and Copenhagen. By the end of the century, this new style of beer cooked up in a town tucked away in the middle of Europe had crossed the seas with shiploads of emigrants to America and Australia, and was on its way to becoming the world’s biggest beer.

In Britain it was a different story. While the Bohemians, Germans and Austrians were using the new technology of the Industrial Revolution to develop pale lager, British brewers were using the same techniques to create the distinctive bitters and pale ales that remain popular today. In the early 1960s only one pint in every 50 sold in Britain was a lager, and in the 1970s a German newspaper said that in Britain lager was drunk only by “refined ladies, people with digestive ailments, tourists and other weaklings.”

But in the last 30 years lager has become the drink of choice for most British beer-drinkers. It reached the 50 per cent mark in 1989 and has continued to grow ever since. Although in the past there has been a negative image associated with lager drinkers, consumer tastes are changing all the time, and despite the revival of other styles, lager is the leading beer of Britain and the rest of the world, by a long way. And all because some monks in the mountains couldn’t face summer without beer.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/related_features/love_lager/article2884528.ece
 
Guinness good for you - official

The old advertising slogan "Guinness is Good for You" may be true after all, according to researchers.
A pint of the black stuff a day may work as well as an aspirin to prevent heart clots that raise the risk of heart attacks.

Drinking lager does not yield the same benefits, experts from University of Wisconsin told a conference in the US.

Guinness were told to stop using the slogan decades ago - and the firm still makes no health claims for the drink.

The Wisconsin team tested the health-giving properties of stout against lager by giving it to dogs who had narrowed arteries similar to those in heart disease.

They found that those given the Guinness had reduced clotting activity in their blood, but not those given lager.

Heart trigger

Clotting is important for patients who are at risk of a heart attack because they have hardened arteries.

A heart attack is triggered when a clot lodges in one of these arteries supplying the heart.

Many patients are prescribed low-dose aspirin as this cuts the ability of the blood to form these dangerous clots.

The researchers told a meeting of the American Heart Association in Orlando, Florida, that the most benefit they saw was from 24 fluid ounces of Guinness - just over a pint - taken at mealtimes.

They believe that "antioxidant compounds" in the Guinness, similar to those found in certain fruits and vegetables, are responsible for the health benefits because they slow down the deposit of harmful cholesterol on the artery walls.

However, Diageo, the company that now manufactures Guinness, said: "We never make any medical claims for our drinks."

The company now runs advertisements that call for "responsible drinking".

A spokesman for Brewing Research International, which conducts research for the industry, said she would be "wary" of placing the health benefits of any alcohol brand above another.

She said: "We already know that most of the clotting effects are due to the alcohol itself, rather than any other ingredients.

"It is possible that there is an extra effect due to the antioxidants in Guinness - but I would like to see this research repeated."

She said that reviving the old adverts for Guinness might be problematic - at least in the EU.

Draft legislation could outlaw any health claims in adverts for alcohol in Europe, she said.

Feelgood factor

The original campaign in the 1920s stemmed from market research - when people told the company that they felt good after their pint, the slogan was born.

In England, post-operative patients used to be given Guinness, as were blood donors, because of its high iron content.

Pregnant women and nursing mothers were at one stage advised to drink Guinness - the present advice is against this.

The UK is still the largest market in the world for Guinness, although the drink does not feature in the UK's top ten beer brands according to the latest research.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3266819.stm
 
A local bargain emporium was recently selling off cans of export-strength Mackison, intended for Japan. Very good too, though it was curious to see that the can featured an athletic character and the promise that the black stuff promotes vigour and health. I had an Aunt who swore it was on Doctor's orders that she had a daily Mackison for her kidneys. :_pished:
 
After brewing and fermenting their beer, they began storing it in caves deep in the mountains, some of them filled with ice, where the beer stayed cold enough to keep the bugs at bay all summer long.

i've often wondered if foogoo's were built for a similar purpose... not that we'll ever know what they were for, but those funny little tunnels might have made quite nice cold (or at least cool) storage in the summer.
 
Drinkers warned the £4 pint is heading towards their local :shock:
Andrew Woodcock

THE average price of a pint in Britain's pubs could soar from around £2.20 to as much as £4 next year, the beer industry warned today.

The massive hike, which is also expected to affect cans bought from off-licences, is due largely to increased prices of key ingredients barley and hops – in part because farmland is being turned over to environment-friendly biofuels.

But brewers are also suffering from rises in fuel costs and the price of the metals used to produce kegs and cans.

Kegs are now so valuable that they have become a target for thieves, who stole 60 million this year to melt down for their metal.

Mark Hastings, director of communications at the British Beer and Pub Association, said: "Food prices have increased dramatically and that has affected, for us, the price of barley and hops, which have rocketed tremendously.

