2000 Volume 46 Issue 4 Pages 171-174
Hyperhomocysteinemia in chronic alcoholics has been reported, but it re-mains unclear whether relatively low alcohol intake compared with the previous reports af-fects the plasma homocysteine level. To investigate this issue, we performed two studies, a population-based study and an alcohol withdrawal study. An analysis of plasma homocys-teine levels in a population of 2 3 6 healthy males showed no significant association between alcohol consumption and other tested parameters. In the withdrawal study, the subjects with a history of daily alcohol consumption (81.8±33.0g/d, mean±SD, 40-150g/d, range) abstained from alcohol for 4 wk. After withdrawal, the levels of serum γ-glutamyl transpeptidase, aspartate aminotransferase, triglycerides, and high-density lipoprotein cho-lesterol significantly decreased, but the plasma homocysteine level did not change. These re-sults suggest that alcohol intake, at least as far as the amount of beverages our study sub-jects consumed, has no effect on the plasma homocysteine level in healthy males.
