Moderation is key when it comes to alcohol @ClevelandClinic #healthaware
Moderation is key when it comes to alcohol @ClevelandClinic
Effectively eliminating alcohol from my life has been an absolute game-changer. I wish I had done it sooner – Dr.Paddy Barrett, preventative cardiologist @HealthBlackrock
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Effectively eliminating alcohol from my life has been an absolute game-changer. I wish I had done it sooner.
Why Your Face Gets Beet Red When You Drink @ClevelandClinic #inflammation
It may come on in those first few sips of alcohol. Or maybe you’re hit with a hot flash whenever you’re a few drinks in. But whenever you drink, you seem to experience a sudden sensation of warmth, and your face, neck and upper chest become covered in red patches and blotchy skin.
Is facial flushing a sign that you can’t handle your alcohol? Or is this a symptom of something more severe? Dermatologist Alok Vij, MD, explains just what causes facial flushing, along with some truth behind some common misconceptions.
What causes your face to turn red when you drink alcohol?
There are a couple of different root causes for facial flushing. More technically termed the “alcohol flush reaction,” this occurs because your body either can’t fully digest the alcohol you’re consuming or because your body is having an inflammatory response to drinking alcohol.
“Your face may flush from alcohol for two reasons: Because of an enzyme deficiency or because of rosacea,” says Dr. Vij. “Both are tied to your ethnicity.”
Enzyme deficiency
Many Asian populations, specifically 35% to 45% of East Asians, have a deficiency in alcohol dehydrogenase, the enzyme that breaks down a specific substance in alcohol called acetaldehyde.
“Alcohol is toxic to cells, and when it gets into the cells of your blood vessels, it makes them dilate,” explains Dr. Vij. “This reddens the skin and can make you feel warm.”
But without enough of this enzyme, you can end up having too much acetaldehyde in your body, and this makes alcohol reach toxic levels much earlier in your cells. This results in your skin becoming flushed.
Rosacea
Fair-skinned people of Northern European backgrounds who flush when they drink may have some degree of rosacea.
“This very common skin condition is marked by vasomotor instability or hyperactivity,” Dr. Vij explains further. “That means lots of things can dilate your blood vessels: alcohol, chocolate, hot beverages and spicy foods — basically, all the good things in life.”
Should I be worried?
You may be asking yourself this question if you’ve ever experienced facial flushing. On the surface, facial flushing might feel cosmetically embarrassing at most and may not come with any other dangerous symptoms. For those with an enzyme deficiency, facial flushing can occasionally be experienced with increased onset of nausea or vomiting because of your body’s inability to fully digest the alcohol you’re consuming.
For the most part, these factors are mostly harmless. But because alcohol is a cellular toxin, anyone who drinks excessively increases their risk for oral cancer and esophageal cancer.
“Alcohol most frequently passes through these sites,” states Dr. Vij. “Toxicity and DNA damage can build up in cells and, eventually, a cancer can form.”
But recent studies report that those who get an alcohol flush because of an enzyme deficiency are also at heightened risk of digestive, liver and respiratory cancers. These populations are more vulnerable to alcohol’s toxicity, as it’s processed and later eliminated in:
- Your gastrointestinal (GI) tract, especially your stomach, where alcohol is absorbed.
- Your liver, where alcohol is sent after it’s absorbed by your stomach.
- Your lungs, where alcohol in your blood is released in your breath.
Is rosacea linked to cancer?
“We don’t think of rosacea as a precancerous disease,” Dr. Vij clarifies. “The biggest problems rosacea causes are a bulbous nose, like W.C. Fields had, and eye inflammation.”
(It was rosacea — not alcoholism — that made the storied comedian’s nose look large, red and bumpy, because of an overgrowth of the sebaceous glands, Dr. Vij adds.)
In addition, rosacea can make your eyes feel itchy, dry and chronically irritated. These eye symptoms can be managed with anti-inflammatory medication.
“We typically prescribe oral antibiotics like doxycycline or minocycline, often at lower doses than are required to kill bacteria,” he continues.
How to prevent facial flushing when drinking
If an alcohol flush makes you feel self-conscious when you drink, certain treatments can help:
- Topical medications: Medicines like brimonidine (Mirvaso®) can block blood vessels in your skin from dilating.
