Alcohol and heart health
And prolonged alcohol use can lead to mental health conditions like anxiety and depression. “Excessive alcohol consumption can cause nerve damage and irreversible forms of dementia,” Dr. Sengupta warns. Your body breaks alcohol down into alcohol poisoning symptoms, causes, complications, and treatment a chemical called acetaldehyde, which damages your DNA. Damaged DNA can cause a cell to grow out of control, which results in cancerous tumors. Alcohol also causes damage to the liver over time, especially if you drink too much.
What Are the Psychological Effects of Alcohol?
Although this has not been investigated for alcohol consumption, an earlier study provided evidence for presence of assortative mating for alcohol consumption [75], and parental substance use disorder is known to influence adult chronic diseases [76], suggesting dynastic effects. Finally, no evidence currently exists that genetic variants can separate the various domains of alcohol consumption (e.g., quantity versus frequency), despite their vastly different associations with CVD. Altogether, MR studies provide evidence from a different angle, but can by themselves not solve the debate on the role of limited drinking on cardiovascular health. When interpreting results from observational studies, several forms of bias should be considered. It is nearly impossible to account for all confounding factors in observational study designs, and this is likely to be particularly true for alcohol consumption, which has strong and varied determinants of exposure [25, 39–41].
Institutional Review Board Statement
The J-shaped risk relationship has been found in both sexes and for IHD morbidity and mortality [16,21]. In a meta-analysis comprising 957,684 participants and 38,627 events, a J-shaped curve in relation to lifetime abstainers was observed in women for both fatal and non-fatal IHD outcomes, and an inverse relationship was observed in men with non-fatal IHD events [16]. Using only studies fully stratified by sex and endpoint, the nadir was found at 32 g per day for IHD mortality in men, 69 g per day for IHD morbidity in men, 11 g per day for IHD mortality in women, and 14 g per day for IHD morbidity in women.
How Alcohol Affects the Heart
Certain cholesterol-lowering medications (e.g., lovastatin) block HMG-CoA reductase, but further research is needed to determine whether alcohol has a similar effect. Understanding how alcohol affects the mind, body, and overall health can help you make the most informed decisions about your consumption habits. If you’re concerned with your alcohol consumption and attitude toward drinking, talk to a healthcare provider as a first step. If you are drinking heavily or are worried you may be dependent on alcohol, reach out to a healthcare provider before you start reducing your alcohol consumption to determine the safest way to make changes.
- In many ways, your medical history (and present) can tell you a lot about your future with alcohol.
- But if a person decides to start drinking, they should consume it within the recommended limits.
- Clinical studies have shown, however, that every 1-percent reduction in plasma cholesterol levels decreases the risk for CAD by 2 percent.
- Moreover, excessive alcohol consumption is related to a higher risk of injuries and deaths by traffic accidents, suicide, marital violence, or child abuse, among others [12].
- BP, blood pressure; HDL-c, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; HTA, hypertension; TG, triglycerides; T2D, type 2 diabetes.
Alcohol and the Cardiovascular System
Differences among results from human studies may relate to small sample sizes, duration of drinking, and degree of myocardial dysfunction. In the Miró study, alcohol drinkers also had been receiving pharmacologic treatments such as beta-adrenergic blocking agents that reduce blood pressure and also may have antioxidant effects. Data from transgenic genetics of alcohol use disorder national institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism niaaa animal models and pharmacologic approaches strongly support a role for ethanol-induced oxidative stress in CV disease. In addition, there was no evidence of nitrative damage in mice bred to disrupt (i.e., knock out) the gene for angiotensin I receptor (AT1-KO) that had been given ethanol for a similar length of time (Tan et al. 2012).
This is especially true when you engage in binge drinking (that’s defined as four or more drinks within two hours for women and people assigned female at birth, and five or more drinks within two hours for men and people assigned male at birth). Adjustment for possible confounders, some of which may lie in the pathway of CVD development and could be considered mediators, remains an issue in alcohol epidemiology [35]. Because alcohol is a depressant, it can also contribute to mental health conditions, like anxiety and depression.
But it could be problematic for people who have conditions that cause irregular heart rhythms, such as atrial fibrillation or other types of arrhythmias, or for those who are at high risk for heart attacks or strokes. The newest evidence suggests benefits for heart health of drinking alcohol are less and apply to a smaller group ofthe population than previously thought. The only group who might see some benefit overall in the UK is women over the age of 55, but and even then only at low levels of drinking – around 5 units a week or less. One of the biggest is that, over time, regularly drinking alcohol can lead to addiction. Some people assume that the AHA recommendation means they can or should have an alcoholic drink every day.
In people assigned female at birth, consuming more than four drinks in one sitting is considered binge drinking. However, there may be legal, financial, or relational consequences for drinking heavily. In general, a normal resting heart rate for adults is between 60 and 100 beats per minute.
For example, it seems that the higher the education level, the lower the presence of excessive drinking [12]. Altered platelet responses (e.g., increased platelet activation/aggregation) leads to blood-clot formation (or thrombosis) in certain CV conditions. Anticlotting therapies are therefore the cornerstone of managing acute coronary syndromes. Not surprisingly, alcohol consumption has complex and varying effects on platelet function. Studies using different methodologies have shown that low-to-moderate alcohol consumption decreases platelet activation and aggregation in certain cases—for example, in response to certain physiologic stimuli such as adenosine 5′-diphosphate (Salem and Laposata 2005). On the other hand, significant daily alcohol consumption increases platelet aggregation and reactivity.
The evidence suggests that the type of alcoholic beverage does not play a role in the shape of the relationship. A meta-analysis [22] of fatal or non-fatal CVD events showed that a J-shaped association was observed for the consumption of wine, an inverse relationship for beer consumption, and a negative association for spirits. The association between excessive alcohol consumption and enlargement of the heart and the occurrence of CHF in chronic alcoholics was first reported more than 100 years ago. More recent research has further established the association between cardiomyopathy and heavy alcohol consumption (Moushmoush and Abi-Mansour 1991; Rubin and Thomas 1992). Alcoholic cardiomyopathy accounts for 20 to 50 percent of all cases of cardiomyopathy in Western countries. In addition, many alcoholics exhibit some degree of subclinical depression of cardiac function.
Every person has their own reasons for drinking or wanting to reduce their alcohol consumption. Depending on how much you have been drinking, your body may experience physical and psychological changes as you reduce your intake, known as withdrawal. Alcohol use can damage the hippocampus, the part of your brain responsible for memory and learning. Some studies have found that even light or moderate medication for alcohol use disorder drinking can lead to some deterioration of the hippocampus. According to the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 69.5% of people in the United States reported drinking within the last year. 25.8% of people classified their recent consumption habits as binge drinking (excessive drinking in a defined amount of time).