Drinking in Excess of US Guidelines and Heavy Episodic Drinking May Increase the Risk for Metabolic Syndrome

Protective and detrimental associations have been reported between alcohol consumption and the Metabolic Syndrome (MS). To more closely examine this relationship, researchers analyzed data from the 1999–2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Current drinkers aged 20 to 84 years with no cardiovascular disease and for whom there were complete data on MS and drinking were included in the analysis (n=1529). Metabolic abnormalities comprising MS included having 3 of the following: impaired fasting glucose/diabetes mellitus, high triglycerides, abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, and low HDL cholesterol.

• In multinomial logistic regression models controlling for demographics, family history of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and lifestyle factors, daily consumption exceeding US dietary guidelines* (odds ratio [OR], 1.60) and heavy episodic drinking ≥1 time per week (OR, 1.51) increased risk of MS.

• In analyses of individual metabolic abnormalities, drinking in excess of dietary guidelines was associated with an increased risk of impaired fasting glucose/diabetes mellitus, hypertriglyceridemia, abdominal obesity, and high blood pressure.

Comments:

This paper presents prevalence ORs for certain levels of drinking among people who have varying components of MS rather than measuring the risk of MS according to drinking pattern. Whether alcohol drinking leads to, or is the result of, MS cannot be clearly defined except through prospective studies including nondrinkers in which drinking patterns are assessed prior to the development of MS.

R. Curtis Ellison, MD

Reference:

Fan AZ, Russell M, Naimi T, et al. Patterns of alcohol consumption and the metabolic syndrome. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2008;93(10):3833–3828.