Drinking Alcohol with Heart Disease, Is it Safe?
There aren’t many people who would argue that drinking alcohol is good for you, but there is a surprising amount of misinformation about how drinking affects your heart. It’s especially important for people who have already had a heart attack or who have high blood pressure or heart disease to get clear information on how alcohol affects the cardiovascular system.
What impact does alcohol have on your heart?
Alcohol has a variety of short-term and long-term effects on the heart. When you drink something, your blood pressure increases and your pulse rate quickens. Heavy drinking may have a long-term negative impact on your cardiovascular system, including possible heart and blood vessel damage.
Hypertension, an elevated heart rate, and a greater chance of irregular heartbeat are all side effects of binge drinking. Too much alcohol can lead to an accumulation of LDL, or “poor” cholesterol, as well as artery hardening, raising the risk of blockages, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke.
Is it possible that consuming alcohol is beneficial to your health?
While most of us have learned that a glass of red wine is good for your heart, research on the actual health benefits of alcohol is still lacking. Some research has shown that a small amount of alcohol intake can have beneficial effects, with one study showing that people who drank in moderation during their lives were around 20% less likely to die from heart disease than those who did not.
However, since other variables that should lead to the risk of mortality due to heart-related problems are not completely accounted for in this report, it should not be viewed as an unequivocal endorsement of alcohol for health reasons.
What does it mean to “drink in moderation”?
The drink that comes up most frequently when people talk about alcohol having health benefits is red wine (“for the antioxidants”), but evidence suggests that the volume you drink has a lot more to do with the health effects than what you drink. The trick to drinking in moderation, according to doctors, is to do it in moderation. This equates to one to two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women. Twelve ounces of alcohol, five ounces of wine, or one to one-and-a-half ounces of liquor is considered one cocktail.
Is it recommended to drink if you have heart disease?
Everyone’s body is different, so there is no one-size-fits-all solution to whether or not drinking is safe. Even after being diagnosed with heart disease, most people should be able to drink in moderation, but it’s important to speak to the doctor about it in case there are any underlying conditions that might cause additional complications. However, research on the actual health effects of alcohol are inconclusive, so if you aren’t a drinker already, you shouldn’t start in the name of improved health.
Take control of your heart’s wellbeing!
It’s important to have regular checkups and consider the risk for heart disease and potentially serious cardiovascular events like a heart attack or stroke, as it is with so many other health conditions. Khedkar Heart Care has the Best Cardiologist in Aurangabad and has a wide range of cardiovascular screenings, including cardiac screenings, fitness stress checks, stroke screenings, and cholesterol screenings. Make an appointment as soon as possible to take care of your cardiovascular wellbeing!
