Light Drinking May Aid Hearts of Diabetics

CHICAGO —  Light drinking is known to lessen the risk of heart disease, and a new study released Tuesday found that also applies to diabetics--although doctors included more than the usual caveats about the dangers of alcohol use.

Comparing patients with adult-onset diabetes who abstained from alcohol their entire lives with those who drank lightly or moderately, researchers found the risk of dying from coronary heart disease declined as the level of light to moderate drinking increased.

Diabetics who said they drank about one or more alcoholic drinks per day--a beer, a glass of wine or a drink containing hard liquor--had a 79% lower risk of dying from heart disease than the abstainers. Those who had less than one drink a week had a 46% lower risk.

The study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., involved 983 diabetics who were followed for up to 12 years.

Drinking proved to be even more protective of the heart for diabetics--who face a higher risk of heart disease--than for the general population, wrote Charles Valmadrid, the study’s author and a researcher at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

He said moderate alcohol consumption is thought to have a role in increasing the level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol--so-called “good” cholesterol--and to help in other ways to reduce clogging of the arteries. It also may be associated with beneficial changes in insulin and glucose metabolism.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for people with adult-onset diabetes, accounting for 40% of all deaths.

But an editorial accompanying the study noted that besides the usual concerns about alcohol use--such as higher risks of cancer, liver disease and depression--diabetics could face additional problems.

“Alcohol may both induce and mask potentially severe hypoglycemia,” wrote Michael Criqui and Beatrice Golomb of the UC San Diego School of Medicine.

Alcohol could also be dangerous for diabetics by worsening nerve damage and increasing insulin resistance, they wrote.