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Alcohol
Is Healthy for Hearts
By Christian Basi
For years researchers have tried to determine
why the French have such a lower rate of cardiovascular disease,
given the amount of fat consumed in their diets. Red wine has
been identified as one of the suspects in maintaining a healthy
heart, but now a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher has
found that alcohol, in moderation, from any source not only maintains
a healthy heart, but can reduce the damage to affected tissue
following a heart attack.
When a heart attack occurs, blood flow is
reduced to several areas of the body. When the blood flow is restored,
several processes take place in the body that actually cause more
harm to the damaged tissue. When the blood supply is re-established,
the blood carries white blood cells to the areas damaged by the
reduction in blood delivery. Unfortunately, these blood cells
act like miniature hand grenades as they stick to the walls of
the arteries and release toxic chemicals into the damaged tissues,
causing additional cell death.
“Following a heart attack, physicians
try to establish reperfusion, or normalize the blood flow in the
body,” said Ron Korthuis, distinguished professor and chair
of medical pharmacology
and physiology. “The damaged tissues begin releasing
a variety of molecules that attract the white blood cells to the
damaged areas. When the white blood cells arrive, they attach
to the adhesion molecules on the blood vessel walls and then start
destroying the damaged tissue. One type of adhesion molecule that
is affected by the alcohol ingestion is P-selectin”
P-selectins make the artery walls sticky
enough that the white blood cells will attach when they are in
the affected areas. Using an animal model, Korthuis found that
when alcohol was introduced to the system 24 hours prior to a
reduction in the blood supply, the alcohol would trigger a chemical
reaction in the body that would make the artery walls slick and
stop the white blood cells from attaching to the damaged tissue.
In subjects that were treated with the alcohol, the tissue affected
by the low blood flow was much healthier and stronger than the
untreated tissue. However, Korthuis warns that this is not a license
to drink.
“Every time you take a drink
of alcohol, you’re killing brain cells,” Korthuis
said. “We’re trying to identify these chemical reactions
so that we can develop a drug that would start this chain reaction,
but not have the side effects of alcohol. We’ve also found
other natural compounds have similar effects such as capsaicin,
a compound in Tabasco sauce that creates that hot sensation.”
Korthuis’ research will be published
this fall in Microcirculation. He also has been published
in the American Journal of Physiology and Free Radicals
Biology and Medicine on similar research studies.
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Last Update:
November 15, 2007
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