Modest alcohol consumption decreases the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a meta-analysis of 43 175 individuals

SILVIA C. SOOKOIAN; GUSTAVO O. CASTAÑO; CARLOS J. PIROLA

GUT - AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GASTROENTEOROLOGY AND HEPATOLOGY

B M J PUBLISHING GROUP

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2014 vol. 63 p. 530 - 532

0017-5749

Epidemiological studies suggested that the prevalence and the disease severity of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are lower for people who drink modest amounts of alcohol than those who are abstainers. Nevertheless, the evidence is still inconclusive because some recently published studies [1] showed that modest alcohol consumption increases hepatic fat without increasing the risk of advanced fibrosis. Remarkably, we also found in the Argentinean population that modest alcohol consumption (MAC) has a beneficial effect not only on NAFLD but on various components of the metabolic syndrome, including body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, HOMA-IR, and C-reactive protein levels. Accordingly, NAFLD and NASH prevalence, liver enzymes, and inflammatory markers were also lower in subjects who took modest amounts of alcohol than those who are abstainers (Table 1). Hence, we propose to take advantage of meta-analysis to estimate from published data the effect of MAC on the odds of having NAFLD to give a quantitative assessment of this relationship. Thus, we addressed two different relevant clinical questions. Is MAC associated with lower prevalence of NAFLD? Data regarding MAC and NAFLD was extracted from eight heterogeneous (I2:80.7, p