We aimed to investigate whether alcohol intake contributes to lung function levels and which beverage type may have an effect. We investigated 3742 participants from the Wuhai-Zhuhai Cohort and 12,526 participants from the Dongfeng-Tongji Cohort, and they were followed up for 3 and 5 years, respectively. Information on the type and daily amount of alcohol intake was collected through face-to-face interviews. Lung function was measured by trained physicians using electronic spirometers. Compared with nondrinkers, moderate alcohol intake was significantly associated with a 70.03 and 74.92 mL increase in FEV1 and FVC, respectively (P < 0.05), after adjusting for covariates. With regard to beverage type, red wine was associated with a 105.31 and 98.91 mL increase in FEV1 and FVC, respectively (P < 0.05). Moderate alcohol intake was also associated with a 53.37 and 66.17 mL increase in FEV1 and FVC for liquor, respectively, and a 106.90 and 103.62 mL increase for red wine (all Ps < 0.05). In the longitudinal analyses, moderate alcohol intake and red wine were associated with a 67.77 and 103.77 mL increase in FVC, respectively (P < 0.05). Moderate alcohol intake is associated with increased lung function, especially for red wine. Further studies are needed to investigate the potential mechanism.
BACKGROUND: Alcohol-induced cardiotoxicity is incompletely understood. Specifically, the long-term impact of alcohol use on ventricular remodeling or dysfunction, its modulators, and effect thresholds among young adults remain controversial.
OBJECTIVES: The authors sought to evaluate a potential relationship between alcohol intake and cardiac remodeling, assessed by echocardiography, over 20 years of follow-up.
METHODS: Among the CARDIA (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults) study cohort, the authors studied all subjects without baseline heart disorders who provided adequate information on their drinking habits and underwent echocardiographic evaluation at years 5 and 25 of the study. The echocardiographic outcomes were left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction, indexed LV end-diastolic volume and LV mass, and left atrial diameter. Participants were grouped according to their weighted-average weekly drinking habits. An additional analysis used the estimated cumulative alcohol consumption. Regression models and multivariable fractional polynomials were used to evaluate the association between alcohol consumption and the outcomes.
RESULTS: Among the 2,368 participants, alcohol consumption was an independent predictor of higher indexed LV mass (p = 0.014) and indexed LV end-diastolic volume (p = 0.037), regardless of sex. No significant relationship between alcohol intake and LV ejection fraction was found. Drinking predominantly wine was associated with less cardiac remodeling and there was a nonsignificant trend for a harmful effect of binge drinking.
CONCLUSIONS: After 20 years of follow-up, alcohol intake was associated with adverse cardiac remodeling, although it was not related with LV systolic dysfunction in this initially healthy young cohort. Our results also suggest that drinking predominantly wine associates with less deleterious findings in cardiac structure.
Moderate alcohol consumption has been associated with a lower risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) in the general population but has not been well studied in US veterans. We obtained self-reported alcohol consumption from Million Veteran Program participants. Using electronic health records, CAD events were defined as 1 inpatient or 2 outpatient diagnosis codes for CAD, or 1 code for a coronary procedure. We excluded participants with prevalent CAD (n = 69,995) or incomplete alcohol information (n = 8,449). We used a Cox proportional hazards model to estimate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals for CAD, adjusting for age, gender, body mass index, race, smoking, education, and exercise. Among 156,728 participants, the mean age was 65.3 years (standard deviation = 12.1) and 91% were men. There were 6,153 CAD events during a mean follow-up of 2.9 years. Adjusted hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) for CAD were 1.00 (reference), 1.02 (0.92 to 1.13), 0.83 (0.74 to 0.93), 0.77 (0.67 to 0.87), 0.71 (0.62 to 0.81), 0.62 (0.51 to 0.76), 0.58 (0.46 to 0.74), and 0.95 (0.85 to 1.06) for categories of never drinker; former drinker; current drinkers of 0.5 to 1 drink/day, >1 to 2 drinks/day, >2 to 3 drinks/day, and >3 to 4 drinks/day; and heavy drinkers (>4 drinks/day) or alcohol use disorder, respectively. For a fixed amount of ethanol, intake at >/=3 days/week was associated with lower CAD risk compared with </=1 day/week. Beverage preference (beer, wine, or liquor) did not influence the alcohol-CAD relation. Our data show a lower risk of CAD with light-to-moderate alcohol consumption among US veterans, and drinking frequency may provide a further reduction in risk.