The public has been warned not to mix drink and cardiac arrest Small amounts of alcohol may help protect the heart from damage caused during heart attacks, say scientists. It may even help people who have undergone open heart surgery or heart transplants. But British experts have warned patients not to try to drink alcohol if they think they may be having an attack, as booze could react badly with other medication given to patients when they arrive at hospital.
Heart attacks happen when an artery feeding blood to the muscle is blocked and starves it of oxygen.
If tissues do not get enough oxygen over a sustained period, cells begin to die - and send out messages which kill neighbouring cells as well. Working with rats, researchers at Stanford University in California found that small amounts of alcohol could prevent the dying cells encouraging their neighbours to commit suicide. Other studies have already shown that a moderate alcohol consumption provides some protection against heart disease. The alcohol dose protected cells against the damage caused by oxygen starvation by turning on a chemical called epsilon protein, it was reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This protected heart cells grown in a laboratory dish, and mice genetically engineered to produce the protein suffered less damage from oxygen starvation to their hearts than normal mice.