Last year has seen a study
by C.H. Kim and colleagues with the title: “Association between alcohol
consumption and symptom severity and quality of life in patients with
fibromyalgia“ (you can read the whole article here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3672769/).
The authors concluded: “Our study demonstrates that low and moderate alcohol
consumption was associated with lower fibromyalgia symptoms and better QOL
compared to no alcohol consumption. The reasons for these results are unclear.
Since recent studies have demonstrated that γ-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) levels
are low in fibromyalgia, and alcohol is known to be a GABA-agonist, future
studies should examine whether alcohol could have a salutary effect on pain and
other symptoms in fibromyalgia.“
Sorry, I can’t agree with
this conclusion.
The authors themselves saw
some limitations of their study. Self-reported amounts of alcohol consumption
may be biased (possible under-reporting). “Alcohol consumption levels were
defined as follows: none, 0 drinks/wk; low, ≤3 drinks/wk; moderate, >3 to 7
drinks/wk; heavy, >7 drinks/wk.” The study fails to differentiate in between
the types of alcoholic beverages. The study has too small sample sizes for
moderate and heavy alcohol consumption: None (n= 546), Low (n= 338), Moderate
(n= 31), Heavy(n= 31). “However, the reasons for, and the clinical importance
of this association cannot be determined in this study, and the associations
may be due to unmeasured confounding variables.” This should have gone into the
conclusion!
I hope this study stimulates further studies on GABA levels and its
implications in fibromyalgia patients. If you like to have a drink in company,
I wouldn’t object and tell you not to do so. But don’t start drinking alcohol
as a treatment of fibromyalgia!
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