Alcohol abuse eclipsing heroin

From The Australian, 23 February 2008:
Awareness that Australia has a drinking problem has reached the highest levels of government, writes Bianca Nogrady.
ANDREW didn't think his friends had a drinking problem. That is, until a few drink-driving offences landed him in the Odyssey House drug and alcohol rehabilitation program. Now Andrew sees alcohol a little differently.
"I was drinking pretty much half a bottle to a bottle of bourbon a night, and a six pack of beers," he says. "I sort of thought I had a drinking problem, but I thought I had youth on my side -- I thought it wasn't something I had to address right now. (I thought) it wasn't causing much of a problem for me -- but it was causing a problem for my health."
That's putting it mildly. When he came off alcohol he had "the DTs", or delirium tremens -- the confusion, disorientation and agitation sometimes experienced by long-term heavy drinkers who suddenly cut their habit. He had a heart murmur, and his doctors told him he had a high chance of having a stroke. That was just over a year ago. Andrew is 24. Read more.

Talking mad experiments with Wammo on Kiwi FM

From Kiwi FM, 1 November 2007:
Talking with Wammo about the latest in New Scientist magazine, including elephants on LSD and why herpes is bad for the ageing brain. Listen here.

Major cardiac risk in aspirin-resistant patients

From Australian Doctor, 21 January 2008:
BMJ Aspirin resistance, thought to affect up to one-third of patients, is associated with significantly increased cardiovascular morbidity, a comprehensive meta-analysis suggests.
The research, which analysed 20 studies including 2930 patients with cardiovascular disease, found aspirin-resistant patients had an almost sixfold increase in risk of death, were almost four times more likely to experience a cardiovascular event, and were at more than four times greater risk of acute coronary syndrome compared with non-resistant patients. Read more.