A heart attack can be life threatening. The deadly condition occurs when a blood clot forms inside the artery after a fatty deposit has broken off from the artery wall. The heart is essentially a pump that keeps blood moving around the body. It delivers oxygen and nutrients to all parts of the body and also carries away unwanted carbon dioxide and waste products. Drinking more alcohol than the UK Chief Medical Officers (CMO) recommends could increase your risk of developing heart disease.
Abusing alcohol, whether it is heavy drinking, binge drinking or alcohol use disorder can lead to a heart attack because of extensive damage to the cardiovascular system.
It’s important for a person to understand different levels of alcohol abuse and how drinking more servings of alcohol than “moderate” drinking can cause physical damage.
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Understanding alcohol servings and drinking levels
Binge drinking is defined as four or more drinks in a two-hour period for women and five or more servings of alcohol in a two-hour period for men.
Heavy drinking is defined as eight or more drinks per week for women, which is just over one drink per day.
For men, those who consume more than 15 per week, which is just over two drinks per day is considered heavy drinking.
To get any health benefits from alcohol, it’s advised to stick to drinking lightly or moderately. Heavy drinking can make a person more likely to get serious health problems like liver disease, cancer and peptic ulcers, among others.
If a person drinks regularly, they might feel like alcohol doesn’t affect them as much, but this usually means the person has developed a tolerance to some of the dangerous effects.
Those who drink regularly and consume more than the recommended amount are strongly advised to cut down or stop drinking completely to reduce their risk of a heart attack.