AVENTURA, Fla. – A new policy brief from the World Heart Federation is countering claims that red wine can be good for your heart and actually stating that no amount of alcohol is safe.
Cardiologist Dr. Leonard Pianko said binge drinking, more than 4 drinks a day for women and 5 for men, is especially dangerous because it raises the risk of an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation.
“Atrial Fibrillation means instead of the heart going in a normal fashion it goes irregular and when someone has an irregular heartbeat for more than 24 hours it can be dangerous it can lead to blot clots going to the brain and strokes,” Pianko said.
Many studies have raised concerns about an increase in alcohol consumption among Americans during the pandemic but a recent Rand Corporation survey found that drinking among men actually declined 20 percent and remained steady among women, although women reported more days of binge drinking early on in the outbreak.
Suicide Deaths
Mixed news from a study by the National Institute On Drug Abuse regarding suicide deaths in the United States in recent years.
While researchers found an overall decline of intentional drug overdose deaths, there’s been an increase among young people ages 15 to 24, older Americans age 75 to 84, and non-Hispanic Black women.
The study also found that women were more likely to die from intentional drug overdoses than men, with the highest rates observed in women between the ages of 45 to 64.
When unintentional deaths are factored in, nearly 92,000 people died from drug overdoses overall in 2020. This represents the largest increase ever recorded in a calendar year and reflects a nearly five-fold increase in the rate of overdose deaths since 1999.