Alcohol consumption acute systemic effects

The acute effects of alcohol consumption are associated with mild nervous system effects such as relaxation and a lessening of inhibitions that many people find desirable. Additional consumption results in sleepiness and motor and reaction time... 

Alcohol is one of many drugs that cause or aggravate systemic hypertension. Acute alcohol exposure has an inconsistent effect on blood pressure, but cross-sectional population studies have shown a relation between chronic alcohol consumption and blood pressure, and the prevalence of hypertension up to three times higher in heavy drinkers (5). Although the mechanism of hypertension caused by chronic alcohol consumption is not known, it is suspected that it is partly related to repeated episodes of acute withdrawal, causing increased sympathoadrenomedullary activity, an increase in plasma renin activity, and increased ACTH secretion, which may be sufficient to have a mineralo-corticoid effect (6). 

Acute (occasional) overconsumption of alcohol results in intoxication. Chronically (over some period of time), this can lead to gradual damage of the brain and the nervous system. It is an obvious but rather debated question what effect moderate alcohol consumption may exert on the brain. Are the known risks overcompensated by the expected benefits The lifestyles of more than 1000 elderly people were monitored for at least 7 years in a related American study. Those who consumed moderate amounts of alcohol actually preserved their mental abilities better than those who opted for abstinence. But the authors of this study remarked that they would not recommend alcohol consumption for this purpose despite the positive results. The mechanism of the effect is still unknown, and another substance in the drinks rather than alcohol may very well turn out to be the cracial ingredient. It may be only speculated that the platelet aggregation inhibiting effect may lower the risk of microinfarctions in the brain, and this is why benefits for the brain arise. In observational studies, moderate alcohol consumption was also shown to decrease the risk of Alzheimer s disease. Mechanisms are not known here, either, but these results would warrant further studies about the effects on the central nervous system. 

FMD and blood pressure have been often used for the evaluation of the effect of the dietary intake of polyphenols on the protection of the cardiovascular system. Indeed, the basal FMD is increased in healthy subjects after two glasses of red wine with or without alcohol [100] or after consumption of 3 ml/kg of red wine [101]. Similarly, intake of red wine has been shown to restore a normal endothelial function in hypercholesterolemic patients with impaired FMD [99,102]. A study by Papamichael et al. has also shown that acute intake of two glasses of red wine with or without alcohol is able to reduce the endothelial dysfunction induced by the smoking of one cigarette by healthy nonsmokers [103], Moreover, acute intake of two glasses of red wine without alcohol improves FMD in patients with coronary artery disease, while intake of regular red wine was less effective, suggesting that the beneficial effect is due to the polyphenol content rather than the alcohol component of red wines [104]. 

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