Episode 111: Let's Get Honest About Heart Health and Drinking

Mar 10

In January, the World Health Federation came out with a landmark declaration, that any kind of alcohol consumption is bad for the heart.

Karolina gets raw, real, and vulnerable on today’s episode as she shares how drinking alcohol impacted her heart and why a lot of the “glossy” claims out there about alcohol are actually not true at all.

For years, we’ve been falsely led to believe that alcohol is good for our heart and that even a daily glass of wine has protective benefits. Karolina gets scientific in this conversation, debunking multiple myths and uncovering how alcohol affects our blood pressure, heart rate, and cholesterol. If you’re invested in living a long, healthy, and beautiful life, this episode will be the perfect motivation.

Is having a daily glass of wine actually good for us?

It’s wild to think that for so many years, we've been told that having a glass of wine every day is actually good for us and has protective benefits for our heart. What if I told you it actually gives the opposite effect?

In January, the World Health Federation came out with a landmark declaration, that any kind of alcohol consumption is bad for the heart. Even small quantities of alcohol can increase a person’s risk for cardiovascular disease, including coronary disease, stroke, heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, cardiomyopathy, atrial fibrillation, and aneurysm.

Heart disease is the #1 killer in the United States, ahead of cancer.

Growing up, I had thought I was healthy. I danced ballet when I was young and had a pretty active lifestyle. It wasn’t until I went to a doctor at age 24 and had a staggering realization: my cholesterol levels were 40 points above high risk, and my blood pressure wasn’t where it should have been.

Looking back, it was easy to see how alcohol was a culprit. I was always looking for a party in college and drank close to every night. It was after these weekend binges that I started noticing a pressure and a soreness in my chest. It terrified me. Googling my symptoms only brought up heart attacks and doctors thought I was crazy after running routine EKGs and a sonogram where everything checked out.

It was around then that I knew deep down, intuitively, that alcohol was not good for me.

Even now, more than four years into my alcohol-free journey, I can say with confidence that not drinking is the best thing I have ever done to take care of my heart, even more than prioritizing a plant-based diet and exercising. The pressure and soreness completely went away.

The impact of alcohol on our bodies

Alcohol consumption has an inflammatory effect on our bodies.

Drinking raises our heart rate without any physical exertion, so our heart has to pump harder and faster which actually strains it over time and makes it less efficient at pumping oxygen into your blood. As a result, your blood pressure will rise. It’s a known fact that drinkers have higher blood pressure than non-drinkers, which contributes to heart disease.

Even having more than three drinks in a night increases your risk of heart attack later that week by threefold!

If you take even just two weeks off from drinking, it’s amazing to see how much your blood pressure will noticeably drop. If you have an Apple Watch or an Oura Ring, it’s easy to measure this and see the impact.

While there’s less research around this, I firmly believe that not drinking has the potential to lower our blood cholesterol. I was shocked to see my numbers drop from 220-240 at an all-time high, to 167 after nine months into my alcohol-free journey. I wasn’t trying to consciously change it, but it dropped by more than 50 points. Many of my clients have seen a change too.

Alcohol companies are keeping us misinformed

The alcohol industry is doing what the tobacco industry did so many years ago. When you look behind the glossy headlines, it’s the alcohol companies that are staking these misinformed claims and misleading the public to believe alcohol is glamorous, good for you, and an essential accessory to have at a party.

While there was past research that claimed moderation was good for you and daily glass of wine was protective for the heart, that research has now come out to be flawed. Many studies were largely based on purely observational research and instead of comparing moderate drinkers to lifelong abstainers, they compared them to people who had to quit drinking because of underlying health issues. When you remove misclassification errors, there was no protection at low levels of consumption.

To date, no reliable correlation has been found between a daily glass of wine and a reduced risk of heart disease. And I’ll explain why in this episode.

You might be thinking, “Karolina, why aren’t we hearing more about this? Why is there not more prevalent information? How come other wellness brands aren’t talking about it?”

There are many confounding factors and it will take awhile for the real truth to come out and for all of these myths to be debunked. Listen to this episode to learn why there is so much conflicting information out there, why studies used to say moderation is good for you, and why the opposite is true.

Digging into this research completely opened my eyes, and while sharing even more of my personal story in this episode felt vulnerable, if my experiences can help someone else, it’s worth it to me.

“Ever since I stopped drinking, I don’t get that heart pressure anymore. I’m really grateful that I had that kind of awakening, not only in my spirituality and my sense of agency and what’s possible in my life, but also that my health is really going in the right direction.” Karolina Rzadkowolska

“I know in my heart that not drinking is the best possible thing I could do for my heart.” Karolina Rzadkowolska

LINKS/RESOURCES MENTIONED

Are you ready to do alcohol differently? Join Karolina’s 22-day Dry Bootcamp for a highly immersive 22 day experience in April for as little as $159. You’ll get weekly group coaching calls, video lessons, a Slack community, and guides to take care of emotional needs in healthy ways.

Karolina’s book is available in hardcover, Kindle, and as an audiobook. Be sure to get your copy of Euphoric: Ditch Alcohol and Gain a Happier, More Confident You today and leave your review.

Follow @euphoric.af on Instagram

If you’re interested in exploring and researching on your own, check out the World Heart Federation.
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