Another harmful effect of alcoholism
Chronic alcoholism accelerates the aging of the arteries, scientists have found
Severe forms of alcohol abuse not only destroy the liver, but also accelerate the aging of the arteries, which increases the chances of developing aneurysms, heart attacks and other heart and vascular diseases, scientists say in an article published in the Journal of the American Heart Association (O'Neill et al., Twenty‐Five‐Year Alcohol Consumption Trajectories and Their Association With Arterial Aging: A Prospective Cohort Study).
"We have long suspected that taking small portions of alcohol increases the concentration of "good" cholesterol in the blood and reduces the stickiness of its plaques. Prolonged intake of large portions of alcohol, on the contrary, leads to negative consequences – it leads to the accumulation of collagen in the walls of blood vessels, as a result of which the arteries lose flexibility over time," said Darragh O'Neill from University College London (in the press release Long-term heavy drinking may age arteries over time – VM).
In recent years, biologists and doctors have found more and more evidence that prolonged alcohol intake not only leads to cirrhosis of the liver and brain disorders, but also to other extremely serious consequences. For example, last year scientists found that alcohol abuse increases the chances of developing seven types of cancer at once and leads to a number of problems with the work of the lungs due to related disorders in the circulation of nitric oxide in the body.
O'Neill and his colleagues found another example of the negative effects of alcohol on the human body, observing the lives of about four thousand people in middle and old age for 25 years. Some of them drank moderately, about a glass of beer or wine a week, while others drank quite a lot and often, consuming more than 112 grams of pure alcohol every week for many months.
Throughout this time, scientists constantly monitored their health status, noting all the changes that could be associated with alcohol intake or abstinence from drinking.
These observations revealed an interesting thing – it turned out that people who constantly drink large amounts of alcohol or periodically go into heavy drinking had denser and stiffer arteries than the rest of the participants in the observations. This effect was stronger among men, which suggests that the danger from chronic alcohol consumption for their hearts and blood vessels was higher than in women.
How can we deal with this effect? Scientists advise to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed – the same observations show that drinking small portions of alcohol reduces the density of the walls of the arteries and makes them more flexible, reducing the likelihood of aneurysms and other problems of the cardiovascular system associated with the work of blood vessels.
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21.02.2017