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People who drink heavily in their youth may have a higher risk of developing a collection of risk factors for heart disease and stroke, new research suggests.
In a study that examined the lifetime drinking habits of more than 2,800 adults, researchers found that those who drank heavily in their teens and young adulthood were more likely to have metabolic syndrome than those who drank more moderately throughout adulthood.
Metabolic syndrome refers to a grouping of risk factors for heart disease, stroke and diabetes — including abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, low levels of “good” HDL cholesterol, high blood sugar and high triglycerides, a type of blood fat. People who have three or more of these problems are considered to have metabolic syndrome.
While moderate drinking can be heart-healthy — helping to boost HDL levels, for example — excessive drinking is not. The new findings suggest that drinking heavily early in life might contribute to metabolic syndrome later on.
“There are already many reasons for encouraging young people to avoid heavy drinking,” Dr. Marcia Russell, one of the researchers on the study, told Reuters Health.
“Long-term health consequences, such as an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, may be another,” added Russell, a researcher at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Berkeley, California.
She and her colleagues report their findings in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
The study included 2,818 adults ages 35 to 80 who were questioned about their lifetime drinking habits and other lifestyle factors, like whether they exercised regularly or smoked.
All of the study participants had consumed alcohol regularly at some point in their lives, but Russell and her colleagues were able to identify two major lifetime ”trajectories” of drinking: in one, people started drinking early in life and tended to drink heavily in their teens and young adulthood, then tapered off by middle-age; in the second, ”stable” trajectory, people generally drank moderately over the years.
Compared with the stable group, the early drinkers were almost one-third more likely to have metabolic syndrome. In addition, their risk of being abdominally obese was 48 percent higher, while their odds of having low HDL cholesterol were 62 percent higher.
Russell said that to her knowledge, this is the first study to take the “lifetime approach” to understanding the relationship between alcohol and health, and more research is needed to confirm the findings.
However, it is plausible that early, heavy drinking contributes to metabolic syndrome later on. Russell noted that excessive drinking causes oxidative stress in the body — a state that damages body cells over time and is thought to contribute to cardiovascular disease and other ills.
She also pointed out that alcohol contains 7 calories per gram, versus only 4 calories per gram of carbohydrate or protein. Those calories, coupled with the appetite-stimulating effect of alcohol, may help explain the link between early drinking and excess weight.
一项新研究发现：在年轻时酗酒的人罹患心脏病和中风的风险更大。
通过对2800多例在生活中有饮酒习惯的成年人的调查，研究者发现在青少年时代就有酗酒恶习的人比那些在成年后一直适量饮酒的人更容易出现新陈代谢综合症。
所谓的新陈代谢综合症，是指容易引发心脏病，中风以及糖尿病等风险的症状，例如大肚腩，高血压，体内高密度脂蛋白含量低以及甘油三酸酯（一种血脂）超标。出现这样三种或三种以上症状的人就被认为患了新陈代谢综合症。
尽管适度饮酒对心脏是有好处的，例如可以增加高密度脂蛋白含量，过量饮酒则不然。一项新的研究发现在早年酗酒可导致今后出现新陈代谢综合症。
位于加利福尼亚柏克莱的研究与评估太平洋研究所（the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Berkeley, California）的研究人员，这项研究的参与者之一，玛夏.罗素（Marcia Russell）博士在接受路透健康新闻采访时说：“我们早已经有很多理由来规劝年轻人远离酗酒的恶习了，而长时间对健康的损害，例如增加患心血管疾病的风险，又给我们提供了新的理由。”她补充道。
罗素博士和她的同事们将这项发现发表在名为《内分泌与新陈代谢临床医学》的杂志上。
这项研究的对象包括2818名年龄在35到80岁的成年人，他们被问及饮酒习惯以及其他生活方式上的问题，例如是否经常锻炼以及是否吸烟。
所有的研究对象在一生中有一段时间都有规律的消耗酒精饮料，但是罗素博士和她的同事们在他们当中成功的找出两条不同的“轨迹”：一类人在一生中较早的学会饮酒并且在青少年时期酗酒，在中年时期逐渐减少饮酒量而另一类人，“稳定派”，即在数年内一直适量饮酒者。
与稳定派相比，第一类人有三分之一多的患有新陈代谢综合症，另外，他们患大肚腩的几率比前者高百分之四十八，而患高密度脂蛋白含量低比前者高百分之六十二。
罗素透漏说这只是理解酒精与健康关系的终生研究方法第一步，还需要有更多的研究来证实这个论点。
然而，过早饮酒和酗酒将导致将来患新陈代谢综合症是可信的。罗素说酗酒将导致身体的氧化负担，长时间的这种状态可损害人体细胞并导致心血管疾病及其他疾病。
她同时指出，与每克仅含四卡罗里热量的碳水化合物或者蛋白质相比，酒精中的热量高达每克7卡罗里，这些热量，加上酒精的对味觉的刺激，也许有助于解释过早饮酒与体重超标的关系。
