The authors published their study in the journal Science Translational Medicine, and further discovered that alcohol causing inflammation in the hypothalamus area of your brain, which disrupts your insulin-receptor signalling. According to Christoph Buettner, MD, PhD, who is the senior author of the study and an Associate Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Disease), ‘Insulin resistance has emerged as a key metabolic defect leading to Type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD). Someone who regularly binge drinks even once a week, over many years, may remain in an insulin resistant state for an extended period of time, potentially years’.
For the study, the team stimulated human binge drinking by treating rats with alcohol for three consecutive days, after which they studied the rats’ glucose metabolism. The results were that there were higher concentrations of plasma insulin in the blood of the rats treated with alcohol than the control group. This suggests that insulin resistance may have been the cause of the impaired glucose tolerance, because if you have high plasma insulin levels, you could end up with metabolic syndrome. This is what refers to a group of risk factors increase your risk for Type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease, and stroke, especially when they occur together.
Claudia Lindtner, MD, who is the first author of the study and an Associate Researcher of Medicine, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Disease at the Icahn School of Medicine, concluded by saying that ‘Previously it was unclear whether binge drinking was associated with an increased risk for diabetes, since a person who binge drinks may also tend to binge eat, or at least eat too much. Our data show for the first time that binge drinking induces insulin resistance directly and can occur independent of differences in caloric intake.’