Emmitsburg Osteopathic Primary Care Center
121-123 West Main Street, Rear Entrance
P.O. Box 1219
Emmitsburg, MD 21727
301-447-3310

ALCOHOL HEART 

I accidentally found on the web there is a song:  “Alcohol Heart” and if I wanted to risk a lethal computer virus, I could try for a free lap top.  I did not open the music web, nor did I go for the free lap top offer.  Such prudence is required of each of us, no matter what our situation or place may be.  This prudence needs to be applied to alcohol in matters of the heart.

 While most people do not drink or use alcohol in very special situations, virtually ceremoniously for family and other celebrations, some folks use alcohol to excess.  For 10% 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 5 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.  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 its own thing and that weakly.

The nerve:  The heart’s pacemaker is situated in a bundle in the right atrium.  Poison that nerve and make the muscle stretched that houses the pacemaker and 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.” 

The blood vessels:  These little supple tubules are made of muscles and cells that receive and send hormones, expanding and contracting, 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.