Alcohol And Coronary Heart Disease: How Does Heavy Drinking Impact Your Heart Health?

Many people have heard that one glass of red wine every day is good for your heart. Is that actually true? Perhaps, but the issue of alcohol and heart disease is much more complicated than that. Alcohol can have both positive and negative effects on your heart health, depending on the amount of alcohol you consume.

How can alcohol protect you from heart disease, and how much alcohol are we talking about?

When consumed according to guidelines, alcohol appears to have a protective effect against heart disease. These are the safe drinking guidelines according to gender:

• For women, one drink a day
• For men, two drinks a day

One drink includes one of the following:

• 12 ounces of beer or a wine cooler
• 5 ounces of wine
• 1.5 ounces of liquor

So, how does alcohol help your heart health? There are several ways in which alcohol can keep your heart healthy:

• Alcohol helps raise levels of your “good” cholesterol (known as HDL). High HDL levels prevent damage to arteries and reduces the amount of fatty deposits within the arteries.
• Alcohol can help stop blood from clotting by reducing clumping of platelets. Reduced clotting can help decrease your risk of heart attacks.
• Alcohol can help prevent damage caused by the “bad” cholesterol (known as LDL).

So, should I start drinking alcohol?

Essentially, if you don’t drink, don’t start. However, if you drink heavily, reduce your drinking. If you want to reduce your risk of heart disease, you are better off exercising more or doing regular exercise than taking up drinking.

Specific people should not drink alcohol at all due to medical conditions, particularly if you have heart failure, high blood pressure, diabetes, irregular hearth rhythm, a history of stroke and high fat levels in blood. Additionally, pregnant women should not drink, and neither should people with a history of alcoholism. Finally, certain medications do not mix with alcohol.

So, what happens if I consistently binge drink?

Binge drinking is defined as the consumption of the following amount over a two-hour period:

• Four or more drinks for women
• Five or more drinks for men

While moderate drinking that adheres to safety guidelines may help protect your heart, long-term heavy drinking does the opposite. In fact, studies have shown that drinking heavily over a long period of time can increase your risk of developing heart disease.

How? By doing the following:

• Raising your blood pressure. When you drink large amounts of alcohol, that causes your blood pressure to go up significantly, which is an important risk factor for heart disease or stroke. Furthermore, binge drinking carries a lot of calories which leads to weight gain. Weight can also raise your blood pressure and increase your risk of heart disease.
• Cardiomyopathy. Drinking large amounts of alcohol can cause your heart muscle to become weak, which means your heart isn’t able to pump blood as competently. This condition is known as cardiomyopathy and can lead to death.

You may also develop a condition known as holiday heart syndrome, which is isn’t as pleasant as it sounds. The name comes from the fact that it is associated with episodes of heavy drinking (usually around holidays or weekends). Patients with holiday heart syndrome experience severe pain in the center of their chest. Your heart will start to beat irregularly and your blood pressure changes, which can make your feel breathless. Patients with holiday heart syndrome have a higher risk of heart attack and sudden death.

So does drinking red wine really help reduce my risk of heart disease?

While white alcohol beverages such as vodka and cider have the lowest concentration of antioxidants, other alcohols, such as beer, contain the same amount of antioxidants as wine. The reason why red wine has been on the forefront is because it has been observed that the French population – who drink a lot of red wine – tend to have healthier hearts despite having foods that are higher in fat.

Other studies have shown that people who drink wine compared to other types of alcohol live healthier lives, smoke less, drink less and a have a healthier diet so it may just be that a combination of these characteristics contribute to the lower risk compared to red wine alone.