A further study has demonstrated that a moderate amount of alcohol appears to reduce the risk of developing adult-onset (type 2) diabetes; however, for women, heavy drinking increases the risk, according to a Scandinavian study.

In an analysis of pairs of twins with different alcohol habits, those with moderate levels of alcohol consumption had half the risk of diabetes compared with those with low levels of alcohol consumption. The researchers say these results are in line with a number of previous studies that have shown that moderate alcohol consumers have a 30-to-40 percent reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. The investigators also saw that levels of alcohol consumption of 20 g/day or more appeared to increase the likelihood of diabetes for lean women, but not for overweight women or men. Also, binge drinking increased the number of diabetes cases among women.

SOURCE: Carlsson S et al. Alcohol Consumption and the Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes: A 20-year follow-up of the Finnish Twin Cohort Study. Diabetes Care 2003;26:2785-