MODERATE ALCOHOL-CONSUMPTION AND ITS RELATION TO VISCERAL FAT AND PLASMA ANDROGENS IN HEALTHY WOMEN

OBJECTIVE: To study the inter-relationships between daily alcohol inta ke, fat distribution and plasma androgens in order to verify whether d aily alcohol intake correlates with abdominal body fat and, if so, to what extent such a relation is mediated by plasma androgens. SUBJECTS: A random sample of 87 clinically healthy women (aged 38 y) with a lig ht-moderate alcohol consumption and without clinical evidence suggesti ve of any endocrine disorder. MEASUREMENTS: Anthropometric and compute d tomography (CT scans made at the level of L4-L5 in a subgroup of 18 women) measurements of body fatness and adipose tissue distribution, m ain behavioural factors, including daily alcohol intake and plasma and rogens (i.e. total and free testosterone levels). RESULTS: After adjus tment for BMI, cigarette smoking and physical activity, significant di fferences were found in waist circumference and waist-hip ratio as wel l as in plasma androgens with increasing daily alcohol intake. Waist-t high ratio tended to parallel waist-hip ratio, but did not achieve sta tistical significance. In simple linear regression analysis, abdominal visceral fat area, derived from CT, correlated positively with both p lasma free testosterone and alcohol intake. While the above reported d ifferences in body fat distribution totally disappeared after controll ing also for free testosterone level, the differences in plasma androg ens with increasing alcohol intake remained essentially unchanged when allowance was made also for waist-hip ratio. In multiple linear regre ssion analysis, daily alcohol intake appeared to be positively and ind ependently correlated to both plasma total and free testosterone level s. Neither BMI nor waist-hip ratio nor fasting insulin made any signif icant contribution to the prediction of plasma androgens after daily a lcohol intake had been taken into account. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study show that moderate alcohol consumption correlates with abd ominal distribution of body fat, likely due to enlarged visceral fat a rea, and increased plasma androgenicity (i.e. higher total and free te stosterone levels) in adult healthy women. These data also suggest tha t the relation between alcohol intake and fat distribution may be, at least in part, mediated by plasma androgens.