What Does Alcohol Do to Your Body?
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Let your doctor know right away if you experience any signs of bleeding problems. You should also closely follow your doctor’s instructions for taking blood thinner medication. Blood thinners, also known as anticoagulants, are medications designed to prevent the formation of blood clots or to inhibit existing clots from getting larger.
It’s not recommended that you start drinking alcohol if you don’t normally. Having the restraint to consume only moderate amounts of alcohol may be challenging for some individuals. Their mechanism of action isn’t affected by alcohol consumption. It’s relatively safe to consume alcohol as long as you’re in good overall health and have confirmed with a healthcare professional. According to research, moderate consumption of alcohol has been found to cause a small increase in your HDL (good) cholesterol.
General Health
Long-term effects of excessive alcohol consumption can be detrimental to blood and heart health. Both high blood pressure and heart disease risk are increased in people who use the substance in excess for an extended period. Ask your doctor if it’s safe for you to drink alcohol while taking blood thinners.
When alcohol is consumed in conjunction with blood thinners, there are a few key interactions to consider. Alcohol affects cognitive function and coordination, leading to impaired judgment, poor decision-making, and an increased risk of accidents and injuries. Chronic alcohol use can lead to liver diseases such as fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, and cirrhosis. The liver is essential for processing and metabolizing alcohol, and excessive consumption can overwhelm its capacity. Some individuals may experience allergic reactions to blood thinners, leading to symptoms such as hives, itching, and difficulty breathing.
Both alcohol and blood thinners like warfarin (Coumadin) thin your blood. Taking both together could compound the anticoagulant effect and increase your risk of bleeding. Anticoagulants come in many different forms, including injections, intravenous (IV) drugs, and medications you take by mouth. They often treat and prevent life-threatening conditions that can happen because of blood clots, like strokes, heart attacks and pulmonary embolisms. Anticoagulants are a family of medications that stop your blood from clotting too easily.
- Long-term alcohol use also can lead to an increased risk of developing arrhythmias, which are irregular heartbeats, as well as cardiomyopathy, a stretching or drooping of the heart.
- They’re often prescribed to people at risk of having future blood clots, rather than to treat existing ones.
- This increases your risk of bleeding and makes it advisable to avoid mixing alcohol and Pradaxa.
- Heavy drinking can also lead to a host of health concerns, like brain damage, heart disease, cirrhosis of the liver and even certain kinds of cancer.
- HDL is considered “good” cholesterol while LDL is classified as “bad” cholesterol, a buildup of which can be a contributing factor in a heart attack.
Moderate Alcohol Use and Reduced Heart Disease Risk
Vitamin K helps make 4 of the 13 proteins needed for blood clotting, particularly prothrombin, which is converted to thrombin during the clotting process. Moderate alcohol consumption is defined as one drink per day for women and no more than two drinks per day for men. Before we dive into how alcohol thins your blood, it’s important to note what is considered moderate and heavy drinking. Having a drink or two every once in a while may be fine when you're on blood thinners -- just be sure to talk to your doctor. If you're a regular drinker, you may need to get your medication levels checked more often. If it's busy working on the alcohol instead of your blood thinner, the level of the drug in your blood will go up and raise your bleeding risk.
Many of the studies that make this claim do not consider other lifestyle choices, like diet and exercise, which have a much bigger impact on blood pressure. However, that does not mean that drinking is healthy, nor should you use alcohol to manage your Therapy for Drug and Alcohol Addiction Treatment blood pressure. There are safer and more reliable ways to manage high blood pressure than regular drinking.
Some research finds that alcohol increases levels of high-density lipoproteins (HDL, aka “good cholesterol”). This healthy type of cholesterol helps protect your arteries and prevent the blood clots that can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Of course, if you drink alcohol, drinking in moderation is always recommended. Over-imbibing can affect how quickly your blood clots and can increase your chances of falling. Even a simple fall can give you a nasty bruise or could even cause internal bleeding.
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And it also increases the risk of other issues, such as hemorrhagic stroke. Kendra would need to consult her doctor about taking any blood thinners. She should be upfront with her physician about her drinking habits. This is because taking the medicine with the alcohol could increase her risk of bleeding.
Alcohol can also affect the production of certain proteins involved in blood clotting.
Much like Pradaxa, alcohol also increases the effects of Arixtra. This is doubly dangerous, as you are more likely to have an injury while intoxicated and are at higher risk for severe bleeding. To fully understand the relationship between alcohol and blood thinners, it is important to first gain an understanding of what blood thinners are and how they work.
