In this article you will get an answer to a very frequent question: "How does drinking alcohol affect the heart and vascular system?" Most people believe that alcohol dilates the blood vessels, but this is not entirely true. The situation depends on its dose, the state of human health and the baseline level of blood pressure.
Contents of the article:
- Dependence of the vascular tone on the alcohol dose
- Effect of alcohol on the vascular system in chronic alcoholism
- Effect of alcohol on various diseases
- Effect of alcohol when taking medications
- Conclusion
The basis of all alcoholic beverages is ethyl or wine alcohol, which causes allbiological reactions of alcohol in the body. Specifically, the reception of alcoholic beverages affects the vascular link as follows:
- Initially, there is a short-term expansion of the vessels, in particular arteries and arterioles. The effect lasts from several minutes to several hours.
- Then there is the opposite effect: lowering blood pressure due to vasodilation triggers the body's regulating systems. The heart, the vascular system, the kidneys and the brain are trying in various ways to resume the initial level of pressure. There is a reflex spasm or narrowing of the vessels, sometimes even more pronounced than before taking the hot drink.
The main effect of ethanol is directed to the cell membranes - cell membranes, through which all vital metabolic processes occur. Alcohol damages or "liquefies" the structure of membranes. Since membranes are the same in their structure in the cells of all organs and tissues, it can be safely asserted that alcohol affects all systems in the human body, affecting vascular tone in various ways.
The structure of the cell membrane Below we will talk about how the tone of the vessels depends on the dose of the alcoholic beverage and the various states of the human body.
Dose of alcohol
Alcoholic beverages were invented many centuries ago. Not in every case, alcoholic beverages are evil and the source of diseases. Their damaging effect is directly proportional to the dose and frequency of use.
World studies on the effect of ethyl alcohol on the human body have shown that taking small doses of alcohol is a prevention of coronary heart disease and atherosclerosis. This dose is approximately equal to 1 ml of pure ethanol per kilogram of body weight of a healthy person. For an adult person weighing about 70 kg, this amount of ethyl alcohol is equivalent to 100-150 grams of vodka or cognac or one and a half to two glasses of wine. This rule works with infrequent use - about 1-2 times a week.
It is this dose of alcohol and blood vessels that will slightly expand, and will help with small amounts of hypertension, with headache, nervous overexcitation or chills, without causing a "cancellation effect" followed by an increased vascular spasm.
With the use of large doses after a while there is a pronounced narrowing of blood vessels, blood pressure rises and even a hypertensive crisis arises. Against the background of taking a lot of hot drinks, dehydration takes place. This provokes not only the "hangover syndrome", but also damages the kidneys and liver, triggering the mechanisms of regulation of balance in the body. Through complex chains, the work of the kidneys, liver and heart further contributes to the narrowing of the vessels.
Chronic alcoholism
Alcoholics "with experience" of the body system, damaged by alcohol, react to its reception quite differently. Its pronounced influence on the vascular tone in such patients is noted in the period of alcohol withdrawal, especially after a long drinking-bout. In the context of withdrawal syndrome, or withdrawal syndrome, alcoholics experience pronounced vasoconstriction, hypertensive crisis, heart palpitations. Remove the "withdrawal syndrome" of alcohol, expand the blood vessels and reduce the pressure can only reapply alcohol.
The defeat of the liver against a background of frequent and prolonged intake of alcoholic beverages - cirrhosis - further exacerbates this situation. Cirrhosis promotes the development of uncontrolled vascular spasm, the appearance of edema, increased blood pressure and, against this background, bleeding from the altered vessels of the stomach and esophagus.
Presence of certain diseases
If alcohol, even in small "preventive" doses, has a certain effect on the blood vessels of a healthy person, then it is difficult to predict its influence on a patient with certain diseases of the heart and vascular system.
Hypertensive disease
In people with consistently high levels of arterial pressure, the regulation of vascular tone is initially impaired, and the simultaneous intake of alcohol with drugs from hypertension worsens the regulation of pressure levels.
In hypertensive patients, the reception of even small doses of alcohol causes extremely short-term vasodilation with a sharp subsequent spasm. This can cause an uncontrolled pressure surge and hypertensive crisis.
Chronic kidney diseases
Kidneys are one of the main organs involved in the regulation of blood pressure and vascular tone. In certain kidney diseases, vascular tone becomes uncontrollable, and so-called renal or renal hypertension occurs:
- Stenosis or narrowing of the renal arteries is congenital or acquired.
- Diabetic kidney damage due to high glucose levels.
- Chronic glomerulonephritis is a complex group of kidney diseases of an autoimmune and toxic nature.
- Chronic intoxication with drugs, poisons and heavy metals.
- Chronic inflammatory diseases of the kidneys - pyelitis, pyelonephritis, expressed urolithiasis.
Disease pyelonephritis - contraindication to alcohol intake Drinking alcohol in these patients harms the kidneys in two ways: direct toxic effect on the renal parenchyma and again - due to the dehydration syndrome. The vascular bed responds with a rapid and pronounced spasm of blood vessels and a jump in blood pressure.
Atherosclerosis of vessels
Atherosclerosis affects mainly the arterial vascular link. The disease consists in the deposition of salts of cholesterol and calcium on the inner layer of arteries. They become dense, lose elasticity, and their lumen narrows. Such vessels quickly lose control, and their tone changes little under the influence of the nervous system and biologically active substances, including alcohol.
The catch is that under the influence of alcohol, blood pressure increases in other ways. Increased pressure in atherosclerosis is dangerous by rupture of the inelastic vessel or by a critical narrowing of its lumen. At the patient with the big share of probability there will be an infarct - a necrosis of a site of fabrics. The most common are cerebral infarctions( stroke), liver, spleen, intestines and heart.
Taking medications
Simultaneous reception of alcoholic beverages and certain groups of drugs may have unpredictable effects on the vascular tone. Alcohol dilates or narrows the vessels in this case?
Drugs against hypertension
In addition to the fact that taking alcohol, especially in large doses, in itself exacerbates the course of hypertension, it can weaken the action of antihypertensive drugs. The fact is that ethyl alcohol and medicines from pressure are converted by the liver and kidneys. Alcohol is more active, so the fight for the priority of processing liver and kidneys, it definitely wins. Employed by the transformation and neutralization of alcohol organs, do not make the necessary transformation of drugs - antihypertensive effect is reduced. Because of this, the vessels do not dilate properly and do not control the blood pressure level.
Antidepressants and tranquilizers
The action of many of these drugs( amitriptyline, melipramine) is based on the transformation of adrenaline and norepinephrine. Alcohol additionally contributes to the release of these hormones, which can cause uncontrolled narrowing of the vessels and irregularities in the work of the heart.
Vasodilator drugs
Drugs that have an effect on the vascular tone, for example, reserpine, guanethidine, methyldopha, ganglion blockers, antispasmodics in combination with ethyl alcohol can cause a strong vasodilation and a drop in blood pressure. This can contribute to loss of consciousness and development of strokes. A similar effect has diuretics and cardiac glycosides.
Conclusion
Do not worry about the effect of vasodilation. This effect is dose-dependent, expressed only in healthy people and difficult to control. Therefore, the advice "to drink one hundred grams of cognac to expand the vessels" is relevant only for a small number of people. In the majority of such methods of "treatment" can lead to sad consequences.
