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Heavy drinkers may be putting themselves at risk of muscle loss and frailty in later life, a team of researchers said, suggesting another reason to cut down on alcohol, a new study has shown. According to the UK-based University of East Anglia study, people with the least muscle mass were drinking 10 units or more of alcohol per day – roughly one bottle of wine.
The risk of muscle loss is higher in people in their 50s and 60s, the researchers said. Professor Ailsa Welch, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said: “The loss of muscle mass with aging leads to problems with frailty and frailty in later life.” The researchers examined data from UK Biobank, a large-scale database of anonymous lifestyle and health information from half a million people in the country. The study mentions that they looked at data from nearly 200,000 people aged 37 to 73.
Researchers studied how much alcohol people were drinking and compared this to the amount of muscle they had according to their body size. They also considered how much protein they ate, their level of physical activity and other factors that could affect how much muscle they had.
“Most people were in their 50s and 60s. We found that people who drank heavily had less skeletal muscle mass than people who drank less, after taking into account body size and other factors. ” Jane Skinner from UEA’s Norwich Medical School.
According to the study, drinking became a problem when people were drinking 10 or more units of alcohol a day, or the equivalent of four or five pints. “Alcohol consumption and muscle mass were measured cross-sectionally — in people at the same time point — so we can’t be sure of a causal link,” Skinner said.
According to Prof Welch, studies show that consuming high levels of alcohol can have harmful effects on muscles. “We know that as we age, loss of muscle mass leads to weakness and frailty, so this provides another reason to avoid regular heavy drinking in middle and early age,” she said. Said.
