Alcohol and your heart

I couldn’t resist this one. Cardiologists have been saying for a long time that red wine is good for your heart. Now here’s proof in the form of animal studies that it also reduces the damage after you’ve had a heart attack. Newswise: “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.”

The way it works is that once blood flow is restored to your damaged heart, that blood is carrying a bunch of white blood cells with it–we’re used to thinking of them as the good guys. But in this case they cling to the sides of your damaged vessels and release toxic chemicals that kill more cells. Alcohol smooths out the surfaces so these nasty little carriers can’t stick. And here’s another article that describes how the white blood cells become enemies, producing inflammation when it’s not needed–and make you even more susceptible to heart attacks.

So strange how many ways the good and the bad coexist in single elements in our bodies.

Okay, they don’t say this means you should start drinking. They see a similar effect in capsaicin, the ingredient that makes Tabasco sting your throat and heat up your head.