The Wellness Center Forum
Issue date: 11/30/05 Section: Life
From the health side:
Alcohol and Its Effects on the Heart: a message from Dr. Portier
I accidentally found on the web, a song titled "Alcohol Heart," and if I clicked on this site, I could win a free laptop (risking a lethal computer virus). I did not open the music site nor did I go for the free laptop offer. This prudence needs to be applied to alcohol, in matters of the heart.
While most people do not drink or use alcohol, except in very special situations (virtually ceremoniously for family and other celebrations), some folks use alcohol to excess. For 10 percent of those people, one consequence will be alcohol cardiomyopathy (any "pathy" means trouble). Regarding the heart, alcohol can damage its muscle, its nerves and its blood vessels.
The muscle: Each year the heart replaces five percent of its old and damaged cells. This upkeep allows the heart to stay resilient and healthy. Alcohol interferes with the protein synthesis needed to do this. The heart contractility depends on healthy calcium channel blockers, which allow the motor works of each heart myofibril to keep its beat synchronized with its neighbors. A bad outcome is a heart with chaotic myofibrils, each doing it's own thing, and weakly at that.
The nerves: The heart's pacemaker is situated in a bundle in the right atrium. Poison that nerve and you make the muscle stretch that houses the pacemaker. The heart will carry on, fast rhythms, slow rhythms, erratic rhythms known as atrial fibrillations, ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillations. These rhythms are hard to fix because the heart is poisoned and pickled. Folks can pass out and sometimes die from the "alcohol heart."
Blood vessels: these are little supple tubules, made of muscles and cells, receive and send hormones while expanding and contracting and supplying information and nutrients. When we poison these blood vessel service lines, the result is malnutrition, irritability and fatigue of the heart. Eventually, the blood vessels become too weak to work. Poor heart! But be of good heart…keep the alcohol level low.
Remember…on any given rare night of alcohol use, never drink more than two for those over 21 years of age and not allergic to alcohol.
**The Forum would like to hear from you. If you have a topic that you would like Health Services to address (no symptoms or diagnosis questions please) email it to curtis@msmary.edu. **
The Wellness Center
Clinic hours:
9 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
Nurse on duty
until 5 p.m.
X5288
Alcohol and Its Effects on the Heart: a message from Dr. Portier
I accidentally found on the web, a song titled "Alcohol Heart," and if I clicked on this site, I could win a free laptop (risking a lethal computer virus). I did not open the music site nor did I go for the free laptop offer. This prudence needs to be applied to alcohol, in matters of the heart.
While most people do not drink or use alcohol, except in very special situations (virtually ceremoniously for family and other celebrations), some folks use alcohol to excess. For 10 percent of those people, one consequence will be alcohol cardiomyopathy (any "pathy" means trouble). Regarding the heart, alcohol can damage its muscle, its nerves and its blood vessels.
The muscle: Each year the heart replaces five percent of its old and damaged cells. This upkeep allows the heart to stay resilient and healthy. Alcohol interferes with the protein synthesis needed to do this. The heart contractility depends on healthy calcium channel blockers, which allow the motor works of each heart myofibril to keep its beat synchronized with its neighbors. A bad outcome is a heart with chaotic myofibrils, each doing it's own thing, and weakly at that.
The nerves: The heart's pacemaker is situated in a bundle in the right atrium. Poison that nerve and you make the muscle stretch that houses the pacemaker. The heart will carry on, fast rhythms, slow rhythms, erratic rhythms known as atrial fibrillations, ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillations. These rhythms are hard to fix because the heart is poisoned and pickled. Folks can pass out and sometimes die from the "alcohol heart."
Blood vessels: these are little supple tubules, made of muscles and cells, receive and send hormones while expanding and contracting and supplying information and nutrients. When we poison these blood vessel service lines, the result is malnutrition, irritability and fatigue of the heart. Eventually, the blood vessels become too weak to work. Poor heart! But be of good heart…keep the alcohol level low.
Remember…on any given rare night of alcohol use, never drink more than two for those over 21 years of age and not allergic to alcohol.
**The Forum would like to hear from you. If you have a topic that you would like Health Services to address (no symptoms or diagnosis questions please) email it to curtis@msmary.edu. **
The Wellness Center
Clinic hours:
9 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
Nurse on duty
until 5 p.m.
X5288