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06/06/2008 - Excessive Alcohol Use Brings New Threat to Womens's Health
Investigators recently presented new data at the American Society of Hypertension (ASH) 23rd Annual Scientific Meeting and Exposition, showing a link between heavy binge drinking and cardiac structure and function in women.
Research shows that, among heavy drinkers, women are at greater risk of developing increased left ventricular mass and septal thickness, whereas men experience more arterial and ventricular stiffness. This increase in left ventricular mass and septal thickness seen in women, essentially enlargement of the heart, is an early sign of the progression to heart failure.
According to physicians involved with the study, a patient would have to have high blood pressure for more than 10 years to develop structural changes in the heart. Under normal circumstances, women don't have higher blood pressure than men or more stiffening of the arteries, but those women categorized as heavy drinkers in the study had much bigger hearts with abnormal configuration at a much younger age.
In the study, researchers assessed 200 untreated subjects referred for hypertension. Subjects were classified as nondrinkers, moderate drinkers (males: 1-21 units of alcohol per week; females: 1-14 units per week), and heavy drinkers (males: >21 units per week; females: >14 units per week).
In women, a dose-response relationship between alcohol and left ventricular septal and posterior wall thickness and left ventricular mass index was seen. Even among heavy female drinkers, there was no relationship between drinking and arterial stiffness and high blood pressure.
Uncertainty still exists as to why excessive drinking manifests differently in men and women. It could be a dose effect, because women are smaller, or it could be an unknown metabolic effect that leads to much more direct damage to the heart among women. The study also showed significant increases in liver enzymes in the female subjects, meaning many had experienced a hepatic inflammatory reaction to the alcohol.
What is clear is that women who drink excessively will see years taken from their lives by these changes in the heart. Structural changes brought on by increased alcohol consumption will make the heart weaker and weaker until it is no longer able to contract.
For women, especially those with hypertension caused by alcohol, the only treatment is changes in diet and exercise, as well as quitting drinking.