One of the perks about growing up in France is that you’re familiarized with the beauties of wine early in your life. One of the downfalls of living there is that you’re confronted with the damages of alcohol. For instance France ranks among Europe’s highest road death tolls. Most of those deaths involved a driver under the influence of alcohol.
Of course if you drive, don’t drink. After this public health warning, back to this French Food Philosopher’s life: health-wise, drinking wine is one of my few sins.
The past five workdays were long and intense. Still, I managed to squeeze in enough exercise, which I need to remain in balance. The week was nonetheless a bit stressful – and very warm too. Came Friday afternoon and I really longed for a cold glass of white wine… that turned into three glasses. On Saturday my training schedule was a 10 kilometer run in heartbeat zone 4. It usually takes some time and I need sprinting to reach a high heartbeat zone. Yesterday my heart reached the required high rate in about three minutes, without even trying hard.
I had noticed that phenomenon earlier: the day after I drink a couple of wine glasses my heart rate shoots up. That intrigued and kind of worried me. Although training is also about giving a good workout to your heart, as well as to the rest of your muscles, you don’t really want to strain your heart, right? So, what’s the link with alcohol?
Alcohol Link With Heart Rate
First of all: is it possible that my drinking three glasses of wine Friday evening affected my hart the morning after? Yes, it turns out. The length of the aftermaths differs, depending on your metabolism. To shorten them: eat and drink water (but avoid coffee and Red Bull).
“Surely”, you might think “moderate consumption is OK”. Or: “a glass of red wine per day is good for you, right? ” Well, I’m sorry to say but the jury is still out on those points but it looks like those are myths. As could be expected the bottom-line is that drinking wine – or any other alcohol – is detrimental to your health even if you exercise and eat healthily.
Although apparently the reason why isn’t entirely clear it has been clinically proven that drinking alcohol increases your hear rate. Furthermore, “Alcohol use is directly linked to the rate of injury sustained in sport events and appears to evoke detrimental effects on exercise performance capacity.”
Worse news: a recent study on over 100 000 people shows that one small alcoholic drink a day is linked to an increased risk of an abnormal heart rhythm.
In this piece I focused on the impact of alcohol on our heart. Unfortunately it also affects other aspects of your health: it may induce cancers, it’s bad for your brain, nervous system and liver.
Do you want to maximize your chances of living a long and healthy life? Exercise! Don’t drink. Not even French wine alas.