A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject. ~Winston Churchill
Two new studies published online in the British Medical Journal show that obesity and alcohol work together to increase the risk of liver disease in both men and women. Rates of liver disease and obesity are rising in the UK. Alcohol is a major cause of cirrhosis, but recent evidence suggests that excess body weight may also play a role.
In the first study, researchers from the University of Oxford examined the link between body mass index (BMI) and liver cirrhosis in 1.2 million middle-aged women as part of the Million Women Study. Compared to women of a healthy weight, women who were overweight or obese had an increased relative risk of liver cirrhosis. Although this relative risk did not differ significantly by alcohol consumption, the absolute risk did. Among women who reported drinking an average of about a third to half a drink a day, 0.8 in 1000 will be admitted to the hospital with or will die from liver cirrhosis over five years if they are of normal weight. This is compared with 1 in 1000 women who are obese.
In the second study, researchers from the Universities of Glasgow and Bristol investigated the joint effects of B;MI and alcohol consumption on liver disease in more than 9,000 Scottish men. Both factors were related to liver disease and, more importantly, the combination of high BMI and alcohol consumption was greater than the cumulative effect of the two separate factors.
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