Heart Attack Risk: Consuming This Amount Of Alcohol Could Trigger The Deadly Condition

A heart attack occurs when the flow of oxygenated blood to a particular part of the cardiac muscles gets blocked and the organ’s oxygen supply gets affected. Most heart attacks happen as a result of ischemic heart diseases characterized by plaque buildup in the arteries.

Heart attacks can be fatal and can be triggered by alcohol consumption. Your risk of heart disease increases with the amount of alcohol you consume.

Consuming excessive amounts of alcohol could lead to raised blood pressure levels, which in turn could elevate your risk of having a myocardial infarction or stroke. Also, weight gain associated with excessive alcohol consumption could elevate blood pressure levels, says the British Heart Foundation.

Heavy drinking is linked to weakened heart muscles, which affect the efficiency of the heart to pump blood. Alcohol abuse including binge drinking and alcohol use disorder can cause this life-threatening condition due to the extensive damage it inflicts on the cardiovascular system.

The dangerous level of alcohol consumption tied to heart attack risk: More than 8 drinks per week for women and more than 15 drinks per week for men.

You also need to understand the various alcohol servings and drinking levels.

• Binge drinking: 4 or more drinks (for women) and 5 or more drinks (for men) within a couple of hours
• Heavy drinking: 8 or more drinks (for women) and >15 drinks (for men) per week

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also reported that any kind of excessive alcohol consumption including binge drinking and heavy drinking is associated with heart attacks and serious risks of heart diseases.

Frequently consuming such excessive levels of alcohol can put one at risk of abnormal heart rhythms, damage to the heart muscles and other health conditions including stroke, certain cancers and liver diseases.

Other risk factors of a heart attack include old age, tobacco use, high blood cholesterol levels, obesity, diabetes, family history of heart attack, metabolic syndrome, stress, use of stimulant drugs, preeclampsia history, autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or lupus, and lack of regular physical activity.