As a cold front hits, many in Taiwan might turn to alcohol-based dishes such as ginger duck stew and chicken soup cooked with wine to keep warm, but doctors cautioned that the alcohol in such dishes could affect blood test results.
Taoyuan General Hospital Department of Psychiatry resident doctor Su Po-wen (蘇柏文) said he has seen cases in which people who were getting treatment after a drunk driving offense were puzzled to find that blood tests showed elevated indicators, even though they had not had a drink in weeks.
They think they have not consumed any alcohol, but were eating ginger duck stew or wine-cooked chicken soup to stay warm, he said, adding that sometimes, the indicators were even higher than before their treatment started.
Photo: Cheng Shu-ting, Taipei Times
People who drive under the influence will have their license suspended, Su said.
To regain their license, they have to retake the driver’s exam, which requires that they undergo alcohol dependency treatment at designated medical centers and be evaluated by doctors at least 12 times within a year, he said.
Carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) tests are usually used in evaluations, as they reflect longer-term regular alcohol consumption, instead of just short-term binge drinking, Su said.
The higher the index, the more serious the person’s alcohol dependency is, he said.
“Many people believe that when they stop drinking alcohol one or two weeks before they get tested, their indices would go down, but that is not correct,” Su said. “Tracking CDT is more like tracking a diabetic person’s glycated hemoglobin index, which assesses overall body conditions through a certain period, instead of measuring a short-term consumption pattern.”
“Even when a person stops drinking temporarily, it cannot mask a long-term drinking pattern nor the effect of constantly consuming meals with alcohol,” he added.
Most of the people he treats who need to retake their driver’s exam after a suspension stop drinking, as they have to pay for treatment themselves, Su said.
However, some people consume ginger duck stew or wine-cooked chicken soup on cold winter days, which raises their CDT index, he said.
Evaluations seek CDT results that are lower than 1.3 percent, but Su said they have been seeing high indices, which indicated long-term liquor consumption, but that could be due to eating food that contains alcohol.
“Consumption of such meals would affect medical treatment and evaluations, so we advise that people who eat food with liquor postpone their driver’s exam,” he said.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
‘LIKE-MINDED PARTNER’: Tako van Popta said it would be inappropriate to delay signing the deal with Taiwan because of China, adding he would promote the issue Canadian senators have stressed Taiwan’s importance for international trade and expressed enthusiasm for ensuring the Taiwan-Canada trade cooperation framework agreement is implemented this year. Representative to Canada Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) in an interview with the Central News Agency (CNA) said he was increasingly uneasy about Ottawa’s delays in signing the agreement, especially as Ottawa has warmed toward Beijing. There are “no negotiations left. Not only [is it] initialed, we have three versions of the text ready: English, French and Mandarin,” Tseng said. “That tells you how close we are to the final signature.” Tseng said that he hoped Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT: Japan and the US are expected to hold in-depth discussions on Taiwan-related issues during the meeting next month, Japanese sources said The holding of a Japan-US leaders’ meeting ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to China is positive news for Taiwan, former Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association representative Hiroyasu Izumi said yesterday. After the Liberal Democratic Party’s landslide victory in Japan’s House of Representatives election, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is scheduled to visit the US next month, where she is to meet with Trump ahead of the US president’s planned visit to China from March 31 to April 2 for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Japan and the US are expected to hold in-depth discussions on Taiwan-related issues during the
RSS