In a new study from the University of Sydney, researchers found that having overweight or obesity considerably amplified the harmful effects of alcohol on liver disease and mortality.
They found people in the overweight or obese range who drank were at greater risk of liver diseases compared with people within a healthy weight range who consumed alcohol at the same level.
Even for people who drank within alcohol guidelines, participants classified as obese were at over 50% greater risk of liver disease.
In the study, the researchers drew upon data from the UK Biobank. Information was examined from 465,437 people aged 40 to 69 years, with medical and health details collected over an average of 10.5 years.
BMI is based on both weight and height. A BMI of over 25 denotes overweight, and over 30 denotes obesity.
For waist circumference, researchers used the World Health Organization (WHO) classification: normal (<80 cm for women, <94 cm for men), overweight (>80 cm for women, >94 cm for men), and obese (>88 cm for women, >102 cm for men).
People who drank above UK alcohol guidelines had a nearly 600% higher risk of being diagnosed with alcoholic fatty liver disease and a nearly 700% higher risk of death caused by alcoholic fatty liver disease.
People with overweight or obesity who drank within or above alcohol guidelines had over 50% greater risk of developing the liver disease compared to normal-weight people who consumed alcohol at the same level.
The researchers say the findings emphasize how alcohol drinking guidelines and doctor’s advice may need to consider the year-on-year increasing trend of obesity and overweight prevalence and its compounding health impacts.
The current guidelines acknowledge that alcohol could worsen pre-existing health conditions, such as liver diseases, hepatitis B and C, and obesity.
However, they do not acknowledge that more than one-third of Australians are affected by obesity; and do not specifically cover the combined harm of alcohol and lower levels of unhealthy adiposity (such as being overweight but not obese) on liver disease.
The current alcohol guidelines are based on reviews of available evidence, but future updates must take into account overweight as a liver disease risk amplifying factor.
If you care about liver health, please read studies about a healthy lifestyle may help protect you from liver cancer and findings of a new method to treat alcoholic liver disease.
For more information about liver disease prevention and treatment, please see recent studies about coffee drinkers could halve their risk of liver cancer and results showing that diet, not exercise, may be key to addressing biggest cause of liver disease.
The study is published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. One author of the study is Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis.
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