Thiếu tiền mua rượu, con ruột cũng bán

Tác giả: TRƯỜNG MINH

Bài đã được xuất bản.: 07/03/2012 05:00 GMT+7

Dù đã có nhiều thay đổi, cuộc sống được cải thiện hơn, nhưng Nậm Ban bây giờ có đường, nhưng vẫn không điện, không chợ. Nhà tranh mái lá lợp tạm vẫn còn nhiều. Người Mảng không còn uống rượu như thác, nhưng cái thói quen chìm trong men rượu hằng ngày thì sức chảy của rượu vẫn chưa từng thua dòng suối Nậm Ban chảy ven chân bản Nậm Ô đêm ngày.

Kỳ 1: Thăm lại tộc dân từng đứng bên bờ diệt vong

Anh Tân vốn người Phú Thọ, lên bén duyên với vùng cao buôn bán, trước ở Chăn Nưa, về Nậm Ban rồi tìm đường về bản Nậm Ô trung tâm xã mua một mảnh đất nhỏ, dựng căn nhà gỗ tạm để thằng Còi con anh mới hơn 3 tuổi hằng ngày được đến trường mầm non, vợ không phải vượt đường núi xa xôi đi dạy mỗi ngày khi chị Lan là giáo viên cấp 1 xã Nậm Ban.

Hằng ngày, Tân vẫn len lỏi khắp bản mường, từ Nậm Ban ra Pa Tần, rồi vượt núi lên các bản Nậm Nó, Nậm Vản, Nậm Sảo... để buôn bán lương thực, thực phẩm cho dân. Đường ra Pa Tần quá xa, mù mịt bụi, có những người như Tân, giao thương giữa miền ngược với miền xuôi xem ra cũng đã đỡ cách trở hơn.

Coffee, Alcohol, and More That May Affect RA

Rheumatoid arthritis

By Tammy Worth

About 1.3 million Americans are affected by rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease thought to be caused by genetic and environmental factors.

Strong medication can help prevent joint destruction and painful symptoms.

But there are other things that may affect RA risk and symptoms. In the big picture, these play relatively minor roles in RA (compared to, say, taking the right medication).

Still, here are some factors to keep in mind.

Smoking

One factor that affects RA is smoking, says Susan Goodman, MD, a rheumatologist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.

"Smoking clearly has an impact—it makes it worse and increases the likelihood of getting it," she says. "There clearly is something about smoking that is a bad actor."

RA nonsmokers have fewer swollen, painful joints than smokers, research suggests. RA smokers are three times as likely to have rheumatoid factor—a sign of more severe disease—and twice as likely to have joint damage.

Coffee

The link between coffee or tea and RA is debatable, Dr. Goodman says.

Research has suggested that decaf coffee (four or more cups a day) can increase the risk of getting RA, but caffeinated coffee has no impact, and tea may reduce risk. Other research found no correlation between decaf and RA.

One issue, though, is that coffee may make some RA medications, such as methotrexate (Rheumatrex, Trexall), less potent.

"There is not a consistent message there," Dr. Goodman notes. Check with your doctor; it may be fine to have a cup of joe.

Weather

While research on the topic is scant, there does seem to be a link between weather and RA symptoms. It is likely that barometric pressure and temperature changes have the biggest impact on symptoms.

"Many, many, many people say it, so my sense is it is something we just don't have an appropriate investigational design to test," Dr. Goodman says.

She says any change in climate tends to worsen symptoms—so RA patients may fare better when the weather is more consistent.

Next: Seasonal allergies

Credit: Corbis

08/04 Drinking over the limit 'raises cancer risk'

8 April 2011 Last updated at 06:09 GMT

Many people do not know that drinking alcohol can increase their cancer risk.

Drinking more than a pint of beer a day can substantially increase the risk of some cancers, research shows.

A large Europe-wide study in the British Medical Journal found that one-in-10 of all cancers in men and one-in-33 of all cancers in women are caused by past or current alcohol intake.

For alcohol-related cancers, one-in-three in men and one-in-20 in women are caused by any excessive drinking.

The Department of Health said it was taking action to target drinking.

Cancer charities say people should limit their drinking to lower the risk.

The study calculated that in 2008, current and past drinking habits were responsible for about 13,000 cases of alcohol-related cancer in the UK, out of a total of 304,000 cancer cases.

Previous research has shown a link between alcohol consumption and cancers of the oesophagus, liver, bowel and female breast.

When alcohol is broken down by the body it produces a chemical which can damage DNA, increasing the chance of developing cancer.

Glass too far
This research found that individuals who drank more than two standard drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women were particularly at risk of alcohol-related cancers.

“Cutting back on alcohol is one of the most important ways of lowering your cancer risk”
Sara Hiom, Cancer Research UK

A standard drink contains about 12g of alcohol, which is equivalent to a 125ml glass of wine or a half pint of beer.

Yet NH guidelines are a little more relaxed, saying that men should drink no more than three to four units a day while women should not go over two to three units a day.

Of the cancers known to be linked to alcohol, the researchers suggest that 40 to 98% occur in people who drink more than the recommended maximum.

The results were gathered as part of a large study following 363,988 men and women in eight European countries aged between 35 and 70.

The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC) study tracked their levels of drinking and how this affected their risk of cancer.

Researchers then looked at figures on how much people drink in each country, including the UK, taken from the World Health Organisation.

'Avoidable' cancer cases

The study focuses on France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Greece, Germany, Denmark and the UK.

Madlen Schutze, lead researcher Alcohol linked to risk of cancer and study author, from the German Institute of Human Nutrition, said that many cancer cases could be avoided if alcohol consumption was limited.

"And even more cancer cases would be prevented if people reduced their alcohol intake to below recommended guidelines or stopped drinking alcohol at all," she said.

Sara Hiom, director of health information at Cancer Research UK, said that many people do not know that drinking alcohol can increase their cancer risk.

"In the last ten years, mouth cancer has become much more common and one reason for this could be because of higher levels of drinking - as this study reflects.

"Along with being a non-smoker and keeping a healthy bodyweight, cutting back on alcohol is one of the most important ways of lowering your cancer risk."

Cutting back

And Ed Yong, from Cancer Research UK, warned of the dangers posed by consuming even small amounts of alcohol.

"The more people drink the higher their risk of cancer becomes so even light or moderate levels can increase the risks to some extent, but heavier drinking will increase it even more," he said.

He added that increased drinking in the general population could lead to a "higher cancer burden in the future" unless people took steps to reduce their alcohol consumption.

Dr Rachel Thompson, deputy head of science at World Cancer Research Fund, said that the research adds weight to what we already know about the link between alcohol consumption and cancer.

"The WCRF recommends that if people are to drink alcohol they should not consume more than two drinks a day for men or one a day for women.

"The German study underlines the importance of not exceeding these limits," said Dr Thompson.

The Department of Health is set to publish an alcohol strategy in the summer.

It is expected to included plans to stop supermarkets selling cheap alcohol, and tighten up licensing laws which were relaxed under the previous government.