AHA—DRINKING DANGERS WEB SCRIPT

You might have heard the expression, drink in moderation.
Now there’s evidence this is good advice.
Not only can heavy drinking promote heart attacks, it can also increase one’s risk of dying after a heart attack. There’s a point at which more becomes too much, and the latest research shows in fact, heavy alcohol use is ominous, especially when used at younger ages.

You might have heard the expression, drink in moderation. Now there’s evidence this is good advice. There is a distinct connection between alcohol and heart disease.

Not only can heavy drinking promote heart disease, it can also increase one’s risk of dying after a heart attack. There’s a point at which more becomes too much, and the latest research shows in fact, heavy alcohol use is ominous, especially when used at younger ages.

Dr. Kenneth Mukumal, the study author at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, says, “We’ve previously shown that moderate alcohol use is associated with a lower mortality a lower death rate following heart attacks.”

There’s no question a drink a day helps keep the doctor away. But Mukumal’s research shows heavy drinking, or binging, even intermittently, almost doubles a person’s risk of dying after a heart attack, compared to those who drink moderately.

Heavy drinking is defined as drinking, on occasion, three or more drinks in a one to two hour period. “It doesn’t sound like much but it is enough to get people to intoxication and it defined a group of people that seemed like they’re binge drinkers. They tend to be younger, they smoked,” states Mukumal. These big drinkers, in New York and elsewhere, had a 73 percent higher death risk after a heart attack compared to non-binging patients. This is even if they binged less than once a week.

“People who are binge drinking aren’t taking very good care of themselves. They’re feeling crummy and hung over and so on and so they’re not taking their meds and not following up with their doctors. But in addition to that drinking heavily raises your blood pressure, raises your heart rate, increases the blood clotting for several hours or even days afterward,” Mukumal says.

Another study just released shows that heavy drinking puts one at risk for developing the metabolic syndrome, a constellation of problems, including mildly elevated blood pressure, obesity and prediabetes, which contribute to heart disease and heart attacks.
Those most at risk were individuals who drank heavily between ages 20 and 30, in New York and elsewhere.

Dr. Amy Fan, the CDC researcher, says, “We found that the early peak drinker has a higher risk of metabolic syndrome rather than the moderate plateau drinker. They stopped heavily drinking actually but the harmful effects do persist.”

The message from both studies is clear: frequent drinking is ok, but only if it is just one to two drinks each day.