Heavy drinkers risk muscle loss

Heavy drinkers could be putting themselves at risk of muscle loss and frailty in later life, according to new research from the University of East Anglia. A new study published recently shows with statistical modelling that people with the lowest amount of muscle were drinking 10 units or more a day - about a bottle of wine.

Because larger people have more muscle mass, the research team scaled for body size. And they took into account factors such as protein consumption and physical activity. The team say that their findings, mainly in people in their 50s and 60s, suggest another reason to cut back on booze. The team studied data from the UK Biobank - a large-scale database of anonymised lifestyle and health information from half a million people in the UK.

They looked at data for nearly 200,000 people aged between 37 and 73 years. Dr Jane Skinner, also of UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said: “We studied how much alcohol people were drinking and compared it with how much muscle they had, according to their body size.

“We also took into account things like how much protein they consumed, their levels of physical activity and other factors that could make a difference to how much muscle they might have.

“Most of the people were in their 50s and 60s. We found that those who drank a lot of alcohol had a lower amount of skeletal muscle compared to people who drank less, after we took into account their body sizes and other factors.

Reference:

Alcohol consumption and measures of sarcopenic muscle risk: cross-sectional and prospective associations within the UK Biobank Study,Calcified Tissue International