Here’s some not-so-sobering news for party people, barhoppers and clubgoers. Individuals who inherit a particular gene variant that tweaks the brain’s reward system are especially likely to drink a lot of alcohol in the company of heavy-boozing peers.

That’s the preliminary indication of a new study directed by psychology graduate student Helle Larsen of Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Adults carrying at least one copy of a long version of the dopamine D4 receptor gene, dubbed DRD4, imbibed substantially more alcohol around a heavy-drinking peer than did others who lacked that gene variant, Larsen’s group reports in a paper published online July 7 in Psychological Science.
 

Drinking may harm adolescents' ability to concentrate and to understand spatial relationships. A recent study led by Susan Tapert at the University of California, San Diego compared the standardized test scores of 76 12 to 14 year old kids with their scores after about three years. At the three-year follow-up, 36 of the kids had begun drinking at moderate to heavy levels and 40 continued not using alcohol or other drugs. The study defined moderate to heavy drinking as drinking at least monthly and having three or more drinks at a time, or drinking less frequently, but having four or more drinks at a time. The kids in this study were consuming an average of about eight drinks per month by the time they reached the follow-up.

In 2002, Joe Nichols released his first album for Universal South. 'Man with a Memory' was a resounding success with critics, and featured two smash hits, 'The Impossible' and 'Brokenheartsville,' a sweet, personal ballad and a humor- (and booze)- fueled honky-tonk tale, respectively. A string of hits, including Top 10s such as 'If Nobody Believed in You,' 'What's a Guy Gotta Do, and 'Size Matters (Someday)' followed, along with the chart-topping 'Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off.'

What Not To Do...

Alcohol: What You Don't Know Can Harm You

If you are like many Americans, you may drink alcohol occasionally. Or, like others, you may drink moderate amounts of alcohol on a more regular basis. If you are a woman or someone over the age of 65, this means that you have no more than one drink per day; if you are a man, this means that you have no more than two drinks per day. Drinking at these levels usually is not associated with health risks and can help to prevent certain forms of heart disease.

But did you know that even moderate drinking, under certain circumstances, is not risk free? And that if you drink at more than moderate levels, you may be putting yourself at risk for serious problems with your health and problems with family, friends, and coworkers? This document explains some of the consequences of drinking that you may not have considered.