Alcohol is the second cause of premature death in France according to the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm). Consumed excessively, alcohol contributes directly or indirectly to 11% of male deaths and 4% of female deaths. In the long term, alcohol can cause cirrhosis, myocardial infarction, cancer or even cardiovascular disease.
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Arrhythmia problems
Excess alcohol, even occasional, causes cardiac arrhythmias. We talk about cardiac arrhythmias when the heart beats too fast or too slowly or even irregularly. This generic term includes all kinds of more or less serious arrhythmias.
German researchers in 2015 studied the effects of alcohol on 3,000 participants, aged 35 on average, during Oktoberfest. And the results are clear. They found a correlation between alcohol level and heart rate some participants. Excessive alcohol consumption causes heart rhythm disturbances in just over 30% of partygoers, while true arrhythmia affects only 1 to 4% of people in the general population.
The heart usually returns to a normal rhythm once it returns to sobriety. But these arrhythmias can have consequences. “The acute consumption of alcohol will damage the heart cells and create little scars, which will prevent electricity from passing normally inside the muscle. This is what will promote arrhythmias. In the longer term, chronic consumption will damage the heart muscle and therefore will prevent it from contracting properly. This can lead to heart failure, that is to say a heart that is tired, ”explains cardiologist Laurent Uzan.
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Long term effects
Another study published in the medical journal Journal of the American Heart Association found that men who drink 5 or more alcoholic drinks per day and several times per year have higher blood pressure and cholesterol than those who do not drink. so much.
Repeated alcohol abuse is bad for the heart. Chronic binge drinking decreases the strength of the heart’s contraction, increases blood pressure and puts you at increased risk of stroke.
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