THURSDAY, Dec. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Rats exposed to alcohol while still in the womb learn to like the substance and are more drawn to it as young rats, a new study shows.

The observation may help explain why teens with prior fetal exposure to drinking may be more likely to abuse the substance, researchers say.

"[Exposure] to something mom ate during gestation will alter its response," explained Steven Youngentob, a professor of neuroscience and physiology at State University of New York (SUNY) and member of the SUNY Upstate Developmental Exposure Alcohol Research Center in Syracuse.

Youngentob is lead author of two studies detailing these findings in the December issue of Behavioral Neuroscience.

Even more than family history, fetal exposure to alcohol will predict if a person abuses alcohol later in life. And, the earlier that first experience, the higher the probability the person will have problems with this substance into adulthood, experts say.

Full-blown fetal alcohol syndrome involves profound mental retardation as well as cranial facial defects. But there are also more subtle effects of being exposed to alcohol in utero.

The senses are among earliest systems to develop and seem to allow the developing fetus to "learn" from the mother what is OK to eat and drink by virtue of what mom ingests during pregnancy, Youngentob explained.

"All that information gets transmitted to the fetus during gestation or the infant during lactation," he said. "It turns out that this adaptive mechanism is to the advantage of the organism and probably works for humans as well."

Unless it involves a substance of abuse, he added.

The new studies tested the hypothesis that exposure to alcohol while in the uterus resulted in an altered sensory response to the substance that then affected later behavior.

"The hypothesis was that there are these neuroadaptive changes that essentially make the ethanol [alcohol] smell and taste better to the animal. So, the animal, because of the fetal exposure, has 'learned' that ethanol is something that's good to eat," Youngentob said.

For the first study, rats that had been exposed to alcohol in the womb via maternal consumption were more likely to choose alcohol versus a nonalcoholic substance as young rats but not as adults.

The second study followed a similar protocol: Rats were exposed to alcohol while still in the uterus.

Compared to rats whose mothers just ate chow, the prenatally exposed rats sniffed alcohol more. They also had an altered odor response in their nasal passages.

"We know that the fetus has smell sensations developing in utero, and this is almost a need for survival, because you see with animals when they're born, they immediately know where to gravitate for maternal milk. The same thing [happens] when you place a baby on the mother's chest, he will recognize where the breast is just by smell," noted Dr. Raul Artal, professor and chair of the department of obstetrics, gynecology and women's health at St. Louis University.

"Learning different smells in utero and becoming familiar may be something that has a role in developing smell and taste for alcohol. This is almost a primitive type of response. It has nothing to do with intelligence. It's just part of life preservation."

In both cases, if the young rat had no more experience with alcohol by adulthood, the alcohol lost its attraction.

"The good news is that in the absence of a substance being biologically relevant -- that is, not being exposed to it -- then the animal becomes biologically neutral again," Youngentob said. "If the animals only get that fetal exposure, and you test them as adults, it's gone in terms of neurophysiological response."

But, if humans get adolescent exposure to alcohol, it can perpetuate the cycle, he said.

Youngentob and his colleagues are testing whether adolescent exposure to alcohol perpetuates the cycle in humans.

The clear message: Don't drink when pregnant, and keep alcohol away from teenagers, the researcher said.

More information

There's more on fetal alcohol syndrome at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

THURSDAY, Dec. 13 (HealthDay News) -- In a discovery that perplexes HIV experts, an international team reports that tiny fibers commonly found in semen drastically enhance the ability of the virus to do its damage.

According to a study in the Dec. 14 issue of Cell, the fibers capture the virus and then ferry it to target cells, increasing its ability to infect someone by more than 50 times in some cases and more than 100,000 times in others.

The findings could help scientists better understand how AIDS is transmitted. But Rowena Johnston, director of research with the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), noted that the value of the research is limited, because it doesn't "necessarily reflect transmission in the 'real world.' "

"This is intriguing, and it's worth further investigation," said Johnston. "But there's nothing yet that makes me have a 'Eureka' moment."

While scientists have long known about the basics of AIDS transmission, it's not clear why the virus travels more easily through some routes than others.

For example, male-to-female sexual transmission is usually more common than the other way around but not always. And it's also not clear why the virus has become so prevalent even though it has a tiny presence in blood.

In the new study, led by a German team, scientists tried to figure out if components of human semen might affect transmission of the AIDS virus.

"We were not expecting to find an enhancer and were even more surprised about the strength," study author Dr. Frank Kirchhoff, of the University Clinic of Ulm, said in a statement. "Most enhancers have maybe a two- or threefold effect, but here, the effect was amazing, more than 50-fold, and, under certain conditions, more than 100,000-fold. At first, I didn't believe it, but we ran the experiment over and over, always with the same result."

Dr. Jeffrey Laurence, a professor of medicine and director of the Laboratory for AIDS Virus Research at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, said there could be something similar at play in cervical fluid that affects transmission. "In a lot of situations in the real world, women transmit HIV quite easily...," Laurence said.

He added that many other factors affect transmission of HIV, from bodily abrasions to menstrual cycles and use of oral contraceptives.

