A CONTROLLED TRIAL OF THE EFFECTS OF PATTERN OF ALCOHOL INTAKE ON SERUM-LIPID LEVELS IN REGULAR DRINKERS

To determine whether the effects of drinking pattern predominantly wee kend versus daily drinking) have differential effects on serum lipids, 55 healthy male drinkers were recruited on the basis of a regular alc ohol intake, 210-500 mi absolute alcohol/week (approximate to 3-6 stan dard drinks/day), with more than 60% consumed as beer. Fourteen subjec ts were categorised as predominantly weekend drinkers, while 41 subjec ts regularly drank on a daily basis. After maintenance of their drinki ng pattern during a 4-week familiarisation, subjects were randomised t o either consume low alcohol beer (0.9%, v/v) only, or to maintain the ir usual drinking habit consuming full-strength beer (5%, v/v) for the next 4 weeks. They then switched to full-strength or low alcohol beer , respectively, for a further 4 weeks. Their drinking pattern remained constant during the study. In both weekend and daily drinkers, a redu ction in alcohol intake (i.e. from 387 ml/week to 88 ml/week for weeke nd drinkers and from 418 ml/week to 95 ml/week for daily drinkers, res pectively, P < 0.001) resulted in a similar 0.12 mmol/l fall in HDL-C (P < 0.01) with a concomitant significant fall in both apolipoproteins A-T and A-II. In daily drinkers total cholesterol fell by 0.28 mmol/l (P < 0.001) and triglyceride by 0.22 mmol/l (P < 0.01) with a reducti on in alcohol intake, but no change in LDL-C was seen. In contrast, we ekend drinkers total cholesterol was unchanged while triglyceride decr eased by 0.26 mmol/l (P < 0.05) and LDL-C increased by 0.25 mmol/l (P < 0.01). Lp(a) increased with a reduction in alcohol intake in both da ily (9.1 U/l, P < 0.05) and weekend drinkers (27.6 U/l, P = 0.07). Pre vious reports of a more atherogenic lipid profile with episodic versus regular daily drinking were not confirmed in this study and potential ly favourable effects of alcohol to increase HDL-C and decrease Lp(a) were shown to be independent of drinking pattern in these moderate to heavy drinkers. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. Al rights reser ved.