Re: Association between alcohol and cardiovascular disease: Mendelian randomisation analysis based on individual participant data
It's difficult to extract from the reported data the degree to which allele carriers differed from the reference group in terms of alcohol intake in the light to moderate drinking categories. The article states that carriers drank less at all levels of alcohol consumption. Nevertheless, if they drank 17 percent less averaged over the entire population, and at the same time were much less likely to fit into the highest tertile (0.70 odds ratio), it seems plausible that much of that 17 percent reduction reflected their absence from that high intake tertile, and that in the lower intake groups, their consumption differed little from the reference group. If, due to impaired alcohol metabolism, their physiological response to alcohol was greater per given amount consumed, it's not unreasonable to speculate that their reduced CHD risk was the result of their increased response to alcohol. It seems to me, these possibilities deserve further exploration.
It's difficult to extract from the reported data the degree to which allele carriers differed from the reference group in terms of alcohol intake in the light to moderate drinking categories. The article states that carriers drank less at all levels of alcohol consumption. Nevertheless, if they drank 17 percent less averaged over the entire population, and at the same time were much less likely to fit into the highest tertile (0.70 odds ratio), it seems plausible that much of that 17 percent reduction reflected their absence from that high intake tertile, and that in the lower intake groups, their consumption differed little from the reference group. If, due to impaired alcohol metabolism, their physiological response to alcohol was greater per given amount consumed, it's not unreasonable to speculate that their reduced CHD risk was the result of their increased response to alcohol. It seems to me, these possibilities deserve further exploration.
Competing interests: No competing interests