"But on top of that, we have also got increases in commodity prices, so for example, with the kegs and cans that we put beer into, the cost of metal has escalated dramatically.

"On top of that, because kegs are such valuable items we are losing a lot of them – about 60 million a year are being thieved at present to melt down into metal.

"Then we have also got things like fuel prices, which affect both the cost of producing the beer in the first place and then transporting it to and from pubs, because beer is quite a bulky product and it actually costs quite a lot to drive it to and from places.

"All these factors have increased the cost of being a brewer quite dramatically. Brewers have been clinging on for the last two years, trying to contain prices and we have seen consolidation in the market – brewers buying out other brewers to try to contain costs. We have also seen job losses in the sector – about 2000 have gone this year.

"But now there is no more to carve out of the business so the only thing that we are able to do is to put prices up. Nobody wants to do it. The last thing the industry wants is more expensive beer."

Mr Hastings said the price hike came against a general decline in British beer sales, with some 14 million fewer pints a day being served in pubs than in the past.

Beer drinkers around the world were suffering from higher prices, as the increase in the cost of barley and hops was felt in countries across Europe and beyond.

"The crunch in things like barley and hops is a worldwide issue," he said.

"There have been crop failures and you have got the huge influx of biofuels into the agricultural market, which is squeezing other crops out, as people begin to plant crops for biofuel rather than consumption."

http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Dri ... 3617867.jp

:cry:
 
Drinkers warned the £4 pint is heading towards their local :shock:
Andrew Woodcock

THE average price of a pint in Britain's pubs could soar from around £2.20 to as much as £4 next year, the beer industry warned today.

The massive hike, which is also expected to affect cans bought from off-licences, is due largely to increased prices of key ingredients barley and hops – in part because farmland is being turned over to environment-friendly biofuels.

But brewers are also suffering from rises in fuel costs and the price of the metals used to produce kegs and cans.

Kegs are now so valuable that they have become a target for thieves, who stole 60 million this year to melt down for their metal.

Mark Hastings, director of communications at the British Beer and Pub Association, said: "Food prices have increased dramatically and that has affected, for us, the price of barley and hops, which have rocketed tremendously.

"But on top of that, we have also got increases in commodity prices, so for example, with the kegs and cans that we put beer into, the cost of metal has escalated dramatically.

"On top of that, because kegs are such valuable items we are losing a lot of them – about 60 million a year are being thieved at present to melt down into metal.

"Then we have also got things like fuel prices, which affect both the cost of producing the beer in the first place and then transporting it to and from pubs, because beer is quite a bulky product and it actually costs quite a lot to drive it to and from places.

"All these factors have increased the cost of being a brewer quite dramatically. Brewers have been clinging on for the last two years, trying to contain prices and we have seen consolidation in the market – brewers buying out other brewers to try to contain costs. We have also seen job losses in the sector – about 2000 have gone this year.

"But now there is no more to carve out of the business so the only thing that we are able to do is to put prices up. Nobody wants to do it. The last thing the industry wants is more expensive beer."

Mr Hastings said the price hike came against a general decline in British beer sales, with some 14 million fewer pints a day being served in pubs than in the past.

Beer drinkers around the world were suffering from higher prices, as the increase in the cost of barley and hops was felt in countries across Europe and beyond.

"The crunch in things like barley and hops is a worldwide issue," he said.

"There have been crop failures and you have got the huge influx of biofuels into the agricultural market, which is squeezing other crops out, as people begin to plant crops for biofuel rather than consumption."

http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Dri ... 3617867.jp

:cry:
 
This is even more serious:

Student died after drinking games

An 18-year-old student died after taking part in drinking games on a pub crawl, an Exeter inquest has been told.
Gavin Britton joined fellow golfers from the University of Exeter, drinking at a dozen pubs in November 2006.

The student from Barton-on-Sea, Hampshire, was found dead at the Phoenix Arts Centre in Exeter, Devon, the following morning.

The coroner recorded a verdict of death by alcohol poisoning and said it was a "sad case of a wasted life".

But Dr Elizabeth Earland made no recommendations.

The inquest at County Hall heard that during the fancy dress pub crawl Mr Britton drank a mixture of wine, beer and spirits.

In one pub, the first-year accountancy and finance undergraduate was chosen to stand on a stool and drink vodka, gin and pineapple juice from a half-pint glass.

He was violently sick, but continued drinking in four more pubs.

'Score card'

University golf team member Alexander McGregor told the inquest Mr Britton was a member of the university golf society.

He said during a pub golf game each person was given a score card to record how many attempts they took to down an alcoholic drink in each pub.

"Everyone knew what was going on. No-one was pressurised into going along," he said.

Mr McGregor said the last time he saw Mr Britton was in the Timepiece bar around 2100 GMT.

