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(Circulation. 2004;109:607-612.)
© 2004 American Heart Association, Inc.

Clinical Investigation and Reports

Relationship of Alcohol Intake With Inflammatory Markers and Plasminogen Activator Inhibitior-1 in Well-Functioning Older Adults

The Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study

Stefano Volpato, MD, MPH; Marco Pahor, MD; Luigi Ferrucci, MD, PhD; Eleanor M. Simonsick, PhD; Jack M. Guralnik, MD, PhD; Stephen B. Kritchevsky, PhD; Renato Fellin, MD, PhD; Tamara B. Harris, MD, MS

From the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine (S.V., R.F.), University of Ferrara, Italy; Laboratory of Epidemiology (S.V., J.M.G., T.B.H.), Demography and Biometry, National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, Md; Sticht Center on Aging (M.P., S.B.K.), Department of Internal Medicine, Wake Forest University Health Sciences, Winston-Salem, NC; Geriatric Department (L.F.), I Fraticini, Italian National Institute for Research and Care on Aging (INRCA), Florence, Italy; and Intramural Research Program (E.M.S.), National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, Md.

Correspondence to Stefano Volpato, MD, MPH, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Ferrara, Via Savonarola, 9, I-44100 Ferrara, Italy. E-mail vlt{at}unife.it

Received May 19, 2003; de novo received July 28, 2003; revision received October 20, 2003; accepted October 21, 2003.

Background— Increased levels of acute-phase reactants predict the onset of poor health outcomes. A U-shaped association has been reported between alcohol intake and health outcomes, which suggests that alcohol intake may modify levels of acute-phase reactants. We investigated the relationship between weekly alcohol intake and interleukin-6 (IL-6), C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor- (TNF-), and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1).

Methods and Results— Data are from year 1 of the Health, Aging, and Body Composition study, a biracial cohort of 3075 well-functioning men and women aged 70 to 79 years, living in Memphis, Tenn, and Pittsburgh, Pa. The analysis included 2574 persons (51.2% women; 40.1% black) with complete data. After adjustment for age, race, smoking status, history of diabetes, history of cardiovascular disease, physical activity, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, antiinflammatory medications, statins, and total fat mass, alcohol intake showed a J-shaped relationship with mean IL-6 (P for quadratic term <0.001) and CRP (P=0.014) levels. The association was consistent in both men and women. Compared with subjects who consumed 1 to 7 drinks per week, those who never drank had an increased likelihood of having high levels of both IL-6 and CRP, as did those who drank 8 or more drinks per week. We found no relationship between alcohol intake and levels of TNF- and PAI-1 (P=0.137 and 0.08, respectively).

Conclusions— In well-functioning older persons, light alcohol consumption is associated with lower levels of IL-6 and CRP. These results might suggest an additional biological explanation to the epidemiological link between moderate alcohol consumption and cardiovascular events.

Key Words: alcohol • inflammation • aging • epidemiology • interleukins

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