High cholesterol levels — especially if we are talking “bad cholesterol”, or LDL — can damage your health by raise your risk of heart disease. If your levels are high, you may have been told to get active and follow a healthy diet that limits or excludes some foods, but that also applies to alcoholic drinks. How do these affect your cholesterol and what can you do to cut down on booze?
The following text is based on information by the cholesterol charity Heart UK and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is only meant for general purposes and does not constitute any form of medical diagnosis or advice. You should not rely on it as a substitute for proper medical guidance. Talk to your doctor or healthcare provider if you suspect your cholesterol levels may be high, want to know your options about it or struggle to quit drinking.
Alcohol and cholesterol
Alcohol is one element to target if you are trying to lower your cholesterol levels, as it can increase them. According to Heart UK, this happens because after you drink your digestive system makes sure that alcohol is converted into triglycerides and cholesterol, a process that takes part in your liver and therefore directly impacts your cholesterol levels. If your triglyceride levels are too high they can accumulate in the liver, causing fatty liver disease, a condition that is sometimes directly linked to alcohol consumption.
Your liver performs a critical role by removing cholesterol, but if it is too fatty it can struggle to do just that, causing cholesterol levels to rise as well. This is way alcohol may cause having a combination that is damaging to your health: high triglycerides levels and low HDL levels —”good cholesterol”, increasing the risk of heart disease.
This is only one of the ways in which alcohol consumption can be detrimental to your health, since it is also known to make you gain weight, raising your blood pressure — another risk factor for heart disease —, affect your pancreas or even cause some cancers. Of course, there is also the risk of alcoholism.
Depending on your circumstances and your doctor’s advice, limiting your alcohol intake may seem the smart thing to do. How much alcohol is too much alcohol in terms of safety, then? Establishing “safe thresholds” is very complicated. According to Heart UK, you should not exceed more than 14 units of alcohol per week. The NHS defines a unit as “10ml or 8g of pure alcohol”. For reference, one unit would be a small shot of spirits, whereas a small glass of wine would amount to 1,5 units, and a pint of “higher-strength lager, beer or cider” would count as three units. Heart UK considers these limits to be fine for people with high cholesterol levels, noting that you may benefit from quitting alcohol altogether.
Beyond cholesterol
This is because the past belief suggesting that moderate drinking was beneficial for your heart is now being challenged. Alcohol seems to entail risks for overall health even in moderate consumption. For example, according to the CDC guidelines, we know that the risk of developing some cancers increases even “at very low levels”, less than one drink. The Global Burden of Disease, a large study published in The Lancet, found that there is no such thing as a “safe amount of booze“, as even occasional drinkers took some risks.
If you want to drink less to protect or improve your health, experts from Heart UK suggest some simple measures, like being more mindful about what you drink by checking the alcohol percentage and switching to lighter alternatives or only drinking when you are eating. You can also alternate alcoholic drinks with soft drinks, or drink more slowly.
