Tag: newspaper

Should you drink one glass of alcohol to reduce your stroke risk?

~ BS

The answer: no. For a long time there has been doubt whether or not we should believe the observational data whether or not limited alcohol use is in fact good for. You know, the old “U-curve” association. Now, with some smart thinking from the KADORIE guys from China/ Oxford as well as some other methods experts, the ultimate analyses has been done: A Mendelian Randomization study published recently in the Lancet.

If you wanna know what that actually does, you can read a paper I co-wrote a couple of years ago for NDT or the version in Dutch for the NTVG. In short, the technique uses genetic variation as a proxy for the actual phenotype you are interested in. This can be a biomarker, or in this case, alcohol consumption. A large proportion of the Chinese population has some genetic variations in the genes that code for the enzymes that break down alcohol in your blood. These genetic markers are therefore a good indicators how much you can actually can drink – at least on a group level. And as in most regions in China alcohol drinking is the standard, at least for men- how much you can drink is actually a good proxy of how much you actually do drink. Analyse the risk of stroke according the unbiased genetic determined alcohol consumption instead of the traditional questionnaire based alcohol consumption and voila: No U curve in sight –> No protective effect of drinking a little bit of alcohol.

Why I am writing about that study on my own blog? I didn’t work on the research, that is for sure! No, it is because the Dutch newspaper NRC actually contacted me to get some background information which I was happy to do. The science section in the NRC has always been one of the best in the NL, which made it quite an honor as well as an adventure to get involved like that. The journalist, SV, did an excellent job or wrapping all what we discussed in that 30-40 video call into just under 600 words, which you can read here (Dutch).  I really learned a lot helping out and I am looking forward doing this type of work sometime in the future.

Research in the media

~ BS

Research in the media. It is however not my own research, but these two newspaper articles are related to my research.The first article (pdf) is on the role of helmets for scooters. This is linked to the publication on the risks related to motorised two-wheel vehicle crashes. (cick here for the pubmed entry)
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The second article from the same edition of the NRC is related to the topic of my thesis. It is about the role of FXII in thrombosis, based on a publication by Thomas Renne et al in Science translational medicine. Antibodies against FXII downregulate the pathological thrombogenenis during extracorporeal circulation. These antibodies might be used in the prevention of clots during heart-lung surgery, but might also be applied in the prevention of thrombosis, both arterial and venous. Click here (pdf) for the NRC newspaper article, and here for the original research by Renne et al.

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