Mr Britton's body was discovered at the Phoenix Arts Centre at about 0800 GMT the following morning.

A post-mortem examination revealed the cause of death was aspiration of gastric contents due to ethanol poisoning.

Dr Earland said: "I am satisfied Gavin voluntarily drank the alcohol that killed him and had done so on previous occasions.

"This is a sad tale of a wasted life and I consider that the evidence speaks for itself and there is no need to make recommendations."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7264962.stm

Brought to you by rynner, one-time Exeter student and piss-artist.... :(
 
The Big Question: Why are so many pubs shutting down, and is their decline bad for society?

Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
Thursday, 6 March 2008

Why are we asking this now?

Because pub closures have escalated in the past year. According to the British Beer and Pubs Association, 27 pubs a week closed in 2007 – seven times faster than the previous year and 14 times faster than 2005. This means that four pubs a day are closing.

The figures have been released a week before The Budget. The Government has run out of money, and the pub industry is anxious that the Government does not put up beer taxes. "Beer sales in pubs – the backbone of the trade – are now at their lowest level since the Great Depression of the 1930s," says the BBPA. "This is all the more reason to freeze the duty on beer in this year's Budget."

Fellow trade body the Wine and Spirit Trade Association is furiously lobbying too, though research shows that the public does not mind taxation on drink very much. Still, there is little doubt that the pub, one of the archetypes of British life and one of its most cherished institutions, is under threat.

So are rural pubs the hardest hit?

No. Although the small community pub has been under pressure for years, the latest spate of closures has swerved like a whirlwind down the crowded, highly-competitive high street.

Smaller chains have been struggling to stay afloat. The London-based Massive Pub Company has put most of its pubs in administration. Regents Inns, the owner of the Walkabout Australian themed pubs, is looking to sell off some of its premises and has been in takeover talks. The Laurel Pub Company has put 94 pubs up for sale. Last month the large Greene King pub chain, which has a record of lifting profits year after year, reported flat trade at its community-based pubs. According to the BBPA, two per cent of all urban pubs have closed in the past six months.

But aren't they just being turnedinto bars?

Many pubs are being lost with their conversion into trendier bars that serve up a wider range of drinks and louder music but no tradition. However the exact number is hard to glean because the BBPA figures include both pubs and bars. Camra, the real ale campaign, says that 56 pubs are closing every month. Because of the rise of bars, the overall number of licensed premises may be staying the same while pub numbers lurch ever sharply downwards.

Why are pubs in trouble?

Ask a publican and stand well back: rising rent, rates, fuel, property, taxation, lower disposable income (thanks to higher household bills and mortgages), the smoking ban, the trend towards wine drinking, and fierce competition from off-licences, newsagents and supermarkets.

Pubs without the room to provide an attractive outside areas for smokers, and those that are not big on food have faced particular difficulties. The move towards spirits and wine has hit the beery pub. Research shows that there has been a marked trend in the rise of "pre-loading", where drinkers, young adults mostly, buy booze from a shop and down it at home before groggily wandering off to a pub or bar, thereby spending less money on binge drinking.

But perhaps the clincher is that we seem to be drinking less overall, not just in pubs but everywhere from the park bench to the House of Commons. Although the Office for National Statistics cannot be sure that people are being truthful about how much they say they drink, it thinks alcohol consumption peaked in 2000 and has fallen every year since. According to the BBPA, average consumption is down 15 per cent on 2000.

What impact has the smoking ban had?

A big one in many traditional pubs, particularly those in inner-city pubs in industrial areas where tobacco consumption is greatest, according to pub groups. It is too early for a proper assessment of the ban, which was introduced in England and Wales on 1 July last year, but anecdotal evidence suggests that smokers' willingness to continue using pubs when it means going outside in all weathers just to light up may be limited. The other big legislative change has been the shake-up of the licensing laws. The 2003 Licensing Act which brought in round-the-clock drinking in November 2005 has encouraged drinking in the small hours in bars and clubs rather than in pubs, which rarely serve after midnight.

What is the Government doing?

With heavy drinking placing a burden on the police and hospitals, there is no early prospect of a "save our pubs" campaign from Downing Street.

Should we be concerned by the demise of the pub?

Pubs have evolved since their beginnings and are likely to continue to do so. They hark back to the 12th century when everyone baked their own bread and brewed their own beer. Those who brewed good beer opened pubs, or inns, and they have been gradually adapting to new innovations, such as the jukebox and chilled white wine. Pubs do, though, have certain characteristics which set them apart from sleeker, more modern bars. Pubs are also recognisably British, as much a feature of UK life as the red postbox or the London black cab.

Are pubs important to the nationalway of life?

