With the holiday season high, there is festive cheer, family gatherings and also an undeniable increases in alcohol consumption that fills the air. Christmas and New Year's Eve celebrations to spring break and bachelor parties and sporting events that bring together huge crowds for celebrations mean that drinking becomes synonymous with partying. But behind the revelry lies a much darker behavior: high-intensity drinking.

Alcohol is the most widely used substance in the United States; it has been reported that 84% of adults aged 18 and older reported lifetime use. Moderate drinking is socially acceptable, but high-intensity drinking is an alarming trend. The behavior of consuming eight or more drinks over a few hours for women and 10 or more for men exceeds binge drinking and significantly increases risk for harm.

High-intensity drinking is far from being just a mere passing concern; it is instead a public health crisis. The burden is even greater as 29 million people in the United States suffer from alcohol use disorder. That has caused over 140,000 deaths annually while accounting for 200,000 hospitalizations and 7.4% of visits to emergency departments in the United States. However, only 7.6% of these affected get treated, thus forming a glaring gap in handling this concern.

What Is High-Intensity Drinking?

High-intensity drinking is a dangerous escalation from traditional binge drinking, characterized by consuming double or triple the standard binge amounts. While binge drinking involves four or more drinks for women and five or more for men, high-intensity drinkers often surpass these levels, leading to blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) exceeding 0.2%—a level that significantly impairs judgment and motor skills.

According to Dr. George Koob, the director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), high-intensity drinking is one of the factors that intensify the risks of injuries, overdose, and death. It is also very highly associated with the onset of AUD, since the chance of addiction increases with increased alcohol consumption per occasion.

Blackouts and Memory Loss Risks

One of the most troubling consequences of high-intensity drinking is alcohol-induced blackouts, periods of amnesia where individuals may appear functional but are incapable of forming memories. Blackouts occur when alcohol disrupts the hippocampus, the brain region responsible for memory formation.

Blackouts are often categorized into two types:

1. Fragmentary Blackouts: Characterized by spotty memory, where recalling certain details can trigger partial recollection.

2. En Bloc Blackouts: Significant amnesia for hours, wherein no memory is created at all, even if tried to be recalled.

Aside from memory loss, intense binge drinking is linked with poor decision-making, violence, injury, and conflicts in personal relationships.

Why Holidays and Special Events Are Hotbeds for Excessive Drinking

Holidays and celebrations create the perfect storm for high-intensity drinking. According to research, adults drink nearly double the amount of alcohol during holidays like Christmas and New Year's Eve than they do at any other time of the year. It is during these periods of social gathering, holiday stress, and seasonal sadness that people drink in excess.

For college students, experiences like spring break and 21st birthdays increase the danger. Some studies indicate that students, especially those who travel with buddies to spring break, indulge in more alcohol and make more serious decisions than any student who remains at home or goes with their family to other destinations. Sporting events are, too, notorious for promoting drunk consumption, especially among male customers. Alcohol consumption usually goes high during Super Bowl Sunday, thus leading to games day violence and arrests.

Consequences of Heavy Intensity Drinking

High-intensity drinking impacts not only physical health and mental well-being but also social relationships.

Acute Risks

- Alcohol poisoning

- Severe dehydration and electrolyte imbalances

- Hypoglycemia

- Risky sexual behavior

- Injuries and accidents

Chronic Risks

- Liver damage, alcoholic hepatitis, and cirrhosis

- Cardiovascular diseases such as arrhythmias and cardiomyopathy

- Neurological damage, including memory deficits and blackouts

- Progression to alcohol dependence or AUD

Psychological Impact

High-intensity drinking is strongly linked with increased risks of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. Poor decision-making during episodes can lead to long-lasting consequences, including damaged academic, professional, or personal outcomes.

How to Address the Problem

Combating high-intensity drinking requires education, early intervention, and accessible treatment options. The NIAAA has defined high-intensity drinking to be distinct from binge drinking and has called for targeted approaches to decline prevalence and associated harms.

One promising treatment option is naltrexone, which a medication helps control alcohol cravings. Encouraging in preliminary evidence, more extensive clinical trials will be necessary to ascertain its efficacy more specifically in high-intensity drinkers.

As we head into the holiday season and other special occasions, it is important to heighten awareness of the dangers of high-intensity drinking. A good understanding of long-term consequences and seeking help when alcohol-related issues arise can be the difference between life and death. Celebrations should be about joy and connection, not about the gateway to harm.

If you or someone you know drinks at dangerous levels or have an alcohol use disorder, there is help available. Remember, for suspected cases of alcohol poisoning, dial 911. In this way, we can foster healthier relationships with alcohol and create safer environments for everyone.

Liver cancer rarely announces itself. It creeps in without warning, and by the time symptoms surface, the disease has often progressed to a stage where treatment options shrink, and outcomes worsen. That's why doctors have long called it a "silent killer."

In India, the threat is growing. Rising rates of hepatitis infection, fatty liver disease, and lifestyle-driven risk factors are pushing the numbers up.

