Affects of alcohol, beer, wine,
drinks on diabetes.
Alcoholic drinks include distilled
spirits: beer, brandy, gin, rum, vodka, whiskey, and wine. The alcoholic
content of distilled spirits is expressed in “proofs”. One proof equals 0.5
percent of alcohol. The distilled spirits are usually in 80 proof strength,
which is 40 percent alcohol. Excessive intake of alcohol, over time, increases
the risks for heart disease, nerve, liver, heart, brain, and kidney damages,
breast cancer, and birth defects during pregnancy. In addition, excessive
intake of alcohol is a strong risk factor for high blood pressure.
However, some modern studies have
shown that moderate intake of alcohol reduces the number of deaths from heart
disease and helps increase life expectancy. This gain is derived probably
because alcohol intake raises HDL (good) cholesterol and decreases stickiness
of blood platelets (clotting), thereby decreasing the risk for heart disease
and stroke.
One of the recent studies that found
alcohol consumption beneficial for heart health has been published in the New
England Journal of Medicine (January, 2003). Key findings of this study are:
Alcohol consumption lowers the risk for heart disease.
The heart health benefit of alcohol
is linked to the frequency of drinking. As compared with men who consume
alcohol less than once per week, men who consume alcohol 3-4 or 5-7 days per
week have decreased risks of heart attack even if the amount of alcohol
consumed per drink is small to moderate. (A single alcoholic beverage contains
11.0 to 14.0 grams of alcohol.)
Stickiness of blood particles, and
the resulting risk of blood clotting decreases in moderate drinkers than those
who do not drink.
Of all the alcoholic beverages, beer
and liquor offer the maximum protection against heart attack. Consumption of
red and white wine, on the other hand, shows weaker heart protective
effect.(This finding is contrary to the previous belief that wine was superior
in reducing the risk of heart disease.)
Frequency of alcohol consumption is
heart protective mainly in men 40 years or older, and women aged over 55 years.
Although the above study and other
studies also found alcohol consumption heart protective, the fact remains that
even a moderate use of alcohol may be risky for many people having some
preexisting health problems such as liver damage and diabetes. In diabetes, in
particular, alcohol consumption may lead to a severe fall in blood sugar that
may become life-threatening:
When you drink alcohol, your blood
sugar tends to fall. The reason is that alcohol is rapidly absorbed into the
bloodstream and the liver becomes engaged in clearing it from the blood. During
this process, the liver stops its normal activity of releasing sugar in the
blood from its glucose reserve (glycogen). As a result, the amount of sugar in
the blood decreases and it can fall to dangerously low levels if you take
alcohol in a large amount or on an empty stomach. When your stomach is empty,
your blood sugar may already be running low and drinking alcohol on the empty
stomach may further drop your blood sugar level.
Alcohol consumption may lead to low
blood sugar unawareness, a dangerous condition in which you may not even feel
the symptoms when blood sugar is falling. Also, drinking alcohol in a large
quantity during the peaking effect of your diabetes medication may lead to a
severe fall in your blood sugar. Such a situation may end up in a coma.
Because alcohol takes time to be
fully cleared from your system, the risk of low blood sugar continues long
after you have taken an alcoholic drink.
In addition, if you already eat a
healthy diet, you are likely to gain excess weight by consuming liquor that
provides mere calories without nutrition. Unhealthy weight leads to increased
risk for heart disease and stroke.
Because the use of alcohol is linked
to unpredictable risks, no person should start drinking or increase alcohol
consumption. After all, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
points out, 45 percent of adult Americans do not drink any alcohol at all, and
compared to 50 years ago, fewer Americans drink alcohol today.
The Dietary Guidelines for
Americans, 2005, suggest that adults, if they choose to drink alcohol, may do
so sensibly and only in moderation, which means one drink per day for women,
and two drinks per day for men. One drink equals 12 ounces of regular beer, 5
ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirit.
Who should not drink alcohol?
Alcohol, should not be consumed by:
- People who cannot resist excessive drinking
- Women of childbearing age who are or may become pregnant
- Breast-feeding women
- Children and adolescents
- People taking medications that can react with alcohol
- People with specific medical conditions that may become worse by alcohol intake
Alcohol critics point out that the
heart protective benefits derived from alcohol consumption can be achieved by
more preferable methods. HDL (good) cholesterol, for example, can be increased
by regular exercise. And daily use of a baby aspirin, through its anti-clotting
action, can dramatically cut the risk for heart attack in most people.
Because the use of alcohol is linked
to unpredictable risks, especially in people with diabetes, these people should
drink alcohol only if they are allowed by their doctors.
No comments: