New Research: Binge Drinking + Diabetes Connection
New diabetes research reveals a connection between binge drinking and diabetes. Mount Sinai researchers have found that regularly consuming 4 to 5 drinks in a sitting could increase the risk for diabetes. The alcohol infects an area of the brain that regulates insulin production that puts those already at risk for diabetes at an even higher risk.
Before you reach for that next drink, you might want to consider whether or not it will affect you down the line. Researchers say that there is little known about the relationship between binge drinking and diabetes, but this study has shown that people who binge drink have developed metabolic syndrome years later.
Interesting Facts Learned in the Study
- Alcohol is largely comprised of sugar and empty calories, which is responsible for the onset of obesity, which presents another high risk for diabetes.
- Aside from the sugar, researchers were able to show the alcohol’s affect on the brain.
- The study was conducted on rats. Over the course of 3 days, some were given alcohol and some merely sugars. The rats that were given alcohol had higher concentrations of plasma insulin, an indicator of metabolic syndrome, which increases one’s risk for diabetes.
- “Damage to the liver doesn’t seem to be the mechanism that makes you become insulin resistant . . . It seems to be primarily because [binge drinking] damages the brain.”