- Laser treatments: A series of laser treatments can shrink the superficial blood vessels in your skin. “You usually need three to 10 treatments to get the full effect, but it can last for years, and prevent broken blood vessels in the later stages of rosacea,” notes Dr. Vij.
But because these medications and laser treatments are considered cosmetic, they aren’t typically covered by insurance.
Are some types of alcohol more likely to cause flushing?
So, if your face flushes, are specific kinds of alcohol to blame? And can you avoid some but not others as an at-home treatment approach to facial flushing?
“It’s really patient-specific. Some people with rosacea flush more with red wine; others flush more with hard liquor,” says Dr. Vij.
If you have rosacea and keep track of what happens when you drink, you may be able to find your triggers. But if facial flushing is an issue for you at all, avoiding alcohol in all its forms might be the next best and most equitable solution.
“If flushing bothers you, and you know alcohol is a trigger, the easiest and most cost-effective solution is to avoid it,” suggests Dr. Vij.
Go inside the operating room for open-heart surgery. Dr. Eric Roselli gives us a behind-the-scenes look at a complex procedure.
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Go inside the operating room for open-heart surgery. Dr. Eric Roselli gives us a behind-the-scenes look at a complex procedure.
How Alcohol Affects Your Heart @ClevelandClinic #heartaware
You likely know that drinking alcohol too often or to excess isn’t a good idea, health-wise. But when it comes to alcohol and heart health, you may have heard different sides. Is drinking all that bad for your heart? Can a glass of wine help reduce your risk of heart disease — or make it worse?
First things first: If you drink alcohol, you should do so in moderation to avoid alcohol-related heart issues. And you should never intentionally use alcohol to try to reduce your risk of heart disease.
To further explore the relationship between your ticker and your favorite glass of merlot or IPA, we chatted with cardiologist Leslie Cho, MD.
Ways alcohol can impact heart health
Here are some of the effects of alcohol on your heart:
Increased heart rate
One of the most important things your heart does is keep a rhythm. On average, a regular heart rate is about 60 to 100 beats per minute when your body is at rest. But alcohol can lead to your heart rate temporarily jumping up in speed, and if it goes over 100 beats per minute, it can cause a condition called tachycardia. Too many episodes of tachycardia could lead to more serious issues like heart failure or going into irregular rhythms, which can cause heart attack and stroke.
Raises blood pressure
That fourth drink at the bar may feel like it’s relaxing you, but it’s actually affecting your body differently than you might think. Alcohol can affect your blood pressure, causing it to go up temporarily. This is especially true when you engage in binge drinking (that’s defined as four or more drinks within two hours for women and people assigned female at birth, and five or more drinks within two hours for men and people assigned male at birth).
And sure, we’ve all had a night here or there where we’ve had one too many and we know it. But it’s important to make sure those nights of overindulgence are the exception and not the rule. If you’re not sure, make a note to tune into how much you’re having over the course of the next month or so. If it’s more than recommended, try to consciously pace your drinking to help reduce the spike in your blood pressure that excessive alcohol causes.
And if you have a history of high blood pressure, it’s best to avoid alcohol completely or drink only occasionally, and in moderation.
Irregular heartbeat
Whether it’s a glass of red wine with your turkey or toasting champagne for the new year, alcohol definitely becomes more present during the holiday season. And while enjoying celebratory spirits in moderation is alright for most people, it’s important to be aware you can fall victim to holiday heart syndrome if you overdo it. This is when overeating and overindulging in alcohol lead to an irregular heartbeat.
Holiday heart syndrome can happen if you don’t typically drink alcohol, but then have a few at a holiday party or if you binge drink. This can cause you to develop an irregular heartbeat, called atrial fibrillation, which can increase your risk of stroke, heart attack and heart failure.
Prolonged drinking can cause alcoholic cardiomyopathy
The short-term effects of alcohol (headache, nausea, you know the rest) are easy to pinpoint. But there are ways that alcohol affects your body over time that are important to understand. One of the long-term effects of alcohol on your heart is alcoholic cardiomyopathy. This is when your heart-pumping function gets weaker and your heart gets larger due to changes from heavy alcohol use over a long period of time.
