Today’s the last day of February, which also means that it’s the last day of National Heart Month or American Heart Month.
What does that have to do with this blog? Quite a lot, actually. Did you know that alcohol and drugs can do severe damage to the heart and circulatory system? They can.
Drinking too much alcohol can be bad for your heart and circulatory system because it could cause
- elevated blood pressure
- clogged arteries
- heart failure
- strokes
- irregular heartbeats
- damage to the heart
- diseases of the heart muscle
- heart attacks
In addition, drinking too much could lead to other conditions that can damage the heart and circulatory system.
Abusing drugs can also damage this vital organ. Stimulants such as cocaine, amphetamines, and Adderall are especially dangerous because they stimulate everything. Stimulants could damage your heart by causing
- elevated heart rates
- elevated blood pressure
- heart attacks
Drugs can obviously also damage your brain, nervous system, and respiratory system. Damage to these systems and other parts of the body can also affect the heart, just as damage to the heart can affect these and other systems.
To reverse or prevent this damage, it’s not as simple as quitting drugs and alcohol. To complicate things even more, some sources say that a little alcohol can even be GOOD for a person, since alcohol might have substances such as antioxidants that can lower the risk of heart disease.
Even these sources stress that people should limit their alcohol consumption if they want to keep their hearts healthy. They recommend that women consume no more than one alcoholic drink daily and men consume no more than two a day.
While researchers are still studying the effects of alcohol and drugs on the body, it does appear that the substances can have profound effects.