Pubs were – and still are – something of a leveller in British society, a place where the stiff-upper lip can unfurl around a pint. They provide a meeting point for people who might not, at least at first, be invited into our homes. They are purveyors of real ale – the warm beer eulogised by John Major – which is arguably one of Britain's great contributions to international food and drink.

Where else but the pub can you find a place that so inexplicably combines the style of a front room with that of an agricultural outbuilding, with the bonus of draught alcohol. "When you get to the pub, you leave the troubles and hierarchies of the outside world at the door," says Pete Brown, blogger and author of Man Walks Into A Pub. "When you say, 'do you fancy a pint' at work it means you can go offline – and relax. When we are in the pub we can be ourselves and as a nation we are quite stiff and reserved and we need the pub to give us a nudge and break down social barriers."

Most people drink moderately, and enjoyably, when they go to the pub. At the last count there were 57,173 left. But every day you will have to subtract four from that figure.

Does it matter that pubs may be on the way out?

Yes...

* Pubs are a great historical and social tradition, part of the fabric that holds the country together

* They are vital for keeping alive some of the UK's great rural buildings and one of its culinary specialities – real ale

* Publicans are showing that they can adapt to modern times by introducing air conditioning, subtler lighting, wine and better food

No...

* Pubs are dingy, old-fashioned places that have failed to cater for more sophisticated drinkers

* They can encourage young men towards excess consumption of alcohol with consequent social problems

* Too many pubs remain rooted in a male-dominated culture that is unsympathetic to women and children

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-is-their-decline-bad-for-society-792022.html
 
Boarded-up pubs are a familiar sight now around here. Like disused churches, theatres and cinemas, I feel a pang of guilt at not having supported them better.

I'd guess that the smoking ban put the nail in the coffin of many working-class pubs but the trade had been declining before it, due to cheap supermarket booze and cross-channel runs.

A pint of well-kept ale in a proper palace of pissery is soon going to seem as nostalgic as a Cinemascope evening at the Odeon. Now I am feeling thirsty but I know I'll get only as far as the fridge. :(
 
So, after the budget, how many of us Brits have been out stocking up on the demon drink before the prices rise on Sunday night?

I must admit I have, although I know it's a false economy.

Normally I buy just enough for one night's consumption - but if there's more booze in the house I'm liable to weaken and drink it all! :(

(It was less than two decades ago that a pint in a pub was less than a pound - nowadays that figure is hovering around three pounds! :shock: )
 
R4's The Now Show pointed out the incongruity of attempting to curb binge drinking by raising booze prices immediately after this weekend. :lol:
 
The Bushmills distillery in County Antrim is marking 400 years of rude health and smooth measures
writes Jonathan Ray

....the Old Bushmills Whiskey Distillery is currently en fête, celebrating the 400th anniversary of its licence to distil.

Whiskey was made here for many years before King James I granted a licence in 1608 and no other distillery in the world can boast such a heritage. As for Ireland, the only other two active distilleries, which produce dozens of brands between them, were founded in 1975 and 1989.

"We're proud of our history, of course," Colum Egan, Bushmills's master distiller (right), tells me the next day. "But we're not good because we're old; we're old because we're good. We make our whiskey the way we've always made it, the only difference being that modern technology makes the making easier to control."

Bushmills has always been rather understated in its marketing and advertising - unlike competitors such as Dublin-based Jameson, say - and its output is comparatively small, about 400,000 cases a year.

But Egan explains that, since its purchase by Diageo in 2005, sales are expected to double and the distillery has moved to a seven-day-a-week operation. The stated aim is to produce a million cases a year by 2011. There is also some glossy advertising on the way.

"Now we're talking about our whiskey a bit more, demand is soaring," says Egan. "We're the only distillery in Ireland to make triple-distilled malt whiskey, something that gives all our expressions their unique combination of smoothness and richness and their distinct honey-sweet taste. We seem to be gaining new converts each week."

Egan takes me on a tour of the distillery, explaining that, to qualify as Irish whiskey, the spirit must be made from cereal, be distilled and bottled in Ireland, and aged for at least three years in oak barrels.

The triple distillation gives lightness, fruitiness and delicacy to the whiskey, while the oak barrels add colour and - depending on what they previously contained, perhaps bourbon or sherry - elusive hints of nuts, spice, almonds and vanilla.

We settle down for a tasting of the Bushmills range, starting with the blended Bushmills Original. "Our gentle giant," says Egan.

"It's a friendly whiskey, aged mainly in bourbon casks. Instantly familiar from the first sip, it's like a warm Irish welcome." Light and fruity, with a touch of vanilla and spice, it goes down awfully easily.

Then on to the company's second blend, Black Bush, aged mainly in sherry casks. "Our loveable rogue," says Egan. "It's bigger and bolder than Original, yes, but delicate too, and seems to float on your tongue without touching it."

