Go drinking, don't get diabetes, Reuters says the scientists  tells us!

NEW YORK, Jan 06 (Reuters Health) -- Men who are 'moderate' drinkers -- between 5 to 10 drinks per week -- have a lower risk for adult-onset diabetes than either abstainers or heavy drinkers, researchers report.

  "Men with a high alcohol intake may be able to reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes if they drink less," report Dr. Ming Wei and colleagues at the Cooper Institute in Dallas, Texas. Their findings are published in the January issue of the journal Diabetes Care.

Looking up this study on the Cooper Institute website, I found the following description:
 

Ming Wei, Larry Gibbons, Tedd Mitchell, James Kampert,
 Chong Lee, Steven Blair
 Annals of Internal Medicine 1999;130:89-96.

 This study looked at 8633 nondiabetic men (among them
 7511 also free from impaired fasting glucose [IFG]) age 30
 years or older who had at least 2 preventive examinations in
 the Cooper Clinic. During the 6-year follow-up, men in the low
 fit category (least fit 20%) at baseline had a 1.9-fold risk of
 developing IFG and a 3.7-fold risk of developing diabetes as
 compared with those in the high fit category (most fit 40%).
 The analyses show that low cardiorespiratory fitness is
 associated with increased risk of IFG and type 2 diabetes. A
 sedentary lifestyle may be an important factor in the
 progression from normal fasting glucose to IFG or type 2
 diabetes.

As we can expect from the Cooper institute, the study focused on fitness and not alcohol consumption.

Unfortunately, Dr Wei does not have an email addie but logic tells me that Reuters news (and possibly the diabetes journal if Reuters was true to the original article) is right on when they say cutting down drinking can cut diabetes risks but way off when they say that moderate drinkers have a lower risk of diabetes than NON drinkers.
 

Here's what I come up with:
 

1. DH was a 'moderate drinker' for years and he certainly DID come down with diabetes.
   
   
2. Why would alcohol, loaded with sugar, lower the risk of diabetes?
   
   
3. Why would alcohol which damages the liver with every drink, lower the risk of anything?

Actually, the final paragraph of the Reuters article seems to disprove the former claim:
 

"Based on their findings, the authors estimate that "24% of the incident cases of diabetes in (adult men) might be attributable to high alcohol intake." While they do not recommend that abstainers take up drinking to lower their diabetes risk, they do urge that heavy drinkers cut back in order to lower their disease risk. SOURCE: Diabetes Care 2000;23:18-22."

Hello?  TWENTY FOUR PERCENT of diabetes caused by drinking and yet, Reuters wants us to believe that these doctors say that if you DRINK a moderate amount you won't get diabetes?  What is wrong with this picture?

I know, they hope folks will never get to the final paragraph, right?

The liquor lobby must be working fulltime. Maybe people _are_ drinking less. Can't have a cutdown of booze sales, now can we!

Source:
 

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