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How Does Alcohol Affect the Heart?
Recently, doctors have found out that alcoholism can harm your heart as well as your gut. Regular alcohol intake not only increases the chances of various heart diseases but also can damage your heart permanently. However, certain people still believe that alcohol does not damage the heart. That is why understanding the relation between alcohol and cardiovascular disease is important.
Short-term effects of alcohol on the heart: A small or medium amount of alcohol minimally affects the heart. However, even in small amounts, alcohol can affect different aspects of our cardiovascular system.
The most common issue associated with short-term alcohol consumption is its impact on the heart muscles. Alcohol weakens the heart muscles and leads to irregular and fast heartbeats. As a result, the coordination between the contraction of the upper and lower chambers of the heart is lost. On the other hand, the short-term effect of alcohol causes a spike in your blood pressure. Also, it causes dilation of your blood vessels, which causes a flushing appearance on your skin. Alcohol also affects the secretion of several hormones, like adrenaline and cortisol, which causes a rise in your blood pressure. Not only that, alcohol acts on the receptors in our body that control our blood pressure.
Long-term effects of alcohol on the heart: Long-term alcohol drinking can severely damage your heart. Not only that, it can damage other systems of your body that are directly or indirectly involved with your heart.
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The most common effect of long-term alcohol drinking is damage to the heart muscles. The muscles lose their normal form and functions due to the long-term effects of alcohol.
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Because of the loss of the heart muscle’s efficiency, the normal function of the heart is disrupted. This causes irregular heartbeat, lack of efficiency, and abnormal rhythm.
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Regular alcohol consumption produces oxidative stress in your body. This causes long-term damage to the inner layers of your blood vessels. As a result, blood vessels lose their normal elasticity.
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Regular alcohol intake raises your blood pressure, which is dangerous to your body and heart.
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Heavy and long-term alcohol use raises cholesterol levels in your body. These cholesterol levels can block your blood vessels and disrupt blood supply.
How Different Levels of Drinking Affect the Heart?
As it is already known, alcohol and heart health are closely related; knowing the safe limit of alcohol is important. Also, as drinking alcohol is part of our social life, knowledge about the safe limit would be useful for our health.
It is important to know that the safe limit of alcohol is based on the quantity of the drink and the presence of alcohol in it. This is measured by ABV, or alcohol by volume. For men, less than seven drinks per week, and for women, less than four drinks per week, is considered a light drinking habit. If you are drinking seven to 14 drinks per week as a male or four to seven drinks per week as a female, you are a moderate drinker. However, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this much drinking is considered heavy drinking. Also, if you are drinking more than this, then you are at risk of becoming an alcoholic.
Also, consuming a large amount of alcohol at once, or binge drinking, can be very dangerous. The incident of binge drinking and a heart attack is closely related. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than four drinks for women and five drinks for men at once is considered dangerous.
What Are the Different Alcohol-Induced Heart Conditions?
As you know, long-term alcohol consumption can damage your heart. It can cause several heart-related issues. These are;
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Alcoholic cardiomyopathy: One of the most common side effects of long-term consumption is damage to the heart muscles. This damage is mainly caused by the ill effects of alcohol, like oxidative stress, damage to the collagen fibers, and toxic byproducts of alcohol. These damaged muscles lose their form and function and become stiff (fibrosis). This leads to a group of diseases known as cardiomyopathy. As a result, heart muscles lose their ability to pump blood. This causes dilatation of the heart and the left lower chamber (ventricle). Gradually, this leads to heart failure. This is why alcohol and heart failure are closely related.
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Arrhythmia: Alcohol causes an irregular heart rate. Several factors, like damage to the heart muscles, damage to the heart signaling mechanism, and electrolyte imbalance, are responsible for this. Apart from this, nerve damage due to the ill effects of alcohol is responsible for this. As a result, alcohol and arrhythmia are often synonymous in heavy drinkers. Also, if you are a binge drinker, you can develop uncoordinated movement of the heart’s upper chamber, or atrial fibrillation.
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Hypertension and stroke: Doctors often say that alcohol and stroke risk are related to each other. Alcohol acts on several hormones, like cortisol and adrenaline, and raises our blood pressure. Over a period of time, alcohol damages the inner layer of blood vessels and the receptors that control our blood pressure. Due to the effects of alcohol on blood pressure, our heart faces increased pressure. On the other hand, the heart loses its efficiency to pump blood. This irregular and uncontrolled blood pressure can lead to a stroke and damage your brain.
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Myocardial infarction: Alcohol and cholesterol are related to each other. While a small amount of alcohol can increase your good cholesterol level, regular and large amounts of alcohol increase bad cholesterol in the body. This also leads to fatty deposition and obesity. As a result, cholesterol is deposited inside your blood vessels. This causes narrowing of the blood vessels. Because of this, cholesterol droplets can block your blood vessels and cause myocardial infarction.
What Are the Symptoms of Alcohol-Related Heart Problems?
The symptoms of alcohol-related heart issues depend on how alcohol affects the heart. That is why one can experience any of the following symptoms:
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The most common symptoms are shortness of breath and difficulty breathing.
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One can feel palpitations.
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Fatigue and weakness after doing moderate to light activity are prominent symptoms.
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You can see enlargement in the lower portion of the leg or ankle due to the accumulation of fluid.
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One can feel lightheadedness or a reeling of the head.
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In severe cases, you can experience chest pain on the left side.
What Are the Prevention and Lifestyle Modifications for Alcoholism?
Long-term alcohol drinking is a serious addiction. However, one can follow the steps mentioned below to improve their heart health and reduce alcohol addiction.
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Regular exercise, walking, and yoga are helpful. It will improve your heart health, reduce stress, and reduce alcohol dependency.
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One can join support groups or programs for alcohol addiction for their alcohol addiction.
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Counseling and behavioral therapy can help you with alcohol addiction.
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You can use techniques like drinking calorie-free soft drinks or drinking water in between alcohol consumption to improve your addiction.
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In severe cases, you should consult a doctor about your addiction. Medicines like Naltrexone, Gabapentin, and Topiramate can be effective in alcohol addiction.
Conclusion:
Alcohol can seriously damage your heart and blood vessels. In the last few years, hospitalizations related to alcohol-related heart issues have increased. Even short-term alcohol intake or a large amount of alcohol at once can be dangerous for you. Alcohol can damage your heart muscles, heart rate, and ability to control blood pressure. Gradually, this leads to complete heart failure and death.
Key Takeaways:
You must understand that alcohol is not good for your heart health. It can damage the heart and raise your blood pressure. Even moderate alcohol drinking can be harmful to your heart health as well as your body. And if you ever need help or have questions about this, you can always talk to our iCliniq cardiologist for guidance.
