Alcohol and cardiovascular disease

Many cerebrovascular and vascular diseases are associated with alcohol consumption, causing a significant increase in morbidity and mortality. In fact, alcohol has many effects on the cardiovascular system. Both acute alcoholism and chronic alcoholism affect the blood pressure of drinkers. If you drink a lot of alcohol and drink long term, it can affect the heart muscle, which will lead to serious consequences such as heart rhythm disorders, atrial fibrillation .

Alcohol and hypertension

There has been a lot of research on a large number of patients showing a close association between alcohol consumption and hypertension. A study conducted on 4,626 men and 4,647 women with an average age of 20-59 of 32 countries showed: men who drink 300-499 ml of alcohol per week, or more than 60 ml of alcohol per day The average systolic blood pressure higher than those who did not drink alcohol was 2.7 mmHg of systolic blood pressure and 1.6 mmHg diastolic blood pressure. Men who drank more than 500 ml of alcohol each week had 4.6 / 3 higher diastolic and diastolic blood pressure than those who did not drink alcohol. While women who drank more than 300 ml of alcohol per week had higher blood pressure than women who did not drink alcohol, 3.9 / 3.1 mmHg.

There are also many studies that show that people who drink alcohol with high alcohol content and heavy alcohol will have more complications of high blood pressure than those who drink alcohol with low alcohol content.

Alcohol and myocardial anemia

Many studies have shown an association between alcoholic drinkers with ischemic heart disease and myocardial infarction. However, this relationship will be inversely proportional to the amount of alcohol consumed each day. Meaning: moderate alcohol consumption, the rate of anemia and myocardial infarction will decrease, and if you drink too much alcohol, the risk of anemia and heart attack will increase. In addition, alcohol reduces the amount of Fibrinogen in the blood as well as reduces platelet activation, thereby reducing the likelihood of forming blood clots in the vein. This problem is probably related to the presence of many antioxidants in French red wine. This is a remarkable advantage of red wine.

Alcohol causes cardiac arrhythmias

Heavy alcoholics, after heavy drinking, may have episodes of arrhythmia, especially supraventricular systolic. People often call the Holiday Syndrome, which refers to arrhythmias in people with normal hearts after alcoholic drinks or holidays. In people under 65 years of age, heavy alcohol consumption will be a major cause, accounting for 63% of cases of atrial fibrillation.

Drinking a lot of alcohol can cause heart failure

Alcohol can directly damage the heart muscle, especially the left ventricle, and can lead to heart failure. Another reason that promotes this process is that in diets of alcoholics, vitamin B1 deficiency is often lacking, and this deficiency leads to heart failure. People call these cases alcoholic cardiomyopathy.

With peripheral blood vessels

With peripheral blood vessels such as the femoral artery, bifurcation, arm . the alcohol reduces the likelihood of getting sick. One study showed that the rate of people drinking alcohol per day with peripheral artery disease was only 0.92 compared to those who did not drink or only drink less than 1 time a week. The harmful effects of cigarettes in these blood vessels are much clearer.

Wine and worldly pleasures

People who drink alcohol moderately will reduce their risk of coronary artery disease by 40-70% compared with those who don't drink or drink too much alcohol. Another study showed that, if drinking alcohol moderately, especially with red wines, users were less likely to suffer from Parkinson's disease and degenerative brain disease when they were older.

In normal people, men can drink less than 21 glasses of wine a week and less than 14 cups a week with women. The fact that few people know how to stop at the level of permission and alcohol is also the cause of many disasters for every person, every family and for society. How to reconcile health and "worldly pleasures" is an unsolvable problem because the true existence of each human being is difficult to separate the two areas.

Assoc. Prof. Dr.-Doctor Nguyen Hoai Nam ( Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy )