Blood metabolite biomarkers of low to moderate alcohol consumption in postmenopausal women

This randomized crossover “feeding” study tested whether low to moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages changes blood metabolites in postmenopausal women. Fifty-one women were assigned to consume 0, 15, or 30 g of alcohol per day for 8 weeks each, with washout periods* in between, while otherwise eating a controlled diet. The researchers measured 1,422 metabolites in fasting plasma and found that alcohol intake significantly changed 46 of them. Several of the strongest signals were compounds directly related to alcohol exposure, including ethyl glucuronide and ethyl alpha-glucopyranoside, and the changes generally followed a dose-response pattern, meaning higher alcohol consumption produced bigger shifts.

The main outcome is that a set of blood metabolites were identified that could potentially serve as biomarkers of low to moderate alcohol consumption. This is useful because self-reported drinking is often inaccurate. The findings may help future research measure alcohol exposure more objectively and study how low-to-moderate drinking relates to disease risk. Thus, the study shows that even moderate amounts of alcohol leave a measurable fingerprint in blood, and some of those markers may be used in future epidemiologic studies.