This also goes down a treat. Egan reckons that white-wine drinkers naturally prefer Original and red-wine drinkers have a liking for Black Bush.

"As with wine, I try to match the whiskey to the occasion," he says. "If I'm on my own, I'll have Original. If I have my buddies round to watch the rugby, I'll open the Black Bush. It makes folk talk for some reason."

The 10-, 16- and 21-year-old malts follow, before we finish with a well-earned glass of 1608, which was created especially for the company's 400th anniversary.

All are quite different, although a similar smooth, mellow sweetness runs through them like a thread. For me, the 16-year-old is the one to linger over. Aged in a combination of port, sherry and bourbon casks, it is full of leathery spice, honeyed almond and chocolate flavours.

I fully intend to add it to my health regime from now on: I can't think of a finer way of staving off the first signs of gout and rheumatism.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/wine/main.jh ... ine128.xml

Happy Birthday! Cheers!
 
A beery past imperilled
The closure of Britain's only national brewery museum will condemn a rich cultural history
Roger Protz The Guardian, Friday April 4 2008

Great brewing nations celebrate the contribution beer has made to their development as civilised societies with dedicated museums. The Czech Republic has two; Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Poland have one each. Even tiny Slovenia has a brewing museum in Ljubljana, while the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin attracts a million visitors a year.

But Britain stands to lose its sole major brewery museum in June when Coors closes its visitor centre in Burton-on-Trent. It began life more than 20 years ago as the Bass Museum, but Bass sold its breweries in 2000 to Coors, a giant US brewer whose main interest has been sales of Carling lager. It has no roots in British brewing and little understanding of the contribution the industry has made to our history and economy.

Should we care? Brewing is one of the last major British industries. It makes a sizable contribution to the wealth of the nation. Above all, it still brews a type of beer - ale - that has disappeared from most of the world. While sales of global brands such as Carling and Stella Artois are falling, independent British brewing is enjoying a renaissance. Craft brewers are meeting the consumer clamour for local food and drink.

Burton-on-Trent became an important brewing centre as early as the 11th century, when the monks of Burton Abbey were encouraged to make ale by the Earl of Mercia - aided by a constant supply of pure, hard spring water from the Trent valley. It was this water, allied to the new technologies of the industrial revolution, that enabled brewers in the town to fashion a groundbreaking, globally exported style of beer: pale ale.

The small town of Burton heaved with breweries and their armies of workers. The brewers developed their own private railways to feed into the new national network. When St Pancras station was built in London in the 1860s, its cellars were designed to take great wooden hogsheads of Burton ale.

All this history is brilliantly depicted in the Burton museum and shows how beer and brewing are part of the warp and weft of British society. The museum and the history it encapsulates must not be allowed to fall to the Coors axe.

· Roger Protz edits the Camra Good Beer Guide. For more information on saving the museum see beer-pages.com

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... odanddrink
 
The Demon Drink...

Drunk Russian sleeps off knifing

A Russian man trying to sleep off a night of after-work drinking failed to notice a six-inch (15-cm) knife in his back - until his wife woke him up.

Yuri Lyalin, 53, took a bus home, ate breakfast and apparently slept like a baby before his spouse noticed a handle sticking out of his back.

He was rushed to casualty but doctors found no vital organs damaged.

Mr Lyalin shrugged the episode off but the drinking partner who stabbed him faces trial, Russian media report.

"Unique and intriguing the case may be, but the accused faces a severe punishment," said Pavel Vorobyov, a deputy prosecutor in the northern city of Vologda.

'We were drinking'

Mr Lyalin, an electrician, had spent the evening drinking with a watchman at his workplace when they got into an argument, Interfax news agency reports.

The morning found him waking up in the watchman's office but instead of going back to work, he decided to take the bus home.

At home, Mr Lyalin had some sausage from the fridge and lay down to sleep, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper says.

After a couple of hours, his wife noticed the handle sticking out of his back and called an ambulance.

Viktor Belov, a surgeon who treated him, found a kitchen knife in Mr Lyalin's back but "by good fortune, it had gone through soft tissue without touching vital organs".

His alleged attacker reported the crime to the police himself, Interfax adds. Mr Lyalin apparently feels fine and bears no ill-will.

"We were drinking and what doesn't happen when you're drunk?" he was quoted by Komsomolskaya Pravda as saying.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/ ... ?src=ip_ra
 
Now here's a shock-horror story!

Ochone! Japanese whisky is voted the best in world
Stuart MacDonald and Shota Ushio

Like English wine, it has suffered from the taint of inauthenticity and has been the butt of condescending jokes. Now Japanese whisky has finally scotched all criticism by being voted the best in the world, ahead of its Highland rivals.

Yoichi 20 years old, distilled on the shores of the Sea of Japan, has become the first variety produced outside Scotland to win the coveted single malt award in an international competition run by Whisky Magazine, the main industry publication.

