When it comes to alcohol consumption, as you might imagine, I’m really not a fan. As much as it may not seem to be a big deal – it is, after all, available everywhere – alcohol is a toxin, and it’s one that far too many people pour into their bodies multiple times a week. We use alcohol to unwind, relax, commune with others, feel more festive or enhance a nice meal. These are all understandable motivations but the trouble is, alcohol has enormous potential for dependency, more rapid aging, shortened longevity – and the exceedingly difficult-to-reverse specter of heart damage to boot. In short, if everyone quit the stuff tomorrow, countless hearts and lives would be saved.

Fact of the matter is, alcohol damages organs, and your heart is perhaps the most important one you’ve got, so protecting it at all costs should be job #1. What follows are a few thoughts on why your heart needs you to slash consumption to the bone, or, better yet, break up with alcohol altogether:

Moderation used to be the thing

For the last few decades, the standard line was essentially: drinking’s not wonderful for your health but it’s (probably) fine as long as you don’t go overboard. (Easier said than done!) In the 90s, research suggested that moderate drinking – as in, one daily drink for women, two for men – might support longevity, while other studies indicated that moderate alcohol consumption might have some minor cardiovascular benefits, like raising HDL cholesterol levels.

But where does moderation end?

Not to get side-tracked by semantics but the whole the idea of ‘moderation’ is something of a myth. While docs have long encouraged ‘moderation’ when it comes to alcohol, most patients don’t really know where moderation starts or ends. And, up until recently, with few physicians willing to take a hard line against drinking alcohol, most patients took that as tacit approval to drink alcohol, along the way consistently underestimating or miscalculating the number of ounces they’re consuming, if effect making one person’s moderation, another one’s bender.

The healthiest tipple is .....

Throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s, the idea that alcohol conferred benefit was considered virtually a universal truth, embraced by drinkers, most doctors, and happily encouraged to an extent by researchers, the media, and the alcohol industry. But findings from studies done in the past few years paint a grimmer picture, suggesting that even the modest consumption of alcohol is not advisable for your heart or any other part of you (don’t get me started on brain shrinkage).‍

For example, recently, the New York Times reported that a major meta-analysis, which re-examined more than 100 studies from the last 40 years, arrived at the conclusion that no amount of alcohol will improve your health, or your help your heart. Another 2022 study took this not-great news even further, concluding that alcohol consumption, even in small amounts, actually posed a danger to heart health, increasing the risk of heart issues. Consequently, doctors are starting to change their tunes, and starting to suggest that tapering off is the healthiest way to go for the vast majority.

Granted, there may be a minority of people out there whose genetic and physiological makeups enable their hearts to do just fine on alcohol. But there’s no way of knowing if you’re among them, and the risks of drinking, for an overwhelming number of people, far outweigh the benefits. With alcohol less (or none) truly is more when it comes to the health of your heart.

But what about wine’s heart-healthy resveratrol?

Resveratrol is great stuff for sure, but the sweet spot isn’t known – the right amount versus too much – so drinking wine in hopes of winning heart benefits is barking up the wrong vine. It’s hardly worth risking a drinking problem to try to figure it out on your own, so it’s time to let go of the wine-is-good-for-your-heart excuse. We know better now.

Alcohol hurts your heart in far too many ways

Alcohol can have numerous detrimental effects on heart health, and the more you drink, the larger the effects become. Here are 7 ways alcohol consumption negatively impacts your heart, not to mention every other bodily system we’re supposed to protect:

1. Increased Risk of Heart Disease: Alcohol contributes to various risk factors for heart disease, including high blood pressure, obesity, and unhealthy blood lipid levels. These risk factors, collectively or when combined, all help drive up the likelihood of developing coronary artery disease, heart attacks, and other cardiovascular issues.

2. Boosted Blood Pressure: Alcohol consumption tends to boost blood pressure by triggering the release of certain hormones that constrict blood vessels. Chronic high blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease, which drives up the likelihood of heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure.

3. Added inflammation and oxidative stress: Alcohol consumption, be it enthusiastic or moderate, can cause inflammation and oxidative stress in the body, damaging blood vessels and heart tissue. Chronic inflammation and oxidative stress contribute to hardening of the arteries, which can also lead to heart attacks and strokes.

4. Increased triglycerides and altered lipoprotein composition: Alcohol can push lipid profiles into the danger zone by increasing levels of triglycerides and decreasing the apolipoprotein B to A ratio – an effect that absolutely no heart benefits from. High levels of triglycerides and a low apolipoprotein B to A ratio – are must-to-avoid risk factors for atherosclerosis and heart disease.

5. Heightened cardiomyopathy risk: Drinking, be it light or heavy, can weaken the heart muscle, leading to a condition called alcoholic cardiomyopathy. The alcohol causes the heart to stretch and enlarge, weakening the muscle, and making it a lot tougher to pump blood, thereby reducing the amount of oxygen available to the body. A weakened heart is more likely to be subject to heart failure and arrhythmias.

6. Increased likelihood of irregular heartbeats: Alcohol can interfere with the electrical signals that cue the beating heart, leading to irregular heart rhythms or arrhythmias, which can increase the risk of stroke and heart failure.

7. Heightened obesity and metabolic syndrome risk: Alcohol is calorie-dense, putting drinkers on the fast track to weight gain, metabolic syndrome and obesity. What’s more, alcohol may disrupt blood sugar and insulin levels, bad news for the heart, and health in general. As obesity and ‘metabolic syndrome’ – the cluster of conditions that includes high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol levels – sink in their claws, the risk of heart disease significantly increases.

Bottom line: alcohol damages your heart, steals your youth and increases your risk for life-altering disease. So, is it really worth that momentary lift? To my mind, ‘no’ is by far the wisest answer.