Heart Disease

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Excessive Alcohol Consumption

2.46 Alcohol can be a tonic as well as toxic. While there is some evidence regarding protective effect of moderate alcohol consumption on reducing heart attacks, this applies to older people – middle-age onwards. You do not have to start drinking alcohol if you have not been taking it. The protective effect of moderate drinking disappears if larger amounts of alcohol are consumed which can prove harmful for the heart. Older people who are non-drinkers can protect themselves using more effective lifestyle measures like heart-healthy diet, exercise, no smoking etc.

2.47 Long term heavy drinking of alcohol can contribute to high blood pressure and elevated levels of triglycerides in blood, which are major risk factors for heart disease and stroke. All forms of alcohol are calorie dense and excess alcohol leads to obesity, liver damage, stomach ulcers and heartburn. Excess alcohol can also age your brain, making memory and thinking problems worse. Alcohol in fact depletes the body of many precious nutrients including Vitamins A, B and C and minerals zinc and magnesium.

2.48 Alcohol is a vasodilator, which means it makes the peripheral blood vessels relax in order to allow more blood to flow through to the skin and tissues. Even one unit quickens your pulse rate, as your heart begins to work harder in order to pump enough blood to your organs. In the short term, this just makes your breathing slightly faster and contributes to that “high” feeling while you drink. But in the long term, alcohol weakens the heart muscle and its ability to pump blood through the body.

2.49 When you drink, your liver cells stop their normal processing of dietary fats and other food in order to detoxify the alcohol, which is a powerful cell poison. Alcohol is a toxin that is absorbed into the blood and circulated to the liver to be broken down. As it is preferentially metabolised over sources of energy, such as fat and carbohydrates, other processes are switched off including fat oxidation (burning fat) and protein synthesis (building muscle). Only once alcohol is cleared from the body can these other processes start again.

Vitamin D Deficiency

2.50 Vitamin D is essential for overall good health and strong bones by helping absorb calcium from food. It also plays an important role in the functioning of your muscles, brain,lungs and heart and ensures that your body fights infection. Vitamin D deficiency can cause osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, neuromuscular pain, proximal muscle pain, weakness, T.B., weakened immune system, cancers of breast, colon, prostate and ovary and heart disease. A recent study has found that vitamin D deficiency is far better indicator of a future heart attack than cholesterol.

2.51 To the impressive list of the benefits of vitamin D, it is now believed that vitamin D plays an important role in cardiovascular health. Most organs and tissues of human body have vitamin D receptors. These receptors are activated by the presence of vitamin D and they in turn work to create better functioning of the respective tissues. Not surprisingly, such receptors are present in the smooth muscles of the heart and blood vessels. The presence of vitamin D causes these smooth muscles – through the vitamin D receptors – to relax and this in turn prevents heart attack and arterial mess ups.

2.52 Vitamin D is provided to the human body largely by exposure of bare skin to ultraviolet UVB rays in the sunshine and to a lesser extent from food. Indians are fortunate to get sunshine throughout the year. But it is disappointing to see a high rate of vitamin D deficiency (50 to 90%) in Indian population inspite of abundance sunshine. This is due to the presence of pigment melanin in higher proportion in the relatively dark complexion of the skin in the Indian population which is an inhibitory factor for the vitamin D formation. Furthermore, the use of sunscreens and the tendency to cover each part of our body (including hands, arms and face, especially in summer) with clothes prevents the formation of vitamin D from the skin.