The whisky, distilled near the city of Sapporo on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, beat dozens of other varieties, including last year’s winner, Talisker 18 years old, produced on the Isle of Skye.

Suntory Hibiki, the brand advertised by the washed-up actor played by Bill Murray in the film Lost in Translation, scooped the award for the world’s best blended whisky. The historic double for Japanese whiskies has provoked consternation in Scotland, where whisky is as integral to a certain strand of national identity as bagpipes, haggis and the kilt.

Yoichi 20 years old, which sells for £150 a bottle, was praised by the judges for its “amazing mix of big smoke and sweet blackcurrant”, “explosive aroma” and “big, long and sweet finish”.

The decision to give the top prize to Yoichi followed a blind tasting of more than 200 of the world’s finest varieties by a panel of 16 of the world’s leading whisky experts.

The judges said Japanese distillers had succeeded in producing top Scotch thanks to the variable climate in Japan, which assists maturation and creates a purer whisky with a heightened aroma.

Traditional distilling apparatus such as coal-fired pot stills, used widely in Japan but rarely seen in Scotland, was also praised for producing a superior dram.

“Japanese whiskies performed magnificently and they are really starting to make waves,” said Rob Allanson, editor of Whisky Magazine.

Nikka, the company that produces Yoichi, and Suntory, the biggest spirits company in Japan, are making inroads into the British whisky market.

Tetsuji Hisamitsu, chief blender at the Yoichi distillery, said he was “very moved” by the award.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_a ... 822531.ece
 
A serious and interesting insight into alcohol use:

Shrew that drinks 3.8% palm beer every night, but never gets drunk
Last Updated: 10:01pm BST 28/07/2008

Malaysia's pen-tailed treeshrew has been a regular beer consumer for millions of years and can drink the average human under the table, say scientists.
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor.

The small rat sized mammal, which closely resembles our earliest primate relatives, has been found to sup naturally occurring 3.8 per cent proof palm beer every night and has done so generation after generation for up to 55 million years, aeons before humans evolved.

Despite spending at least two hours drinking on its flower bud pub crawls, the treeshrew never gets tipsy and this, according to scientists who report the remarkable find, could give clues to how to deal with alcohol abuse, which costs British society around £20 billion annually.

This suggests the animal can break alcohol down much more efficiently than we can, hints at wider benefits of alcohol than thought, and sheds a whole new light on the evolution of human alcoholism.

"This discovery will probably not lead directly to a cure for human alcoholism in the sense that they have something that we can copy and are less vulnerable, Dr Frank Wiens tells the Telegraph.

But it can also not be ruled out, he adds. "In a general way, I think it likely that understanding the causes and consequences of treeshrew alcohol drinking in the natural environment will give new directions in the search for better therapies."

Dr Wiens reports the discovery of the first recorded chronic alcohol intake in the wild today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences with Dr Annette Zitzmann, also from the University of Bayreuth.

They add that alcohol use and abuse can no longer be blamed on the inventors of brewing about 9,000 years ago.

Current theories on alcoholism postulate that mankind and his ancestors were either used to take no alcohol at all or maybe only low doses in fermented fruits - before the onset of beer brewing.

As brewing is such a recent event on the evolutionary time scale, we were not able to develop an adequate way to prevent the adverse effects of alcohol, notably alcoholism.

Thus today's alcohol woes mean that society is, according to the team, suffering "an evolutionary hangover".

Contrary to this belief, chronic high consumption of alcohol already occurred early on in primate evolution according to Dr Wiens, who worked with an international team from Germany, Canada, Luxemburg, Switzerland, and Malaysia.

Humans are no longer the only animals to regularly imbibe alcohol, having now been joined in this drinking club by these distant relatives.

'Alcohol consuming treeshrews are not real shrews. In fact, they belong to the primates' closest living relatives and are ecologically and behaviourally comparable to their extinct ancestors that lived more than 55 million years ago. Studying these fascinating creatures is an unexpected golden opportunity to learn about the causes and consequences of real-life drinking.'

The wild pentailed treeshrew Ptilocercus lowii from the West-Malaysian rainforest spends its nights licking fermented nectar of the bertam palm. 'This palm is brewing its own beer with the help of a team of yeast species, several of them new to science,' explains Dr Wiens.

The highest alcohol percentage the scientists could measure in the nectar was an impressive 3.8 per cent 'It reaches among the highest alcohol content ever reported in natural food.'

The palm tree keeps its nectar beer flowing from specialised smelly flower buds for a month and a half before the pollen is ripe, probably to keep a guaranteed clientele of potential pollinators visiting.

Unlike most plants the bertam palm flowers almost year-round. The alcohol consumption of treeshrews and their drinking companions - six other mammal species are also "regulars" - is therefore chronic.

