Moderate alcohol consumption lowers T2DM risk in NAFLD-free individuals
27 Jun 2020
Some studies have suggested alcohol – such as red wine – can lower the risk of heart disease, but further analysis showed that the non-drinkers studies often had other health problems, making drinkers appear healthier.It appears that light-to-moderate alcohol consumption (LMAC) can lower the risks of prevalent and incident type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in individuals without nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), suggests a study. However, LMAC increases the risk of T2DM in those with NAFLD.
Of the 7,079 participants, 243 had T2DM at baseline and 630 developed the disease during 45,456 person-years of follow-up. LMAC correlated with a reduced risk of prevalent T2DM in NAFLD-free participants, but with a significantly increased risk in those with NAFLD, both at baseline and by the end of follow-up. LMAC also correlated with a lower risk of incident T2DM in NAFLD-free individuals.
Incident T2DM showed adjusted hazard ratios (HR) of 0.224 (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.115–0.437) for NAFLD-free light drinkers and 0.464 (95 percent CI, 0.303–0.710) for NAFLD-free moderate drinkers. In contrast, nondrinking, light-drinking, and moderate-drinking patients with NAFLD had significantly increased risks of incident T2DM.
Compared with NAFLD-free nondrinkers, the adjusted HRs of incident T2DM were 1.672 (95 percent CI, 1.336–2.092) for nondrinking, 2.642 (95 percent CI, 1.958–3.565) for light-drinking, and 2.687 (95 percent CI, 2.106–3.427) for moderate-drinking NAFLD patients.
This 9-year cohort study included Chinese men who underwent annual health check-ups between 2009 and 2018. NAFLD was screened based on abdominal ultrasound with exclusion of excess alcohol intake and other causes of liver disease. The investigators used logistic regression and Cox proportional regression analyses to identify the risk of prevalent and incident T2DM.