Letters To The Editor
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World J Gastroenterol. Apr 7, 2013; 19(13): 2129-2130
Published online Apr 7, 2013. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v19.i13.2129
Alcohol consumption and fatty liver disease
Ren-Nan Feng, Guo-Dong Sun, Yan Zhao, Fu-Chuan Guo, Chang-Hao Sun
Ren-Nan Feng, Yan Zhao, Fu-Chuan Guo, Chang-Hao Sun, Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150081, Heilongjiang Province, China
Guo-Dong Sun, Dean’s Office, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150081, Heilongjiang Province, China
Author contributions: Feng RN, Sun GD, Zhao Y and Guo FC contributed equally to this work; Feng RN and Sun CH designed the study and wrote the manuscript; Feng RN provided financial support for this work; all the authors were involved in revising the manuscript.
Supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81202184; and Heilongjiang Provincial Post-Doctoral Fund, No. LBNZ-12193
Correspondence to: Chang-Hao Sun, PhD, Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Harbin Medical University, 157 Baojian Street, Nangang District, Harbin 150081, Heilongjiang Province, China. changhao2002sun@gmail.com
Telephone: +86-451-87502881 Fax: +86-451-87502885
Received: August 8, 2012
Revised: March 2, 2013
Accepted: March 8, 2013
Published online: April 7, 2013
Processing time: 243 Days and 20.6 Hours
Abstract

Hamaguchi et al recently reported some interesting observations on alcohol consumption and risk of fatty liver disease from a large population. However, we feel that it might be necessary to discuss some concerns in this study. As the alcohol consumption categorization was defined by the same criteria in both men and women, which might affect their results. As another factor is soft drinks consumption. It has been proved that soft drinks, especially fructose, contributes to the development of obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. However, this confounding factor was not adjusted or discussed in this article. The third is the genetic background, for some genetic factors are related with the development of fatty liver disease, which was also not considered yet.

Keywords: Alcohol; Fatty liver disease; Obesity; Diabetes; Metabolic syndrome

Core tip: Modest alcohol consumption was significantly inversely associated with fatty liver disease in recent studies. However, some studies did not consider some important potential confounding factors when they conclude their findings. Herein, we raised and discussed these important factors in this letter.