Alcohol presents impairment to your health on many aspects. First of all, it interferes with our nervous system and deforms our way of thinking and communicating. Binge drinking can also cause blackouts, memory loss, and anxiety. Moreover, it damages our brain and creates mental problems and dependence on alcohol. Alcohol is usually a primary cause of different types of cancer such as throat and mouth cancer but it also puts people at risk of cirrhosis and liver cancer. Alcohol also has a devastating impact on lungs as it can lead to pneumonia. Stomach ulcers are also one of the alcoholism consequences, but recently, doctors have had a rising curiosity in how it affects our cardiovascular system. Atherosclerosis is one of the most widely spread cardiovascular diseases and alcohol was definitely proven to take part in its appearance. The answer to whether it is actually a cause of atherosclerotic plaque, however, is still in the air. In the following paragraphs, we’ll try to come to a general conclusion to this question.
BINGE DRINKING VS MODERATE DRINKING
After many studies trying to associate alcohol directly with high pressure, one thing has become clear: we need to reconsider how we drink. In the journal ‘’Atherosclerosis’’ scientists stated that drinking up to 2 drinks a day could actually lower the levels of cholesterol. The experiment presented in the journal was done on three groups of mice: the first group of mice was in the ‘’moderate drinking group’’ who was given the amount of alcohol equal to 2 drinks a day; the second was the group of ‘’weekend binge drinkers’’ that were fed with exactly seven drinks 2 days a week; the third group which was controlled, involved mice fed on non-alcoholic cornstarch mix. All of the mice were put on high cholesterol diet so that atherosclerosis could take place. Surprisingly, the mice that were put on the moderate-drinking regime had an LDL decrease of 40 per cent, while the binge drinkers saw a 20 per cent rise in the bad cholesterol compared to the no-alcohol control group. When it comes to plaque, the moderate drinking group of mice showed the best results. They experienced a decrease in inflammatory cells that are originally responsible for narrowing of the arteries. What was also striking was that binge drinking group gained 3 times more weight than the other groups although they were given equal amounts of food and alcohol. This study has yet to be continued, but still gives promising results that complete our whole outlook on the effect of alcohol on arteries.
In a study involving 28 male adults who were regular alcohol drinkers, the subjects were exposed to a 4-week experiment. It was divided into 4 sections. In the first stage of the experiment, subjects abstained from drinking any alcohol for a week. They started drinking moderately for the rest of the three weeks: the second week was a week for wine, the third was for beer and the fourth was for the non-alcoholic wine. The results showed that the systolic pressure rose after wine and beer period in comparison to the abstinence week, while the blood pressure parameters stayed the same after the non-alcoholic wine period. No alcohol components other than alcohol itself, or ethanol, had a distinct effect on the pressure and vessels themselves. Ethanol, however, was proved to have a dual effect on blood pressure. At first, heart rate dropped which was, then, followed by a rapid increase, a reaction to vasodilation and decreased again thereafter. These recurrent effects of ethanol usually result in chronic hypertension and eventually to atherosclerosis. This is why, no matter how often or how much you drink, giving up on alcohol is the best choice.
Moderate wine drinking has always been suggested as a prevention method against atherosclerosis. Its polyphenolic compounds initiate nitric oxide production. Nitric oxide relaxes our blood vessels and promotes smooth blood flow. It also frees our vessels from inflammatory cells and works efficiently against blood clotting. Wine raises our HDL levels, which is pivotal when it comes to reducing the bad cholesterol responsible for plaque in the arteries. The idea of wine being a great antioxidant alcoholic beverage came from France, where it had been noticed that people experienced much lower incidence of heart attacks despite their high-calorie diet. In fact, wine was much more successful than other alcoholic drinks in all of the studies conducted. Compared to beer, for example, it was 10 percent more successful at heart attack risk reduction. However, not all studies show how beneficial wine is, in one part due to other factors that could take part in lowering the blood pressure such as diet, social status, the amount of exercise and drinking pattern.
Moderate alcohol drinkers should not be urged to stop drinking if it is not having a harmful impact on their health. It could even benefit them, especially if they are wine drinkers because this alcoholic beverage has some compounds that are proven to enable incessant blood flow. However, it is noteworthy that there is no excuse for anyone to start drinking if they haven’t been doing that! Alcohol has many other side-effects that nullify its benefits, so if you haven’t developed a habit of drinking it moderately, do not begin it at all!