Heavy Drinking Takes a Toll on Women's Hearts
By Hugh C. McBride
An international study of more than 34,000 women has revealed that those who consume two or more alcoholic drinks per day are at what the researchers described as “a small but statistically significant increased risk” for developing a heart rhythm impairment that can lead to a stroke.
The study, which was published in the Dec. 3, 2008 edition of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), involved 12 years of research on 34,715 women in Switzerland and the United States. None of the women in the study had the rhythm impairment in question – atrial fibrillation – at the outset of the study, but the researchers concluded that the subjects whose alcohol intake exceeded two drinks per day were 60 percent more likely to contract the problem than were those who drank less or not at all.
Previous research had established a connection between heavy drinking and atrial fibrillation among men, but the December 2008 JAMA report was the first to address the effect on female drinkers.
About Atrial Fibrillation
The American Heart Association (AHA) reports that atrial fibrillation occurs in more than two million Americans, and impairs the heart’s ability to pump blood out of the two upper chambers of the muscular organ. The remaining blood can pool and clot, and if one of the clots passes from the heart and becomes lodged in an artery or in the brain, a stroke will occur.
According to the AHA, about 15 percent of strokes are the result of atrial fibrillation, which is present in about 60 percent of adults over the age of 65.
How Heavy Drinking Harms a Woman’s Heart
Though the recent international study was the first extensive effort to look specifically at atrial fibrillation and heavy drinking in women, the knowledge that an excess of alcohol is not good for a woman’s heart is not new. The Women’s Heart Foundation reports that heavy drinking has been associated with a wide range of heart problems – health challenges that may increase in severity among long-term and older drinkers:
- Heavy drinking can damage the heart and lead to high blood pressure, alcoholic cardiomyopathy (enlarged and weakened heart), congestive heart failure, and stroke.
- Heavy drinking also puts more fat into the circulation in your body, raising your triglyceride level.
- Alcohol remains in a woman's body longer than in a man's, and as women age their body becomes less efficient in its ability to metabolize alcohol.
Excessive Drinking Erases Benefits of Moderation
The Swiss-U.S. study is the latest in a series of reports on the health consequences facing women who drink heavily. The study also reinforces the understanding that the risk to women’s hearts is not in the alcohol alone, but in the degree to which the drug is consumed.
For example, on Sept. 15, 1993, New York Times writer Jane E. Brody reported on a number of studies that indicated that limited exposure to alcohol can actually be beneficial to women in terms of heart health:
More than half a dozen very large long-term studies have linked moderate alcohol consumption to a reduced risk of suffering a heart attack and dying of coronary heart disease. While most of the studies involved men or mostly men, a recent report from the continuing Nurses' Health Study of 89,000 middle-aged women at the Harvard School of Public Health found that women who typically consumed three to nine drinks a week were 40 percent less likely to develop heart disease than nondrinkers.
A report from a 10-year study of nearly 130,000 men and women by researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland, Calif., found that people who typically consumed one or two drinks a day were 30 percent less likely to die from coronary heart disease than people who abstained from alcohol.
Don’t Drink for Health
A recent British study has concluded that low to moderate amounts of alcohol can raise a woman’s risk for developing certain types of cancers. And although most experts agree that limited exposure to alcohol can be beneficial to the heart, researchers are continuing to explore whether these benefits offset the risks that even a small amount of regular drinking poses to both men and women.
The American Heart Association is adamant in advising that no one should begin drinking as a means of improving his or her heart health, noting that the benefits of low levels of alcohol can also be achieved via healthy diet and regular exercise:
Drinking more alcohol increases such dangers as alcoholism, high blood pressure, obesity, stroke, breast cancer, suicide, and accidents. Also, it's not possible to predict in which people alcoholism will become a problem. Given these and other risks, the American Heart Association cautions people NOT to start drinking.
Staying Safe, Getting Help
Women who are concerned about the damage that their drinking may be inflicting on their heart or other aspects of their lives should know that help is as close as a phone call or mouse-click away.
Several effective residential recovery and rehabilitation programs have been designed to meet the unique needs of female clients, and experts note that gender-specific treatment efforts offer a number of benefits for both adults and young people who are working to free themselves from the chains of addiction.
For more information about these and other treatment options, consult with your healthcare provider, contact a local addiction recovery support group, or educate yourself online.
