Long-term studies have shown that moderate to light drinking is beneficial for heart health, but the reason for this association is unknown to science. Why would alcohol’s impact on the heart be different from its other health hazards, which include a higher risk of cancer, neurological ageing, and other conditions?
Well, alcohol reportedly decreases stress signals in the brain over time, which eases the strain on the heart, according to a recent study by Massachusetts General Hospital researchers that was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
The researchers examined information from more than 50 000 individuals in the Mass General Brigham Biobank, a sizable research database established by the hospital, and found that light-to-moderate drinking was in fact associated with much lower risks of cardiovascular disease.
They were able to conclude that this effect was not due to people’s socioeconomic statuses, levels of activity, or even genetics — factors that are challenging to control for in smaller research. They looked at the brain scans of the people, and something else seemed to be at work. These suggested that alcohol use lowers stress levels in the brain over the long term, which reduces the stress put on the heart even days after one’s last drink.
According to PsychCentral, alcohol can reportedly reduce symptoms of anxiety in some cases. It can also act on the reward pathways of the brain, fostering and strengthening the belief that you need alcohol to cope with stress.
This may help to explain why some people believe that drinking reduces their stress and may make them want to drink more. Your brain starts to rely more on alcohol to function as it gets used to increasing alcohol concentrations.
“At the same time, alcohol itself can cause stress. It activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis — a major part of the body’s stress response system,” the health publication states.
So, even though you may at first feel better when you drink, over time your body might consider alcohol a stressor and respond.
Alcohol’s ability to increase stress can continue even when you’re not drinking. Long-term alcohol use can change your brain chemistry so that your body releases higher amounts of adrenocorticotropic hormone and cortisol, according to the NIAA.
