6 replies to this topic

[misterE]

I’ve done a lot of research on metabolic-syndrome and diabetes over the past five or six years or so and wanted to make a post about alcohol consumption and diabetes.  As most people have heard that alcohol consumption has a U-shaped curve when it comes to health. As you drink, your risk for metabolic-syndrome decreases but the rate of death or injury increases (due to accidents or sloppiness) the more you drink. I wanted to find out the main mechanism behind the insulin-sensitizing effect of alcohol, so I set off on a journey to figure this out.

 

Metabolic-syndrome is basically uncontrolled diabetes and the underlying cause of this is lipotoxicity. One of the functions of insulin is to inhibit lipolysis and decrease blood levels of free-fatty-acids (FFA’s). With metabolic-syndrome, insulin is unable to inhibit lipolysis so therefore FFA’s constantly stay elevated, leading to fat accumulation within organs and muscles and also leading to atherosclerosis. All this fat accumulation in the organs causes their malfunction and metabolic-syndrome soon develops as a result.

 

When FFA’s are suppressed, blood-sugar metabolism is improved. Many diabetic drugs like Acipimox for example, work by inhibiting lipolysis; inhibiting the flux of FFA’s from the adipocytes into the muscles, or other vital organs. Inhibiting lipolysis literally clears the way for glucose to move into these organs and be stored as glycogen more efficiently. Interestingly enough: drinking alcohol inhibits lipolysis!

When alcohol is consumed, most of it is metabolized into a substance called acetate. This is where alcohol gets its main metabolic effect from. Acetate is a potent inhibitor of lipolysis. With the consumption of alcohol you get a decrease in lipolysis and FFA’s. This effect happens whether you have insulin-resistance or not. The more acetate is present in the body, the greater suppression of lipolysis and lower levels of FFA’s. Acetate is also made naturally in the body thru the fermentation of dietary-fiber. This is one of the many ways fiber strongly protects against diabetes.

 

Alcohol is known for increasing beneficial hormones as well, like HDL-cholesterol, leptin and adiponectin. The liver makes HDL when the flux of FFA’s into the liver is low. And when the influx is high, it makes VLDL-cholesterol (a more atherogenic type). Leptin and adiponectin are hormones that regulate energy-expenditure, satiety and just metabolism in general; they are considered anti-obesity hormones and are viewed as beneficial in terms of diabetes and overall health. When the adipocyte is undergoing lipolysis, the synthesis of leptin and adiponectin decrease, plus the high levels of FFA’s and triglycerides also nullify the potency of leptin and adipoenctin, becoming resistant to them. Drinking alcohol and lowering FFA’s allows the liver to produce more HDL and enables leptin and adiponectin expression to increase.

 

Since alcohol inhibits lipolysis, it is able to essentially overcome diabetes temporarily, regardless of insulin or not. Another way of looking at it is that alcohol has insulin-like effects. This I believe explains how alcohol is able to provide anti-diabetes health-benefits. I would love to hear some input on this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by misterE, 13 April 2014 - 09:18 PM.

[Chupo]

If it's acetate that's responisble, just drink vinegar.   Vinegar works much the same way as metformin - by activating AMPK in the liver and reducing gluconeogenesis. 

[misterE]

Chupo-- Interesting isn't it. Perhaps this is why fermented foods are good for you too. I know an old man who drinks a mixture of heated water mixed with honey and vinegar, he swears that it helped him battle his diabetes.

[maximum411]

Great post! Always nice to have a concise summary of a complex topic like that.

[bracconiere]

Chupo-- Interesting isn't it. Perhaps this is why fermented foods are good for you too.

 

 

I gave you a vote for that...all the best food is rotten, beer, wine, cheese ( the more rotten the better), bread, yogurt, vinegar, pepperoni...and so on

 

I think Louie Pasteur discovering bacteria and what not was a mixed blessing, they don't make rotten food like they used too...

Edited by bracconiere, 07 June 2014 - 04:12 AM.

[misterE]

 

 

 

I gave you a vote for that...all the best food is rotten,

 

 

Thanks. Why do you think "rotten foods" are good for you? What is the main mechanism behind it? 

[bracconiere]

 

 

 

 

I gave you a vote for that...all the best food is rotten,

 

 

Thanks. Why do you think "rotten foods" are good for you? What is the main mechanism behind it? 

 

 

 

lol, I don't follow the hype, just what the USDA database and RDA's tell me I need. But as far as flavor goes, yeast, bacteria, and mold kick it up to 11. And I once saw an article about Spanish researchers saying that we 'evolved' because we started eating meat to have bigger brains because of the extra calories from it that we wouldn't be able to get from a normal primate diet. But I have a theory that it's because we learned to ferment things, being that alcohol also has more calories that starch or protein. And the fact that the only reason animals have B12, is that they live off bacteria.

 

Why not cut out the middle man. I have a project on the back burner to invent my own fermented food that has B12 in nutritionally significant amounts, so that I don't need to supplement for it. According to the ATCC, the bacteria that gives swiss cheese it's distinctive flavor produces B12, why it has the highest content of the cheeses. Maybe buy some cobalt dust, add a few mg's to or less to something that this bacteria can live off, throw it in a glove box seal it up, then send it to a lab for B12 assay. Sourced one out that will test for $125...

 

 

But other than flavor and B12, I just like fermenting food....

 

 

(and excuse my lack of formal English writing skills, and if I didn't add intellectual value to the discussion. Just saw you get 2 down votes for saying something somewhat positive about alcohol. Thought I'd chime in against the anti-alcohol, pro-nootropics people....And I almost had a good rep:)

Edited by bracconiere, 07 June 2014 - 10:21 PM.