The article ‘Heavy drinking may raise cardiovascular risk by aging the arteries’ by Ana Sandoiu establishes that the excessive alcohol abuse could potentially lead to cardiovascular problems in the future. In this news article, alcohol consumption is an environmental factor, and arterial stiffness is the developmental outcome. This news article is based on the research ‘Twenty-five-year alcohol consumption trajectories and their association with arterial aging: A prospective cohort study’ by Darragh O'Neill, Annie Britton, Eric Brunner, and Steven Bell.
Cardiovascular problems continue to have the highest mortality rates compared to other diseases, accounting for more than thirty percent of lethal cases worldwide. Arterial stiffness usually appears in spots where the walls of the vessels have insufficient elasticity. According to the article, arterial stiffness is the first sign of the cardiovascular problems, which might be a direct consequence of the alcohol abuse. This occurrence changes the receptiveness of the arteries to the fluctuations in pressure; moreover, it usually indicates changes that have both functional and structural negative impacts. Arterial stiffness is separately connected to cardiovascular morbidity and lethal outcomes. This connection has been associated with the effect, which the arterial stiffness has on the dynamics of blood flow in the blood vessels. The significance of arterial stiffness in the cardiac health has resulted in numerous suggestions that it could be applied as an alternate endpoint for the research of the problems in the cardiovascular system. According to the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, around 87 percent of the participants of the study from age 18 or above stated that they consumed alcohol in the course of their life (“Results from the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Detailed Tables”, 2015). Moreover, around 70 percent of the participants stated that they consumed alcohol in the year prior to the study. In addition, more than 55 percent of the respondents revealed that they consumed alcohol in the month prior to the survey (“Results from the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Detailed Tables”, 2015). The study by Darragh O'Neill, Annie Britton, Eric Brunner, and Steven Bell has proposed that adequate amount of alcohol consumption are connected to a reduced risk of cardiovascular problems from the start. The instruments that lie beneath this connection are not thoroughly studied, as well as the effect of fluctuations in the amount of alcohol consumption in the course of time. The authors of the research suggest that constant alcohol abuse could be related to increased cardiovascular complications, for the most part, among men (O’Neill, Britton, Brunner, & Bell, 2017). With the help of the recurrent alcohol consumption statistics that include more than twenty years, the authors of the research conducted in order to reveal the complex ways, in which drinking habits are connected to arterial stiffness more precisely compared to the previous research (Sandoiu, 2017). The main objectives of the research are to evaluate if the long-lasting habits of alcohol abuse are separately related to a baseline evaluation of …show more content…
Deterioration of submissive elastin fibers and deposits of stiffer collagen are viewed as primary causes of arterial stiffening that is connected to the age of an individual. In addition, blood pressure has a substantial part in establishing the frame of the vessel walls, with reconstruction taking place in order to recompense for the differences in wall pressure. Along with relating to various structural causes, vessel function can have an impact on the arterial stiffness as well, with the endothelium and, especially, nitric oxide being primary determinants (Payne, Wilkinson, & Webb, 2010). General knowledge on the subject of dynamic fluctuations in arterial stiffness continues to be rather insufficient; for that reason, the causes of arterial stiffness discussed in the article should not be accepted unquestionably. Moreover, additional research is required, mostly regarding the advantages of physical activity to a state of the cardiovascular system. On the other hand, the findings of the research by Darragh O'Neill, Annie Britton, Eric Brunner, and Steven Bell should not be regarded as the only accurate cause for arterial stiffness; for that reason, the individuals are advised to watch over their alcohol intake given its adversary effect on the organism on the whole and not only on the cardiovascular