What I learned while studying for epi today

1: drinking is good for health:
if you drink moderately (4-7 times a week but never binge, 1 drink a day for women, 2 for men), raises HDL and decreases blood pressure. good stuff.
Reasons: fibrinolysis (related to strokes/clotting), insulin sensitivity (even obese people benefit) etc., and HDL level.
Half the protection of alcohol against heart problems is due to HDL.
Of all drinks, wine is the best, beer the worst, though prospective studies found no difference among the drinks probably due to selectin bias: people in the latter study were more responsible drinkers. Drinking wine with MEAL is even better.
ALCOHOL has no effect on mortality though in the overall population because if you just look at drinking (vs responsible drinking) you'd see 10% of population consumes half of ALL alcohol and when you have too much alcohol, you are prone to cirrhosis and some cancers and hypertension, all which cancel out any life-expectancy benefits the alcohol might have given you.
alcohol doesn't affect young men and women or women <50 because they area already low risk for heart disease and the other stuff anyways.
women need to drink less because they are smaller, have more fat, and different alcohol enzyme metabolism levels.

2.) Lots of people have psych issues:
Depression is 30% heritable. There is a genetic component: people who are homozygous for short serotonin receptors have increased activation in amygdala (which happens normally during fear response).
The environmental components were even strongher though. so they did some studies:
if you do have the depression gene and you were abused/mistereated as a child: you were VERY high risk for depression as adults.
If you don't have the gene at all (homozygous long receptor) and you were maltreated as a child, you are actually protected against depression: go figure.
If you do have the gene but had a happy childhood, you're at no incrased risk.
Point being: don't abuse your kids or they'll grow up depressed.
People with physical disabilities/illness esp likely to get depression
16% of people will have depression at least once in life. (lifetime prevalence).
80% of these will be severe to very severe depressions lasting on average 4 months.

Post traumatic stress disorders: due to assault, violence, injury, death of loved one, or learning about trauma to others. 6% lifetime prevalence. higher in native americans and cambodian refugees by at least twice as much. you keep reliving the horrible experience/have nightmares causeeing depression and anxiety.

Mental issues more likely in women than men (quel surprise!)
in US, social phobia is the most prevalent mental problem, Obsessive compulsive disoreder is the least.
18% of people have anxiety disorder, about double that of mood disorders (like depression, bipolar)
Anxiety and depression overlap in diagnosis because diagnosis based on symptoms not pathophysiology because we still don't know enough about the diseases.

ok... I think i'm ready for the stupid final, wait there's two more lectures. damn it.