How alcoholic beverages entered society is perhaps the topic for a separate study. Alcohol accompanies a modern person everywhere: a glass of beer with friends, a glass of champagne at a holiday, a glass of vodka under a barbecue. All these are indispensable attributes of a fun pastime. How not to miss the moment when the effect of alcohol on the heart becomes unsafe?
Why do we drink alcohol
Small doses of alcohol give the effect of relaxation, the mood rises, all the bad fades into the background. This is dangerous for alcohol: temporary euphoria requires continuation, all problems are forgotten, at least for a while. The trouble comes when more and more fervent is required to achieve satisfaction. Alcoholism becomes a disease, and it is harder and harder for a drinker to quit drinking.
The reasons that make the hand reach for the bottle are different:
- Psychological emptiness: death of a loved one, betrayal of a friend or loved one, forced loneliness.
- Excessive nerve stress at work.
- Breaking stereotypes, collapse of hopes, depression.
- Family problems.
- The need for self-affirmation.
- For adolescents and young people tend to be, like everyone else, and not stand out in the company.
- Genetic predisposition.
Even if the addiction to alcohol is temporary, this stage does not go harmless to health. Result: heart disease, hypertension, vascular problems.
A small dose is not harmful?
The main component of any alcoholic beverage is ethyl alcohol. It begins to enter the bloodstream 5-7 minutes after administration. The effect of alcohol on the heart depends on the frequency and amount of alcohol taken. But even a small single dose increases the load on our main organ: a spasm of blood vessels occurs, and the heart needs to work twice to deliver blood. Immediately quickens the pulse by 10-15%. The accompanying drinking smoking exacerbates the load doubly.
After two to three hours, ethyl alcohol penetrates the myocardium. Its toxic effect causes arrhythmia, a temporary decrease in pressure occurs. The harmful effects of alcohol pass quickly, the functions of the heart and circulatory system are restored, but the trouble is that the first and second doses follow.
Heart work with large amounts of alcohol
Large doses of alcohol (or small for several hours) cause a hangover. What is the reason for this? The effect of alcohol on the heart and blood vessels is manifested in a steady increase in blood pressure and heart rhythm disturbance due to acetone poisoning. In addition, ethyl alcohol causes dehydration and blood clotting. That is why a hangover is thirsty. By the way, the folk method of alleviating a hangover with brine has scientific confirmation. It is an acid-salty liquid that quickly restores balance. Constant alcohol stress leads to the formation of blood clots and blockages of blood vessels.
Alcohol for cores
If completely healthy people begin to feel unwell after excessive libations, then a sick heart responds to alcohol much more seriously. A threat to the core is already 20-60 ml of pure alcohol.
Large and frequent boozes provoke an increase in blood pressure even more, the risk of heart attacks and strokes increases, and the development of concomitant diseases increases. More than 30 percent of sudden cardiac arrests are associated with a pathology caused by alcohol consumption.
Alcoholic heart
Prolonged and plentiful use of alcohol leads to a gradual deformation of the human engine. The growth of connective tissues and cavities contributes to the fact that the size of the heart increases, respectively, the strength and speed of its contractions decrease. This is how heart failure develops, edema of all organs, hypertension and atherosclerosis of blood vessels.
Alcoholic heart disease
The effect of alcohol on the heart manifests itself in a number of diseases:
- Coronary heart disease is a very serious disease of the coronary arteries that cease to supply enough blood to the myocardium. Stages of ischemia: arrhythmia - heart failure - angina pectoris - cardiosclerosis, heart attack - sudden death.
- Atherosclerosis is a vascular disease due to the formation of atherosclerotic plaques on the walls. Narrowed lumen of blood vessels leads to increased pressure, causes strokes and heart attacks.
- Cardiomyopathy An increased heart weight causes persistent arrhythmia, shortness of breath, swelling and coughing.
Alcohol and heart medications
Drinking people often, without thinking about the consequences, combine the intake of alcohol and drugs, including heart medications. This can not be done categorically.
- Alcohol inhibits the effect of the drug. This is at best.
- When dilating blood vessels, alcohol along with a medicine of the same action can lead to acute heart failure. Result: fainting, loss of strength, death.
- Sedative drugs designed to calm, can show the opposite effect: increase excitability or double, triple the effect and "calm" forever.
- The combination of alcohol and cardiovascular or sedative drugs leads to a change in the mental state of a person.
Recovery after alcohol
It often happens that alcoholics answer relatives' admonitions that they can stop at any moment and stop drinking sometime. Refusal from alcohol suspends all negative processes in the body, the initial stages of heart failure are restored by a healthy lifestyle, proper nutrition, exercise and fresh air.
Morphological changes and enlarged heart sizes can never be returned to normal! Dystrophy and thickening of the tissue occur after two to three years of drinking. Affected organs are not restored. After a complete rejection of alcohol, you can slightly restore the metabolism and the functioning of the autonomic system. The drinker must stop drinking as soon as possible. A return to normal life and restorative therapy can give joyful minutes for many more years.
Beer and heart
The influence of alcohol on the heart is known to many, but since few decide to refuse to drink and look like a black sheep in the company, strong alcohol is replaced with beer. There is confidence that this is a weak, and therefore completely harmless drink. The “unobtrusive” suggestion of advertising about the benefits of derivative products distracts attention from the fact that the strength of some modern beers reaches 14%. This is more than dry wines. A bottle of light beer, which some people drink just to quench their thirst, is 60 grams of vodka in terms of alcohol content. In addition, cobalt is added to the beverage to hold beer foam. For lovers of this hop product, the cobalt content in the tissues of the heart muscle exceeds the permissible norms by a factor of ten. What does this lead to? All to the same deformation and proliferation of muscle tissue.
Negatively affects blood vessels and carbon dioxide, which is filled with the drink. Excessive overflow of blood vessels leads to the expansion of veins and heart. Doctors have such a thing as a "beer heart", or the syndrome of "kapron stocking." This phenomenon occurs as a result of an excessively expanding size of the myocardium and a slowdown in its work on blood pumping.
Is alcohol beneficial?
Drinkers often attribute their interest in alcoholic beverages to data on their health benefits allegedly confirmed by official medicine. “We do not drink, but are treated” - such a slogan often justifies the abuse of alcohol. What is really hiding behind this? What do cardiologists say about this?
Interesting data are provided by statistics on the relationship of heart disease with alcohol consumption. The curve of indicators has a U-shape. That is, there is the smallest percentage of cores among those who take alcohol, but in very small doses. The following standards are considered normal: for an adult male, a harmless daily dose consists of 60-70 grams of vodka, or 200-250 ml of dry wine, or 300-350 ml of beer. Women's norms are three times less than men's.
What is the use of alcohol in such quantities?
- The concentration of "bad" cholesterol on the walls of blood vessels is reduced, respectively, the risk of atherosclerosis is reduced.
- Small doses of alcohol contribute to the production of "good" cholesterol, which displaces the "bad" from the body.
- Dry wines have bactericidal properties.
- Red wines increase hemoglobin levels in the blood.
Why do not doctors offer alcohol treatment? The fact is that the line between the norm and the excess is very fragile. Most people after taking alcohol simply cease to feel this line, and constant “treatment” goes into the stage of alcoholism. And here the effect on the heart and other organs is sharply opposite. Small amounts of alcohol, mainly a glass of dry red wine, are offered to older people if there are no contraindications for hypertension or diabetes mellitus.
Think before you fill the glasses and be healthy!