Hair sample analysis showed that the pentailed treeshrew takes in alcohol at a rate dangerous to other mammals.

Treeshrews are very hard to see or catch, but video surveillance at palm sites and spying on several radio-collared individuals showed that they drank nectar for more than two hours each night - more time than they used for any other food source.

Although their size is in between that of a mouse and a rat and they weigh a mere 47 grams, they did not show any "motion coordination problems" or other signs of being drunk, even though by human standards they consumed enough to be legless once in every three nights.

Dr Wiens believes that there are actually positive psychological effects of the treeshrews' alcohol consumption: 'The trait of alcohol consumption is actively maintained during evolution, so the overall effect must be beneficial. Future research has to prove if this is true and may explain past and current human drinking habits.'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.j ... rew128.xml
 
Drinkers forced to clean own mess
By Alex Bushill
BBC News, Torquay, Devon

With politicians calling for a crackdown on alcohol-fuelled disorder, police in Torquay have come up with a solution to one of the more anti-social aspects of drinking far too much.

You would expect a police van to be well equipped - handcuffs, truncheons, helmets and armour.

But what about a mop and bucket?

I found myself hurtling down Torquay's palmed-fringed seafront with a local patrol - who can only really be described as the "mop cops".

Police in the Devon resort have decided to clean up their town, quite literally.

For the last few months anyone caught peeing in the streets after one too many drinks on the town will be given a choice: either face arrest for being drunk and disorderly, or take a mop and bucket and clean up your own mess.

But as the finer details of this unusual campaign were being explained to me in the back of the police van, we pulled up abruptly.

We had been on patrol for all of two minutes and they had already caught their first piddler, red-handed.

He was just a teenager, clearly under the influence and shocked at all the unwanted attention.

Presented with his choice, he did not take long to decide.

Moments later, his head bowed, his face hidden by his hooded top, he was hunched over his own trail of wee, mopping away.

I asked him if he accepted the punishment - and he gruffly replied "yeah".

He was clearly not enjoying this, as his friends watched and laughed. But he was soon on his way after a ticking-off from Sgt Nick Healy. The boy assured him he wouldn't do it again.

The idea was the brainchild of Supt Chris Singer, who calls this approach to policing "restorative justice".

"People need to take responsibility for their actions", he said.

I asked him if this wasn't just primitive policing, akin to wiping a puppy's nose in its own mess?

It's not a comparison he shared.

"No, it isn't at all. It is a simple and straightforward approach.

"There is a hygiene element to all of this. Urine is left in a doorway for somebody else to clear up - why should somebody else clear it up?

"We're saying, you've committed an offence, now please clear it up."

While we were filming, someone else relieved themselves down a hidden alleyway.

This time it is just a ticking off; the mop and bucket are left in the van.

But his excuse?

"Well, if there wasn't such a long queue in the club, I wouldn't have done it."

Others differ. Speak to anyone on the street on a busy Friday night and the vast majority will tell you urinating in public is unacceptable.

It's a view echoed by local businessmen who, the morning after the night before, have to clear up after a heavy night.

One restaurateur complained of how a reveller urinated against his restaurant window, while diners would be eating. :shock:

But back on the busy streets of Torquay, the night was winding down. The police packed up their kit and the mop was put away for now.

And as we made our way back home, one officer confided in me.

Perhaps those made to use the mop should count themselves lucky - he told me that there was a time when anyone caught peeing in the streets would have been made to clear it up with their own shirts. :twisted:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7719119.stm
 
Brewed in the 'atmos-beer'

Japanese beer brewed from barley which was grown on the international space station orbiting the Earth, has finally been tasted.

The Space Beer will not go on sale, but should help scientists decide which crops astronauts could take with them on prolonged space flights on future missions exploring places like Mars.

Cosmonaut Dr Boris Morukov who spent 11 days in space says potatoes may one day be grown, but not to make space vodka.

(with video)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7761616.stm
 
France abuzz over alcoholic 'cure'
By Hugh Schofield
Paris

An eminent French cardiologist has triggered an impassioned debate in the medical world over his claim to have discovered a cure for alcoholism.

Dr Olivier Ameisen, 55, one of France's top heart specialists, says he overcame his own addiction to alcohol by self-administering doses of a muscle-relaxant called baclofen.

He has now written a book about his experience - Le Dernier Verre (The Last Glass) - in which he calls for clinical trials to test his theory that baclofen suppresses the craving for drink.

Widespread media coverage of his book in France has led to a rush of demands from alcoholics for similar treatment, and some doctors have reported unexpected successes after prescribing it.

But many other specialists are sceptical, warning of the dangers of so-called miracle cures.

Dr Ameisen was associate professor of cardiology at New York's Cornell University, and in 1994 he opened a profitable private practice in Manhattan.

