Young adults who binge drink may be at an increased risk for heart disease later in life, says a new study from researchers at the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at The Ohio State University Medical Center.
For the study researchers collected health data from 38 college students. Seventeen considered themselves binge drinkers while 19 were non-binge drinkers. They tested each of the drinkers during binge drinking episodes, examining their total cholesterol, insulin and glucose, complete blood count, C-reactive protein, and blood alcohol levels.
The heavy drinkers were found to have lower blood flow than non-drinkers, which can lead to hardened arteries.
"Alcohol can be directly toxic to the heart and lead to weakening of the heart muscle and heart failure," said William Abraham, lead researchers on the study. "Toxic manifestations take a while to show up in heart detection, but can be serious enough to require heart transplant."
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