The only strong environmental relation Dups has with anything that I'm sure of is physical injury (trauma) to the hand. As I've suggested no pure scientific study will ever be done on this though there are retrospective studies. And there is ample anecdotal evidence including many on this site.

I don't think there are two "types" of Dups but rather some people's genetic predisposition is so great that it doesn't take much to trigger it. Maybe just older age as the skin begins to deteriorate. Others with a weak predisposition might only have the disease triggered after a strong trauma to the hand (like me).

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8856538?dopt=Abstract

This strong of predisposition may be part of what is called the "diathesis"

Not wistanding the new study mention above, from Eaton's new site:

From Eaton's new site: http://dupuytrens.org/Whatotherconditionspredispose.html

For a long time doctors have associated DD with alcoholism. Just as those with diabetes are more likely to have DD.

I have the view that there are two types of DD. That which is simply genetic and a second type that seems to be brought on by other factors such as diabetes, alcoholism or some sort of physical trauma.

Certainly there are people with DD that don't drink. I have a few glasses of wine most days so that could be a pointer to my disease except for the fact that I developed DD and LD in my early teens and a certainly wasn't having knocking back a few shots before heading off to school.

These days my DD has patches of activity and then long periods of inactivity but my alcohol consumption does not fluctuate (A few glasses each day but no big nights) so my sense is that, for me, it is not a factor.

Thanks everyone for your input.. it really helps to share experiences. My father has a bad case of DD and so I guess in my case there is a genetic factor. My brother is a hard core alcoholic (he's 49 and I'm 50) and he doesn't have any DD symptoms at all. I'm not an alcoholic, but I do like a tipple now and then which comprises around 4-5 drinks, and I certainly do not drink everyday, maybe every week. I'm certain that there is more tingling and pain the next morning, but cant say if it gets worse.

Cheers
Julie

On my reading it simply means that old alcoholics are far more likely to have DC.

Interesting that the prevalence of DC in patients with nonalcoholic chronic liver disease was half that of the control group. I won't rush to the conclusion that liver disease without alcohol reduced the risk of DD.

The study concludes that, in their group of patients, variables that could explain DC were, in decreasing order, age, total alcohol consumption, sex (male), and previous hand injuries but they started with 9 variables. Does this mean that the other variables (manual labor, diabetes mellitus, daily alcohol consumption, duration of alcohol consumption and duration of cigarette smoking) are not factors?

Thanks so much, and I would greatly appreciate the email please:
juliebeesley@hotmail.com