Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Negative Effect of Wine Consumption

Besides a list of possible wine consumption benefits for your health, there is a list of possible downsides to wine drinking. The first and foremost harmful effect is apparently associated with abusing wine. Like all alcoholic drinks, wine should be consumed moderately. Excessive wine drinking is addictive and therefore can destroy one’s health. Regular excessive wine drinking provokes certain changes in the brain, physical and mental health impairment, and a person risks developing alcoholism.

Though one drink of red wine may benefit the heart and blood vessels, two and more drinks can counteract the beneficial effect of one drink and are likely to have an adverse effect on your health. Two drinks of red wine tend to increase heart rate, sympathetic nerve activity, the amount of blood the heart pumps out and generally turn on systems that stress the circulation. If you drink two and more glasses of wine frequently, you expose yourself to a higher risk of heart attack, stroke or chronic blood pressure.

So, if one drink of red wine is believed to help prevent heart disease, drinking more wine to reduce the heart disease risks is far from being a sound idea. Chronic intake of three servings of alcoholic beverages per day may lead to cardiomyopathy, hypertension, hemorrhagic stroke, cardiac arrhythmia, and even sudden death.
It is important to know the negative sides of wine consumption at normal levels as well, as some of its adverse effects can aggravate certain conditions and illnesses. If you are prone to the following health problems, illnesses or have a history with them in your family, then wine is not for you.

Wine is probably not for you if you have sensitive teeth. The acid contained in wine tends to wear away teeth enamel and even makes the teeth prone to decay. Brushing the teeth immediately after wine drinking is a bad idea, because brushing will scratch the enamel, thus aggravating the adverse effects the wine acid may have on teeth.

Like dairy products, dried fruits, spices, or jams, wine contains sulfites. White wines tend to have higher sulfite content than red wines. So, if you are allergic to sulfites, wine can be among a list of products which are not for you. Individuals who suffer from this allergy are often asthmatics, and sulfites may cause hives, nausea or even anaphylactic shock in them.

People who suffer with migraine headaches should also be warned against drinking wine. Booth red and white wines can serve as migraine triggers.

Individuals, who need to lose weight and count calories, should be very cautious with alcohol intake. Empty calories and triglycerides, which wine contains, can actually contribute to weight gain. For example, five ounces of white or red wine add up to approximately 120 calories, and four glasses of wine translates to 480 calories.

Pregnant women should abstain from drinking wine or any other alcohol during their pregnancy, as even small amounts of alcohol consumed during pregnancy increases risks of birth defects and fetal death. If exposed to alcohol, unborn babies may suffer a number of negative side effects, which will influence their physical and mental health: odd facial features, smaller size in comparison to other children of their age, learning and behavior problems etc.

In case alcohol is consumed in large quantities, liver has to work overtime, which may lead to liver dysfunction in several years. Liver diseases, liver infection or liver cirrhosis is one of the long-term effects of abusing alcoholic beverages.

In case you are taking some prescription drugs, never mix them with wine. Carefully read the warning labels on the medicines you take. Depending on the prescription drug taken and the amount of wine drunk, the adverse reaction may vary.

Among other contraindications to wine consumption are sleeping disorders, stomach infections and stomach ulcers, hypertension or other heart problems, memory problems and family history of severe memory diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, sexual problems such as erectile dysfunction, family history of cancers, dementia or alcoholism etc. Wine is also not recommended if you have a history of psychological illnesses: depression, bipolar syndrome, schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder or others.

As you may see, the negative effects of wine consumption in many cases can overweigh the benefits, and we are speaking not only in connection with physical and mental health of adult individuals here. It is important to realize that automobile accidents, trauma, and suicide, which are claimed the leading causes of mortality among teenagers and young adults, are often caused by alcohol abuse. Moderate wine consumption is a good illustration of the importance of knowing when to stop.

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