But, stricken by an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy - he says he felt like "an impostor waiting to be unmasked" - he found relief in large quantities of whisky and gin.

"I detested the taste of alcohol. But I needed its effects to exist in society," he says in Le Dernier Verre, which comes out in English next month.

Dr Ameisen says he tried every known remedy to end his dependence. Between 1997 and 1999 he spent a total of nine months confined in clinics - but nothing worked.

Fearing for his own patients, he gave up his practice and returned to Paris. Then, in 2000, he read an article about an American man who was treated with baclofen for muscle spasms and found that it eased his addiction to cocaine.

Further investigation uncovered research showing that the drug worked on rats to cut addiction to alcohol or cocaine.

But, strangely, Dr Ameisen found that baclofen was unknown to specialists on dependence.

In March 2002 he began treating himself with daily doses of five milligrams.

"The first effects were a magical muscular relaxation and baby-like sleep," he says. Almost immediately he also detected a lessening in his desire for drink.

Gradually, he increased the daily dosage to a maximum of 270mg, and found that he was "cured". Today he continues to take 30 to 50mg a day.

"Mine is the first case in which a course of medicine has completely suppressed alcohol addiction," he says.

"Now I can have a glass and it has no effect. Above all, I no longer have that irrepressible need to drink."

With its eye-catching message, Le Dernier Verre has been an autumn best-seller - prompting thousands of recovering alcoholics to ask to be prescribed with baclofen.

Some doctors have decided to ignore the fact that the drug is not authorised for treating alcoholism, and report exciting results.

"I prescribed it to two alcoholics who were really at the end of the road. To be honest, it was pretty miraculous," says Dr Renaud de Beaurepaire of the Paul-Guiraud hospital at Villejuif near Paris.

In Geneva, Dr Pascal Garche put 12 patients on baclofen, of whom seven came through reporting marked improvements.

"I have never had reactions like this before. We cannot ignore findings such as this - the book is going to set the cat among the pigeons," he said.

However, many specialists fear that media excitement over Dr Ameisen's theory is obscuring the complex nature of alcoholism.

"Encouraging people to think that there is a miracle molecule is to completely misunderstand the nature of alcoholism, and is extremely irresponsible, " says Dr Michel Reynaud of Paul-Brousse hospital in Paris.

"We need comprehensive tests to determine how this drug acts, if it is effective and at what dosage, and if it is genuinely harmless in the longer term, " says Alain Rigaud, president of the National Association for the Prevention of Alcoholism and Addiction.

"But even if it turns out to work, that does not mean a drug alone is the solution."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7768141.stm
 
Doctor creates 'world's healthiest wine'
It sounds too good to be true. An Australian doctor claims to have created the world’s healthiest wine.

Last Updated: 8:08AM GMT 16 Dec 2008

The drink purports to clean blood vessels and reduce the risk of heart attack with each glass.

Developed by Sydney doctor and wine historian Dr Philip Norrie, each bottle contains up to 100 times the amount of resveratrol - a naturally occurring anti-oxidant found in grapes - than a standard drop.

Resveratrol helps to maintain blood flow by keeping arteries free of fatty deposits called atherosclerotic plaque.

Dr Norrie said a wine infused with high levels of the odourless, tasteless anti-oxidant would act as a “vascular pipe-cleaner”.

“While the positive effects of moderate wine consumption have long been documented, the inclusion of such large quantities of this beneficial anti-oxidant is very good news for wine drinkers,” he told Australian Associated Press.

“What we’ve been able to do is boost the amount of resveratrol in wine and you wont even know its there ... you’re effectively clearing your arteries while you drink.

“Getting people to stop smoking, exercise and lose weight, is a nice idea but in reality it doesn’t happen. Drinking two glasses of wine is realistic, enjoyable and also good for you and I’ve made it even healthier,” he said.

Dr Norrie is now producing his own range of wine, including a chardonnay and a shiraz, each containing 100mg/L of resveratrol per bottle.

He said this was as much as is contained in 70 to 100 bottles of standard white wine or 15 to 20 bottles of standard red.

“I stress that these benefits are best realised with moderate drinking,” Dr Norrie said in a warning to any connoisseurs planning a wine-based health kick. ;)

University of Queensland cardiologist Associate Professor David Colquhoun also stressed the need for “moderate” consumption as he said the benefits of resveratrol were well known.

“Studies have strongly suggested that consumption of wine rich in resveratrol can lessen cardio-vascular disease, heart attack and stroke, he said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/dieta ... -wine.html

I could probably do with a case of that!
 
rynner2 said:
Dr Norrie said a wine infused with high levels of the odourless, tasteless anti-oxidant would act as a “vascular pipe-cleaner”.

:shock:

Ow.
 
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