OK, don’t panic. If you’re an occasional drinker, there’s no cause for worry. But it may be worthwhile learning about what counts as binge drinking and whether or not you may be drinking too much and don’t even know it.
Is some level of alcohol safe or beneficial?
It’s true, red wine is a better choice than hard liquor. But can a trip to the wine bar boost your heart health?
You should never consider wine or any other alcohol as a way to lower your heart disease risk. And, in fact, the study also showed that drinking one or fewer drinks per day was related to the lowest likelihood of dying from a stroke. However, Dr. Cho points out that more recent data shows that there may be no amount of alcohol that is truly safe. “The myth that wine is beneficial for heart health is no longer true,” she states.
“It’s not a good idea to start drinking alcohol in an effort to lower your risk of heart disease,” Dr. Cho continues. “It’s better not to drink any alcohol at all.”
The American Heart Association recommends the same.
Other factors to keep in mind
It’s also important to know that the ways in which alcohol affects your heart will vary from person to person, depending on your age and other conditions you may have.
Age
Let’s face it, a hangover in your mid-40s doesn’t feel the same as one in your early 20s. This is because your age plays a factor in how well you tolerate alcohol. While some people develop a tolerance to alcohol over time, this isn’t true for everyone — and this ability doesn’t last forever, Dr. Cho notes.
“As we get older, our ability to clear alcohol definitely decreases and our sensitivity to alcohol probably increases,” she explains. “Also as we get older, we end up having more diseases, so we could be on medicines that can interfere with the way our bodies metabolize alcohol.”
Other medical conditions
In many ways, your medical history (and present) can tell you a lot about your future with alcohol. That means, if you’re living with other medical conditions and/or taking certain medications, this will all have an impact on how alcohol affects you.
“Certain health conditions can make drinking alcohol more dangerous,” Dr. Cho says.
For example, some people who are on cholesterol-lowering medicines may experience muscle aches when they drink alcohol. Because alcohol and cholesterol medicine both are processed through your liver, they are, in a sense, competing for clearance. So, it’s important to think about your overall health and talk to a healthcare provider about your personal risk factors.
“Alcohol is made out of sugar,” Dr. Cho points out. “So, if you’re predisposed to diabetes or if high triglycerides are one of your issues, it’s not a good idea to drink alcohol.”
Dr. Cho also warns that if you have liver dysfunction or take other medicines that are processed through the liver, your risks might be different. Talk to your healthcare provider about how alcohol might interact with your prescription medicines.
The last thing you want is for that casual drink after work or glass of wine at dinner to negatively impact your heart health. There’s a way to have a healthy, balanced relationship with alcohol that lets you enjoy a drink occasionally and celebrate with friends and family. But your heart is an important organ that should also be cared for, so be sure to drink in moderation, learn about binge drinking and know what your body can (and can’t) tolerate before opening that tab.FACEBOOKTWITTERLINKEDINPINTERESTEmailalcoholalcohol and healthalcoholic beveragesbinge drinkingheart health
Go inside the operating room for open-heart surgery. Dr. Eric Roselli gives us a behind-the-scenes look at a complex procedure.
·
Go inside the operating room for open-heart surgery. Dr. Eric Roselli gives us a behind-the-scenes look at a complex procedure.
Dr.Akhil Anand – research shows that Generation Z is drinking far less alcohol than previous generations. @ClevelandClinic
Dr. Katherine Price “tobacco, alcohol are big risk factors for head and neck cancer” @MayoClinic
Alcohol increases cortisol, our body’s stress hormone
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Liked by morgand_73 and others
longevitylibrary- A reminder that the research shows that alcohol makes stress WORSE (not better). That’s because it increases cortisol levels, and raises them for up to 7 days before they normalise. This means that even if you drink once a week, alcohol is worsening your stress hormone levels.
Some research even shows that increases in cortisol from alcohol can also help predict future binge drinking behavior. High stress levels might make you MORE likely to binge drink.
What a vicious cycle!
Instead, make this the year that you prioritise your stress reduction through healthier means — like activity, healthy eating, meditation, self-care, spending time with loved ones, and even simply resting!
What are your favorite ways to cope with stress? Let me know in the comments below
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