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Alcohol Consumption and Metabolic Syndrome

A group of researchers from Boston University and the Framingham Heart Study analyzed data from 8,125 participants in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III). Each subject was evaluated for components of metabolic syndrome—a cluster of symptoms including low serum HDL cholesterol, elevated triglycerides, hyperglycemia, hypertension, central obesity, and insulin resistance.

After adjusting for age, sex, physical activity, diet, and other variables, researchers found that those who consumed 1 to 19 alcoholic drinks per month had a one-third lower risk of having metabolic syndrome, while those who consumed more than 20 drinks a month had about 66% lower prevalence of the syndrome.

While the observation was consistent across all ethnicities, the difference was most striking among white men and women, according to researchers. The consumption of alcohol was inversely proportional to low serum HDL cholesterol, elevated serum triglycerides, waist circumference, and high blood insulin levels.

Frieberg MS, Carbal HJ, Heeren TC, et al.: Alcohol consumption and the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in the U.S. Diabetes Care 27:2954–2959, 2004.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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