Could this latest finding bring scientists closer to an AIDS vaccine? Laurence, who thinks a vaccine is decades off, is doubtful. Prevention, however, might be another matter.

Laurence said it might be possible to develop an "antidote" for the virus-boosting powers of semen and put it in a microbicide that people could use before sex.

More information

Learn more about the basics of AIDS from aids.org  .

FRIDAY, Dec. 7 (HealthDay News) -- The grieving that follows a loved one's death can increase your risk of death, from suicide as well as other causes, a new review shows.

The most vulnerable period was the first 30 days following the loss.

More research needs to be done on targeting high-risk individuals and on what interventions might be helpful, according to the article in the Dec. 8 issue of The Lancet.

"There is a strong need for more evaluation of the efficacy of psychotherapeutic intervention programs for bereaved people, to better establish: (1) what type of help is [most] effective; (2) who precisely benefits from it; and (3) under what circumstances positive results are most likely to occur," said study author Margaret Stroebe, special chair of the Research Institute for Psychology and Health at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, in association with the Dutch Association for Grief Counseling. "Bereavement intervention is not indicated for all bereaved persons, just on the grounds that they have suffered the loss of a loved person... We need to increase understanding and channel resources to those who do need and are likely to benefit from professional help."

Even in the 21st century, grief carries with it a stigma that is hard to erase.

"So often in our society, grief is still viewed as something abnormal. You have to go back to work within two days, if you're lucky, five days," said Rebekah Lancto, bereavement coordinator at Metropolitan Jewish Hospice and Metropolitan Jewish Palliative Care, in New York City. "It doesn't go away six months later. In fact, that may be when grief really hits you, but life goes on, and people ask you why aren't you happy."

According to this article, death of a spouse is highly stressful and ranks as the life event needing the most "readjustment."

Others point to the difficulty of losing a spouse, especially during the first year.

"You may frequently see spouses engaging in leisure activities that they previously engaged in such as horseback riding or car racing or skiing that they might do now in a more dangerous way," said Rhoda Goldstein, a bereavement care coordinator for the Lippincott Family Hospice at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. "I frequently hear spouses say immediately after a death, 'My life has no meaning any more.' Many people have passive suicidal ideation, not that they intend to do anything deliberate to act on it, but they wish they wouldn't wake up in the morning."

According to Goldstein, some spouses may drink more heavily or use more prescription medications. And some spouses may have neglected their own health while taking care of an ailing husband or wife, leading to their own death.

The authors of the Lancet paper went through the available literature on grief and bereavement, focusing on papers published after 1997. Here are their main points:

• Most of the studies report gender differences in death rates after bereavement, with widowers (men) having a higher risk of dying after a loss than widows (women).
• The risk of dying appears to be higher for younger people who have lost a spouse than for their older counterparts.
• The risk of dying for widowed people is highest in the early months after the loss.
• The risk of death from suicide is also greater, with one study finding a 66-fold increased risk in the first week of bereavement for widowers and 9.6-fold for widows.
• Widows and widowers are more likely to have physical health problems, especially soon after the loss. Complaints include headaches, dizziness, indigestion and chest pain, and they result in higher rates of disability, drug use and hospitalizations.
• Research is starting to reveal biological links between bereavement and these physical ailments. For instance, bereavement can affect the immune system.
• Bereavement is also associated with different psychological symptoms and illnesses, including depression, anxiety, insomnia and social dysfunction.
• In extreme cases, losing a loved one can result in clinical depression or even post-traumatic stress disorder.
• Bereavement can also involve memory problems, loss of appetite and difficulty with concentration.
• Responses to a loss can range from mild and relatively short-term to more extreme and long-lasting, persisting for months or years.

In general, however, the authors stated, grief is a normal, natural process and "professional psychological intervention is generally neither justified nor effective for uncomplicated forms of grief."

"We try to educate people before they go through a death that this is healthy, normal response and being able to talk about it is a healthy, normal thing to do," Lancto said.

More information

The National Cancer Institute has more on loss, grief and bereavement.

FRIDAY, Nov. 30 (HealthDay News) -- In the 26 years since scientists first spotted AIDS in America, millions of dollars have been poured into outreach efforts aimed at keeping young people clear of HIV, the virus that causes the disease.

But on the eve of World AIDS Day, a disturbing statistical fact has emerged in this country: The number of newly infected teens and young adults is suddenly on the rise.

And the question is, why?

According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 2001 to 2005 (the latest years available), the number of new cases of HIV infection diagnosed among 15-to-19-year-olds in the United States rose from 1,010 in 2001, held steady for the next three years, then jumped 20 percent in 2005, to 1,213 cases.

For young people aged 20 to 24, cases of new infection have climbed steadily, from 3,184 in 2001 to 3,876 in 2005.

Newer infection numbers set to be released soon by the CDC may be even higher, the Washington Post reported Saturday. According to the Post, sources close to scientists preparing the new statistics have confirmed that rates of new infection in the United States may be 50 percent higher than previously believed -- a jump from 40,000 new infections per year to up to 60,000. The increase is based on new blood testing methods, the Post said, and whether it signifies a growth in actual cases remains to be seen.

