Spirits increase acute pancreatitis risk

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Consuming one drink of hard liquor can increase the risk of an acute attack of pancreatitis, researchers in Sweden say.

However, the study published online in the British Journal of Surgery, found wine and beer do not appear to have the same effect.

Lead author Dr. Omid Sadr-Azodi of the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and colleagues tracked 84,601 people from ages 46-84 from the general population in Vastmanland and Uppsala for a median of 10 years.

During the study period 513 developed acute pancreatitis.

"Our study revealed a steady increase between each measure of spirits a person drank on one occasion and the risk of having an acute attack of pancreatitis, starting at just under 10 percent for one drink," Sadr-Azodi says in a statement. "For example, drinking five standard Swedish measures of a drink on a single occasion increased the risk of an acute episode by 52 percent and the risk then continued to increase at that rate for every five additional units consumed. But drinking more than five glasses of wine or five beers on one occasion did not increase the risk."