Influence of alcohol consumption and smoking habits on cardiovascular riskfactors and antioxidant status in healthy Korean men

Recently upper-body fat distribution, hyperhomocysteinemia, and depletion o f antioxidants have been identified as important cardiovascular disease (CV D) risk factors in Westernized populations, in addition to excessive alcoho l consumption and cigarette smoking. The purpose of this study was to confi rm the influence of alcohol consumption and smoking habits on cardiovascula r risk factors in otherwise healthy Korean men, a population that has adopt ed many Westernized dietary and lifestyle practices. Subjects were divided into 6 groups: nondrinker-nonsmoker (NN, n=33), nondrinker-heavy smoker (NH , n=11), moderate drinker-nonsmoker (MN, n=46), moderate drinker-heavy smok er (MH, n=33), heavy drinker-nonsmoker (HN, n=14), and heavy drinker-heavy smoker (HH, n=15). All groups showed similar calorie and protein intakes wh ile 65% of HH supplemented their diet with vitamins. Compared to moderate d rinkers, HN consumed twice, and HH nearly three times as much alcohol accou nting for 10% and 15% of total caloric intake, respectively. Despite their similar body mass index, heavy drinkers showed the highest mean value of wa ist to hip ratio and subcutaneous fat area at L1 and L4. HH showed higher s erum levels of triglyceride and HDL-cholesterol but lower serum levels of t ransferrin and IGF-1, compared to nondrinkers. Plasma homocysteine levels w ere higher in HH than in NN. Heavy alcohol consumption in this study was po sitively associated with abdominal obesity, hypertriglyceridemia, and decre ased carotenoid levels (beta-carotene, cryptoxanthin, and lycopene) despite an observed healthy range of HDL-cholesterol for HH and HN groups. The sim ultaneous abuses of excessive alcohol and cigarette consumption by study su bjects were correlated with low antioxidant levels and abnormal serum lipid and protein profiles. This data confirms the influence of alcohol and ciga rettes on CVD risk factors and reports findings for a population of Korean men that are consistent with other reported world health literature. (C) 20 00 Elsevier Science Inc.