Experts say a number of factors may be at play, including the fact that many HIV-infected patients are now being kept healthy with powerful drugs -- making AIDS seem like less of a threat to young people than it did in the past.

"Certainly the 'scare factor' isn't there anymore," said Rowena Johnston, vice president of research at the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) in New York City.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, the ravages of AIDS were apparent to most Americans -- either on their TV screens as high-profile celebrities succumbed to the disease, or as individuals lost friends or family members to HIV.

"To see people looking gaunt, skinny and skeletal, and to know that they were going to be dead soon," Johnston said. "It had a sobering effect."

The advent of antiretroviral drugs in the mid-1990s changed all that, however. "These days, for the most part, you can look at a person and not know that they even have AIDS," Johnston said.

That's making HIV seem like less of a threat to young people, said Martha Chono-Helsley. She's executive director of REACH LA, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that helps disadvantaged youth understand and defend against threats like poverty, drug abuse and HIV.

"They're in this age group that feels they are invincible -- that it's never going to happen to them," she said. "Yes, they're getting all these messages from public schools on HIV and AIDS, but they've never actually seen what HIV has done, up close and personal."

Chris Blades, one of REACH LA's young, black "peer educators," said he's seen a kind of nonchalance towards HIV among the gay or bisexual men of color that he counsels.

"On a daily basis, they don't see their friends suffering from it, so it's not a major threat to them," said Blades, 21. "They're in that whole mindset of 'Oh, it can't happen to me, it will never happen to me.'"

But there has been a recent, troubling spike in new infections among gay men, young and old alike. According to the CDC, the rate of new cases of HIV infection linked to male-male sex held steady at around 16,000 cases between 2001-2004, then suddenly jumped to 18,296 in 2005.

Johnston and Chono-Helsley both point to advertisements for HIV-suppressing medicines as one possible contributing factor.

"In gay magazines, you now see [ads with] buff, handsome men climbing mountains, with some kind of quote about how 'I'm not letting HIV get in my way,'" Johnston said. "It sends the message that you, too, can be hot, buff and handsome, even with HIV."

Chono-Helsley agreed. "It's always these bright, healthy vibrant young men in these ads," she said. That could spur young gay men to relax their guard and take more risks, thinking that if they do contract HIV, "I only have to take a pill," she said.

The reality of living with HIV in America is much different, however, even when medication is working. According to Johnston, the side effects of powerful HIV-suppressing drug cocktails include fat redistribution (including unsightly "humps"), insulin resistance, higher cholesterol, increased risks for heart disease, and dangerous liver toxicities.

There's also the fear that, someday, HIV will develop mutations that render these drugs useless, triggering the re-emergence of AIDS, she said.

HIV continues to cut a wide swath through young men and women in the black community, too. According to the CDC, the number of new infections actually dipped slightly for black Americans between 2001 (20,868 cases) and 2005 (18,121 cases). However, black men are still six times more likely than white men to contract HIV, and black women are 20 times more likely to acquire the virus compared to white women.

The answers to that disparity lie mainly in economics, experts say.

"The young men that we work with are predominantly African-American, and HIV is not their No. 1 priority," said Chono-Helsley. "Often survival is their main priority -- where they are going to sleep tonight. They're kicked out of the house; they have substance abuse issues, they're in recovery."

Young black women can easily get caught up in similar problems, or are coerced into unsafe sex by their partners, she added.

Another trend -- soaring rates of methamphetamine use over the past five years -- may also be fueling HIV infection rates for both blacks and young gay men, the experts noted.

Too often, marginalized young people develop "a 'whatever' attitude -- whatever happens, happens," Chono-Helsey said.

Outreach aimed at HIV prevention remains important, of course. But one expert believes too much state and federal money is being funneled away from community outreach programs and toward "HIV Stops With Me" campaigns that focus on individuals already living with the virus.

"The message there is that, if I don't have HIV right now, then all I have got to do is avoid those people who have got it," said Carrie Davis, director of adult services at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Community Center in New York City.

She believes those types of messages allow uninfected people to shift the burden of responsibility from themselves to the HIV-positive, or to people they deem at high risk, such as gay men or drug abusers.

"I think it affects straight people, too, in that they absorb this 'magical thinking' -- that this is someone else's problem," Davis said.

So what doeswork to change attitudes and behaviors? That's a tough question, Chono-Helsley said, and the answer usually depends on particular contexts and communities.

"You really have to evaluate what methods you're using and think about the person as a whole, not just the infection," she said. "Because they've all heard 'use a condom, use a condom.'"

The right approach is key, Blades added. "If you deliver the message to them in a way that's not preachy or looking down on them, I think that's more effective," he said. "That's what we try to do - deliver HIV information in a way that will click in with them, so that they'll take home something that they didn't know the night before."

"One thing is for sure, we can't just shake our finger at young people and say, 'You're bad,'" Chono-Helsley said. "We have to be supportive. They're young, we've all been there, remember. You can save some, but you can't save them all."

More information

There's more on HIV and AIDS at amfAR  .