The effect of alcohol on the heart. Effects of alcohol use

As alcoholic drinks entered the life of society - this is perhaps the topic for a separate study. A modern person accompanies alcohol everywhere: a glass of beer with friends, a glass of champagne at a party, a glass of vodka for a shish kebab. All these are indispensable attributes of a fun pastime. How not to miss the moment when the influence of alcohol on the heart becomes unsafe?

Why we drink alcohol

Small doses of alcohol give the effect of relaxation, the mood rises, all bad things go to the background. This is dangerous alcohol: a temporary euphoria requires continuation, all problems are forgotten, even for a while. The trouble comes when more and more is needed to achieve satisfaction. Alcoholism becomes a disease, and it's harder for a drinking person to stop drinking.

The reasons that make the hand reach for the bottle are different:

• Psychological emptiness: the death of a loved one, betrayal of a friend or lover, forced loneliness.
• Excessive nerve stress at work.
• Breaking stereotypes, crushing hopes, depression.
• Family problems.
• The need for self-assertion.
• For teenagers and young people, there is a tendency to be like everyone else and not stand out in the company.
• Genetic predisposition.

Even if the hobby for alcohol is temporary, harmless to health, this stage does not pass. The result: a sick heart, hypertension, problems with blood vessels.

A small dose is not harmful?

The main constituent of any alcoholic beverage is ethyl alcohol. It begins to enter the bloodstream after 5-7 minutes after ingestion. The effect of alcohol on the heart depends on the frequency and amount of alcohol taken. But even a small single dose increases the burden on our main organ: there is a spasm of blood vessels, and the heart needs to work doubly to deliver blood. Immediately, the pulse rate increases by 10-15%. Accompanying binge smoking exacerbates the load doubly.

After two or three hours, ethyl alcohol penetrates into the myocardium. Its toxic effect causes arrhythmia, there is a temporary decrease in pressure. The harmful effect of alcohol quickly passes, the functions of the heart and circulatory system are restored, but the whole trouble is that the first dose is followed by the second and third.

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 a violation of the heart rhythm due to poisoning with acetone. In addition, ethyl alcohol causes dehydration and blood thickening. That's why you really want to drink with a hangover. By the way, the popular method of relieving a hangover with brine has scientific confirmation. It is the acid-saline fluid that quickly restores balance. Constant alcoholic loads lead to blood clots and blood clots.

Alcohol for cores

If quite healthy people begin to feel unwell after excessive libation, then the sick heart reacts to alcohol much more seriously. The threat to the core is already 20-60 ml of pure alcohol.

Large and frequent booze even more provokes an increase in blood pressure, increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes, and the development of concomitant diseases increases. More than 30 percent of sudden cardiac arrests are associated with the pathology caused by the use of alcohol.

Heart of an alcoholic

Prolonged and abundant use of alcohol leads to a gradual deformation of the human engine. The proliferation of connective tissues and cavities contributes to the fact that the dimensions of the heart increase, respectively, the strength and speed of its contractions decrease. This is how heart failure develops, edema of all organs, hypertension and arteriosclerosis of blood vessels.

Diseases of the "alcoholic heart"

The effect of alcohol on the heart is manifested by a number of diseases:

• Ischemic disease is a very serious disease of the coronary arteries, which stop supplying enough blood to the myocardium. Stages of ischemia: arrhythmia - heart failure - angina - cardiosclerosis, heart attack - sudden death.
• Atherosclerosis is a vascular disease due to atherosclerotic plaques formed on the walls. The narrowed lumen of the vessels leads to an increase in pressure, causes strokes and heart attacks.
• Cardiomyopathy. The increased weight of the heart causes constant 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 medications, including cardiac drugs. Do this categorically.

• Alcohol inhibits the action of the drug. This is at best.
• Expanding blood vessels, alcohol together with a drug of the same action can lead to acute heart failure. Result: fainting, loss of strength, death.
• Sedatives that are designed to soothe, may have the opposite effect: increase excitability or double, triple action and "calm" for good.
• 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 on the exhortations of relatives alcoholics respond that they can stop at any minute and stop drinking someday. Refusal of alcohol stops all negative processes in the body, the initial stages of heart failure are restored to a healthy lifestyle, proper nutrition, exercise and fresh air.

Morphological changes and enlarged dimensions of the heart to return to normal condition is already impossible ever! Dystrophy and thickening of the tissue come after two to three years of drunkenness. Affected organs are not restored. After a complete rejection of alcohol, it is possible to slightly restore the metabolism and the functioning of the vegetative system. Drinking person should stop drinking as soon as possible. Return to normal life and restorative therapy are able to 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 give up drinking and look like a white crow in the company, strong alcohol is replaced with beer. There is a certainty that this is a weak, and therefore quite harmless, drink. "Unobtrusive" suggestion of advertising about the benefits of derivative products diverts attention from the fact that the fortress of some modern beers reaches 14%. This is more than in dry wines. A bottle of light beer, which some people drink just to quench their thirst, is 60 grams of vodka according to the alcohol content. In addition, to retain the beer foam to the drink is added cobalt. In lovers of this intoxicating product, the content of cobalt 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.

Negative effects on blood vessels and carbon dioxide, which filled the drink. Excessive overcrowding of blood vessels leads to an expansion of the veins and heart. Doctors have such a thing as a "beer heart", or a "kapron stocking" syndrome. This phenomenon arises as a result of excessively expanding sizes of the myocardium and slowing its work on pumping blood.

Can alcohol be useful?

Drinking people often write off their passion for alcoholic beverages on allegedly confirmed by official medicine data on their health benefits. "We do not drink, but we are being treated" - this slogan often justifies the abuse of alcohol. What is really behind this? What do cardiologists say about this?

Interesting data provides statistics on the connection of heart diseases with the use of alcoholic beverages. The indicator curve has a U-shape. That is, there is a very small 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 lower than men's.

How useful is alcohol in such quantities?

• Reduces the concentration of "bad" cholesterol on the walls of the vessels, respectively, reduces the risk of atherosclerosis.
• Small doses of alcohol contribute to the development of "good" cholesterol, which displaces the "bad" from the body.
• Dry wines have bactericidal properties.
• Red wines help to increase the level of hemoglobin in the blood.

Why do not doctors offer alcohol treatment? The fact is that the line between norm and supernorm is very fragile. Most people after taking alcohol simply do not feel this line, and the constant "treatment" passes into the stage of alcoholism. But here the influence on the heart and other organs is quite the opposite. Acceptance of small portions of alcohol, mostly a glass of red dry wine, is offered to older people, if there is no contraindication from hypertension or diabetes.

Think before you fill the glasses, and be healthy!