With the emergence¹ of an epidemic² of obesity³ and type 2 diabetes⁴ (DM) throughout the world, the association of lifestyle habits that may affect the risk of metabolic⁵ diseases（代谢性疾病） is especially important. Most prospective⁶ studies have shown that moderate drinkers tend to have about 30% lower risk of developing late onset⁷ diabetes than do non-drinkers, and moderate drinkers also tend to be at lower risk of developing metabolic syndrome⁸ (MS). A cross-sectional analysis of 6172 subjects age 35 -75 in Switzerland related varying levels of alcohol intake⁹ to the presence of DM, MS, and an index of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). Alcohol consumption was categorized as non-drinkers (0), low-risk (1󈝹 drinks a week), medium-to-high-risk (14󈞎) and very-high-risk (= 35) drinkers. 73% of participants consumed alcohol, 16% were medium-to-high-risk drinkers and 2% very-high risk drinkers

Study findings: In multivariate analysis, the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome（综合症） , diabetes and mean HOMA-IR decreased with low-risk drinking and increased with high-risk drinking. Adjusted prevalence of the metabolic syndrome was 24% in non-drinkers, 19% in low-risk, 20% in medium-to-high-risk and 29% in very-high-risk drinkers. Adjusted prevalence of diabetes was 6.0% in non-drinkers, 3.6% in low-risk, 3.8% in medium-to-high-risk and 6.7% in very-high-risk drinkers. These relationships did not differ according to beverage¹⁰（饮料） types.

Moderate drinkers also had the lowest weight, tryglycerides, and blood pressure. All drinkers had higher HDL-cholesterol¹¹ values (that is 'good cholesterol) than did non-drinkers.

Forum¹² comments:

Metabolic syndrome is the name given to a so called 'lifestyle disease', where patients exhibit multiple medical problems including high blood pressure, late on set diabetes, and high cholesterol（胆固醇） .

The strengths of this paper include being population-based and having a large number of subjects who reported that they consumed 14 or more drinks/week. Also, there was a good percentage (27%) of subjects reporting no alcohol intake during the one week of assessment¹³ used for classifying subjects. Another strength is the careful confirmation¹⁴ of drinking status with state-of-the-art laboratory tests. In multivariate（多元的） analysis, the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome, diabetes and mean HOMA-IR decreased with low-risk drinking and increased with high-risk drinking. No differences were noted¹⁵ according to the type of beverage consumed.

This is a cross-sectional analysis, so a causative relation between alcohol intake and the metabolic outcomes cannot be assessed. Still, the data supports much that has been shown in prospective studies. Several Forum members commented on potential problems when considering a number of physiologic¹⁶（生理的） conditions as the "metabolic syndrome" and focusing therapy on the syndrome; they believed that each metabolic factor should be evaluated and treated singly.