Short-term alcohol abstinence improves insulin resistance, reduces risk for NAFLD

SAN FRANCISCO — According to data presented at The Liver Meeting 2015, people who abstained from drinking alcohol for at least 1 month had a reduced risk for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and improved insulin resistance.

“The degree of benefit on insulin resistance was surprising,” Gautam Mehta, MD, MBBS, of University College London and Camden and Islington Public Health, London, said in a press release. “If you had a drug that could do this, it would generate a lot of interest.”

Mehta and colleagues analyzed data of 102 people who moderately drink without liver disease (48 male, 56 female) enrolled in the “Dry January” study. The program is a campaign in the UK that enrolls and studies people who are abstaining from alcohol for 1 month. Each patient included in this analysis completed a lifestyle survey and were further studied for changes in insulin resistance and other biomarkers of NAFLD at baseline and again after 1 month of abstaining from alcohol.

The mean age of the recruited patients was 45.9 ± 1.1 years and mean alcohol intake was 251.6 ± 12.7 g/week, according to the abstract. Of these patients, 94 were included in the final analysis, according to the release.

Overall, reductions were observed in homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance score (1.57 ± 0.13 IU vs. 1.13 ± 0.11 IU, P < .001); liver stiffness (4.79 ± 0.27 kPa vs. 4.19 ± 0.11 kPa, P < .05); systolic blood pressure (134.8 ± 1.8 mm Hg vs. 127.2 ± 1.8 mm Hg, P < .0001); and BMI (26.8 ± 0.5 kg/m² vs. 26.1 ± 0.4 kg/m², P < .05). Regardless of adjusting for demographic and lifestyle factors including age, gender, changes in diet, exercise, smoking and stress, reductions in all these variables remained.

“This study builds on existing data showing a synergistic relationship between alcohol and fat in the risk of chronic liver disease. … We currently don’t know how durable these benefits are, beyond the 1 month of abstinence, but the suggestion is the moderation of alcohol intake will have ongoing metabolic benefits,” Mehta said.

Reference:

Mehta G, et al. Abstract 113. Presented at: The Liver Meeting; Nov. 13-17, 2015; San Francisco.

Disclosure: Mehta reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the abstract for a full list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.