Alcohol May Limit Heart Attack Damage
A University of Missouri-Columbia researcher says moderate alcohol consumption could reduce damage to affected tissue following a heart attack, according to a news release from the school.
In a test on laboratory animals, study author Ron Korthuis, distinguished professor and chair of medical pharmacology and physiology, found that when alcohol was introduced to the system at a rate of one drink every 48 hours, the alcohol would trigger a chemical reaction in the body that would make the artery walls slick and stop white blood cells from attaching to the damaged tissue.
White blood cells stick to the walls of the arteries and release toxic chemicals into the damaged tissues, causing additional cell death. However, in subjects given alcohol, the tissue affected by the low blood flow was much healthier and stronger.
"Every time you take a drink of alcohol, you're killing brain cells," Korthuis said. "We're trying to identify these chemical reactions so that we can develop a drug that would start this chain reaction, but not have the side effects of alcohol. We've also found other natural compounds have similar effects such as capsaicin, a compound in Tabasco sauce that creates that hot sensation."
The study's findings will be published this fall in the journal Microcirculation.