Data from the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) shows more than 40,000 new liver cancer cases reported in India, a figure that underscores a mounting public health challenge. The disease also carries a high mortality rate, largely because most cases surface only once treatment options have narrowed.

This fits into a much larger global picture: WHO's newly released Global Status Report on Cancer 2026 warns that annual cancer cases worldwide could climb from 20.6 million today to nearly 35 million by 2050 without urgent intervention, with infections like hepatitis B and C among the preventable risk factors driving a significant share of the burden.

Why Does Liver Cancer Stay Hidden?

The liver is a workhorse organ, filtering toxins, storing nutrients, and keeping the body running, and it can keep functioning almost normally even after cancer takes hold. That resilience is precisely what makes early detection so difficult. When symptoms do appear, they're vague enough to be mistaken for something else entirely:

• Unexplained weight loss
• Persistent fatigue and weakness
• Upper abdominal pain
• Loss of appetite
• Yellowing of the skin and eyes
• Abdominal swelling

Because these signs surface late, patients often delay seeking care, which is exactly why regular health checkups matter most for high-risk groups, including people with chronic liver disease, hepatitis infection, or fatty liver.

What's Driving the Risk?

Liver cancer doesn't appear overnight; it's the result of years of accumulated damage. Key contributors include:

• Chronic Hepatitis B and C infections, among the leading causes worldwide
• Liver cirrhosis, where scar tissue replaces healthy liver tissue
• Fatty liver disease, increasingly common in India amid rising obesity and diabetes
• Excessive alcohol consumption, which steadily damages liver cells
• Family history of liver disease or cancer
• Exposure to toxins through contaminated food
• Smoking, which raises overall cancer risk

India's shifting disease landscape, sedentary routines, poor dietary habits, and metabolic disorders like obesity and diabetes, means liver cancer is no longer just an infectious-disease concern. It's increasingly a lifestyle disease too.

Can It Be Prevented?

The good news: much of this risk is manageable.

• Get vaccinated against Hepatitis B to block the long-term viral infection that often leads to cirrhosis
• Maintain a healthy weight through diet and regular activity, as obesity is closely tied to fatty liver disease
• Manage diabetes and metabolic health, since insulin resistance accelerates liver damage
• Limit or avoid alcohol, a leading cause of cirrhosis
• Avoid tobacco, which compounds cancer risk
• Stay on top of routine screening if you're at risk; this is one of the most critical preventive steps and includes:
  • Liver function tests (LFTs) to catch early signs of inflammation or damage
  • Ultrasound scans every 6 months for those with cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis B or C, or advanced fatty liver disease
  • Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) blood tests, used alongside imaging to flag early tumour changes
  • Advanced imaging (CT or MRI) for more detailed evaluation in high-risk cases

Paired with lifestyle changes and timely medical care, these steps can meaningfully lower the risk of developing liver cancer and support long-term liver health.

Know When to Seek Medical Help

Because liver cancer tends to progress silently, early detection is everything when it comes to improving outcomes. Doctors typically rely on a combination of diagnostic tools, ultrasound scans, AFP blood tests, CT or MRI imaging, and in some cases a liver biopsy, to catch the disease at a more treatable stage.

When caught early, treatment can significantly improve survival odds. The right approach depends on the stage of disease, liver function, and the patient's overall health:

• Liver resection, surgically removing only the cancerous portion of the liver, when the disease is localized
• Liver transplant, replacing the entire diseased liver with a healthy donor liver, in select cases
• Ablation, using radiofrequency or microwave energy to destroy cancer cells with heat
• Targeted therapy, drugs designed to attack specific cancer cells while sparing healthy ones
• Immunotherapy, strengthening the body's own immune system to identify and fight cancer cells

Liver cancer is serious and life-threatening, but early diagnosis through screening, paired with timely medical intervention, can meaningfully improve treatment success and survival rates.

(By Dr. Kundan, Consultant - Surgical Oncology, Manipal Hospital, Ghaziabad_

Women have a higher overall risk and prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and certain other forms of dementia, partly because they tend to live longer than men and because of changes in estrogen levels after menopause.

A new study by researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the University of Exeter suggests that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may be associated with a lower risk of dementia in some women.

“Dementia affects millions of people worldwide, with women making up almost two-thirds of Alzheimer’s disease cases, the main form of dementia. As populations age, understanding how sex-specific factors influence dementia risk is increasingly important,” said Prof Anne-Marie Minihane from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, who led the study.

HRT Linked To Lower Alzheimer’s Risk

The study, published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia, analyzed health data from more than 180,000 postmenopausal women in the UK.

The findings showed:

• 16% lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease among women who had used HRT compared with those who had never used it.
• 10% lower risk of dementia overall was associated with HRT use.
• 26% lower risk of any dementia among women who had undergone surgical menopause and used HRT.
• 16% lower risk of any dementia among women with lower lifetime estrogen exposure due to later menstruation or earlier menopause.

Which Groups Benefited More From HRT?

