One Drink Is Okay, Two Drinks Are Harmful
Can you eat just one chip? (By the way my hubby says he can but he is lying!) Can you drink just one? That seems to be the more important question when it comes to beneficial alcohol and heart disease.
The first glass of red wine or a stiff drink does slightly benefit the heart and vessels but the positive effects end there.
After one drink of either red wine or alcohol, blood vessels were more “relaxed” or dilated, which reduced the amount of work the heart had to do. But, after two drinks, the heart rate, amount of blood pumped out of the heart, and action of the sympathetic nervous system all increased. At the same time, the ability of the blood vessels to expand in response to an increase in blood flow diminished. This counteracted the beneficial effect of one drink of red wine or alcohol.
This has been studied for years and in many different avenues and they have come to the above conclusions several times. Reasons seem to point toward the fact that the second drink stresses your body and activates the fight or flight mechanism. Makes sense…
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POSTED IN: Hearty Blogging, Hearty Diet, Hearty Research
1 opinion for One Drink Is Okay, Two Drinks Are Harmful
Mark
Feb 14, 2008 at 5:45 am
Hmmmmm… :)
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