Raise a Glass, Risk Your Strength: Heavy Drinking is Linked to Muscle Loss

Highlights:

Heavy drinking, defined as consuming 10 or more units of alcohol per day (equivalent to about a bottle of wine or four to five pints), is associated with lower skeletal muscle mass in individuals in their fifties and sixties
The study, based on data from nearly 200,000 participants, adjusted for factors such as body size, protein intake, and exercise to isolate the relationship between alcohol consumption and muscle health
While the study cannot establish a causal link between alcohol and muscle loss, the findings highlight the potentially harmful effects of high alcohol intake on muscle mass, which can contribute to weakness and frailty in later life

Heavy drinkers may put themselves at risk of muscle loss and fragility later in life, as per a new study ().

According to a recent study published today, persons with the least amount of muscular consumed 10 units or more every day - about an entire bottle of wine.

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‘Study links heavy drinking to muscle loss and fragility in later life, urges alcohol limitation #alcoholism’

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The research team adjusted for body size since larger individuals have more muscular mass. They also included variables such as protein intake and exercise.

Heavy Drinking Puts Muscle Health at Risk, Study Warns

According to the researchers, their findings, which were based primarily on persons in their fifties and sixties, provide yet another reason to limit alcohol use.

Prof. Ailsa Welch of the University of East Anglia's Norwich Medical School stated: “Losing muscle as we age leads to problems with weakness and frailty in later life.

“Alcohol intake is a major modifiable risk factor for many diseases, so we wanted to find out more about the relationship between drinking and muscle health as we age.”

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The researchers examined data from the UK Biobank, a large-scale database of anonymized lifestyle and health information from 500,000 people in the UK.

They examined data from nearly 200,000 participants aged 37 to 73 years.

Dr. Jane Skinner, also of UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said: “We studied how much alcohol people were drinking and compared it with how much muscle they had, according to their body size.”

“We also took into account things like how much protein they consumed, their levels of physical activity, and other factors that could make a difference to how much muscle they might have.”

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“Most of the people were in their 50s and 60s. We found that those who drank a lot of alcohol had a lower amount of skeletal muscle compared to people who drank less after we took into account their body sizes and other factors.”

“We saw that it really became a problem when people were drinking 10 or more units a day – which is the equivalent of about a bottle of wine or four or five pints.”

“Alcohol consumption and muscle mass were measured cross-sectionally - in people at the same time - so we can’t be sure of a causal link,” she added.

Raise a Glass, Lose a Muscle

Prof. Welch said: “This study shows that alcohol may have harmful effects on muscle mass at higher levels of consumption.”

“We know that losing muscle as we age leads to problems with weakness and frailty, so this suggests another reason to avoid drinking high amounts of alcohol routinely in middle and early older age,” she added.

Reference:

Alcohol use disorders in the elderly: a brief overview from epidemiology to treatment options - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22575256/)

Source-Medindia