The association between HRT use and lower dementia risk was stronger in certain groups. These include:

• Women who underwent surgical menopause: Those who used HRT had a 26% lower risk of dementia compared with non-users.
• Women with lower lifetime estrogen exposure: Those who started menstruating later or experienced menopause earlier had a 16% lower risk of dementia with HRT use.
• APOE4 carriers: The association between HRT use and lower dementia risk was stronger among women carrying the APOE4 gene variant, a known risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease.
• Women who started HRT between ages 46 and 56: This group experienced the greatest reduction in dementia risk.
• Timing may matter: The findings support the “critical window” hypothesis, suggesting HRT may offer greater benefits when started closer to the menopausal transition rather than later in life.

Could HRT Support Personalized Care?

The researchers said the findings add to growing evidence that the effects of hormone therapy on brain health are complex and may vary between women.

“While HRT has long been prescribed primarily to relieve menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes and night sweats, this work suggests it may also play a role in long-term cognitive health for some women,” Prof Minihane said.

The latest findings build on previous research from UEA, which found that HRT use was associated with better memory, cognition and larger brain volumes later in life among women carrying the APOE4 variant.

The team said the findings could help support more personalized approaches to HRT prescribing, taking into account factors such as menopause type, genetic risk, lifetime hormone exposure and age at HRT initiation.

Prof David Llewellyn of the University of Exeter Medical School said the findings help identify which women may be more likely to benefit from HRT and when treatment may have the greatest effect.

The association between stress and psoriasis is one of the better-documented cases of the mind and skin connection within dermatology. Consistent across studies, at least in most case series, there is a sizable proportion of patients who experience an important stressful event within the weeks prior to onset or flare-up.

The mechanism is quite clear cut. While the skin is often seen as being passive, it is far from it. Skin itself is immunologically active, having a stress response system of its own, able to produce corticotropin-releasing hormone and cortisol independently from adrenals.

The Mind-Skin Connection

Under prolonged stress, the shift happens in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, leading to a reconfiguration of the immune response towards inflammatory pathways, specifically IL-17 and IL-23 pathway which was targeted by most biologics developed up to now.

Neuro-endocrine innervations lead to the release of neuropeptides such as substance P, attracting inflammatory cells while lowering the threshold of itching. Chronic stress also impairs barrier recovery process, relevant for a disease where the slightest skin damage leads to a plaque formation.

So whenever a patient claims stress caused her flare-up, she is describing an actual immunological phenomenon.

And the cycle, which is the part that entraps people.

And here lies the complexity, the place where I believe most of the articles end prematurely.

Also read: ‘Sunscreen Is A Health Essential’: UK Skin Cancer Survivor Urges Govt To Scrap Tax

Stress Aggravates Psoriasis

Then the psoriasis becomes the source of stress. Highly visible plaques on hands, scalp or face are hard to hide within a culture where we greet, eat and worship with our hands. Patients start dressing in ways that conceal their plaques. They avoid public showers, salons, wedding events. Itch affects their sleeping habits, causing higher inflammation levels.

Then come the questions patients do not usually disclose unless specifically asked. The shame. Some patients have experienced people wondering whether they could catch the condition. Some of them have been asked to leave the salon where they went. This is not just an annoyance, but also a hurt, directly feeding back into the loop.

The prevalence of depression and anxiety in psoriasis is much higher than among healthy people. Moreover, these problems cannot be explained only by a reaction to one's appearance. The same inflammatory mediators, which cause psoriasis, are now associated with depression. Therefore, psoriasis and depression can be two symptoms of one inflammatory condition.

Also read: Mpox Spreads in Guinea-Bissau, Half Of Suspected Cases Are Children

What Really Helps?

Here I need to be very careful, since the idea that stress provokes psoriasis can be twisted into the belief that the patient has caused his/her own illness. But it is not true and is insulting to people suffering from the condition. It should be said again that psoriasis is a genetically based immune disorder. It is stress that exacerbates the disease.

Within this framework, stress management techniques are useful and there is the trial evidence for their efficiency. In one study, mindfulness-based intervention helped to improve the outcome and even accelerated clearance with phototherapy.

Physical exercise has an independent anti-inflammatory effect and treats metabolic syndrome associated with psoriasis. Sleeping is an obligatory factor because sleep deprivation increases the level of cytokines that we need to suppress. Cognitive behavioral therapy helps people to cope with itching-scratching cycle.

There is no doubt that alcohol and smoking make psoriasis worse, although they are usually used as a coping strategy in response to stress. They serve as an additional burden on health.

All of this is important but not an alternative to treatment. Topicals, phototherapy, systemic medications, and biological agents still remain the core of the treatment regimen. Stress management is only an adjunct, and I always remind my patients about it so that they never feel guilty for taking medicine.

Treat The Whole Person

Now I ask two questions at each review of psoriasis. How much of the body surface area is affected and how much of the person's life does it occupy. The answer to these questions often does not coincide.

I saw patients with rather small involvement of the skin surface, whose psoriasis completely ruined their self-esteem. And I met patients with large involvement who coped with the disease perfectly.

Body surface area does not measure suffering. If we treat only what we can see, we will treat half of the disease.