Drinking moderate amounts of alcohol appears to protect older women from developing type 2 or non-insulin-dependent diabetes¹, Dutch researchers report.

Although an association between alcohol use and reduced diabetes risk has been observed previously², much exploration of this topic has centered on men and few studies have involved older women, Dr. Michiel L. Bots of University Medical Center Utrecht and colleagues note in the journal Diabetes Care.

Because diabetes increases with age and most type 2 diabetic patients are women, they investigated the relationship between alcohol and diabetes onset³ in older women. The team examined data from a cohort of more than 16,300 women aged⁴ 49 to 70 years who were diabetes-free at enrollment⁵ and were followed for an average of 6.2 years.

During this period, 760 women were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Compared with abstainers, women consuming moderate amounts of alcohol (5 to 30 grams per week) were much less likely to develop diabetes. Ten grams of alcohol constitutes one standard drink.

There was no association with type of drink. Lifetime alcohol consumption was associated with type 2 diabetes in a U-shaped fashion -- in that it was increased in abstainers and excessive drinkers in comparison with those with moderate consumption.

The investigators⁶ note that their data "agree with previous observations and expand this evidence to older women and lifetime alcohol consumption." 

　　中文：

　　荷兰研究人员日前表示，适量饮酒有助于上了年纪的女性免受II型糖尿病的困扰。

　　据路透社12月29日报道，荷兰乌得勒支大学医学中心的米歇尔·波茨博士在新一期《糖尿病护理》杂志中指出，尽管此前的研究已经发现，饮酒和降低人们患糖尿病的危险，这两者间具有联系；但人们对这一主题的深入探索大多都集中在男性身上，很少有研究涉及到上了年纪的女性。

　　由于糖尿病的发病危险会随年龄的增加而加大，同时大部分患有II型糖尿病的患者都为女性，因此波茨带领的研究小组对老年女性饮酒和糖尿病发作这两者的关系进行了调查研究。研究人员对1.63万名年龄在49岁至70岁的女性的相关数据进行了分析研究。这些人接受登记的时候并未患上糖尿病，她们接受跟踪调查的时间平均为6.2年。

　　在跟踪调查期间，共有760名女性被诊断患上了II型糖尿病。研究结果显示，与那些滴酒不沾的人相比，那些适量饮酒的女性（每周5克至30克）更不易患II型糖尿病。这和酒的种类并无关系。另外，研究人员还发现了人们终生饮酒习惯和患糖尿病危险这两者的关系，即和适量饮酒的人相比，那些过量饮酒以及从不饮酒的人，其患II型糖尿病的危险都要大得多。

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