By Kristy Volmert | Staff Writer
There is a known connection between alcohol abuse and negative cardiovascular effects, but little research has been done to investigate exactly what causes these side effects — until now.
Funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, medical researchers at the Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences conducted a study that examined the morning-after impact of binge drinking.
A report of the study was published in American Heart Association’s Hypertension journals on Aug. 9. Dr. Jason Carter, dean of the Robbins College, was in charge of designing the study, securing sponsorship funding and overall data analysis.
A group of 26 healthy adults between the ages of 19 and 31 years old were tested in the laboratory on two occasions: the morning after undergoing simulated binge drinking (equivalent to four to five drinks within two hours), versus after drinking an equivalent amount of non-alcoholic fluid (water, tea, etc). Subjects were also tested overnight in the sleep laboratory in a randomized order of separate sessions.
“We monitored their sleep all night, and then in the morning, we tested their nervous system at rest and during some lab stressors,” Carter said.
The studies showed that binge drinking caused an upturn in the body’s cardiovascular response to nerve activity. This effect can pose serious health threats, particularly for high-risk groups such as those with congenital heart defects and pre-diagnosed hypertension or high blood pressure.
The sympathetic nervous system responds to danger, stress and physical activity. While the researchers hypothesized a correlation between binge drinking and increased heart rate and blood pressure, they were surprised to see that alcohol levels did not lead to increased sympathetic nerve activity.
“That perplexed us at first, but drove us deeper to understand why and look at this unique analysis of how sympathetic activity transduction to the blood vessels might be involved,” Carter said. “That’s the cool part of science — you let the data lead you, and often it leads you to new questions and directions.”
Carter and co-leader Dr. Jeremy Bigalke, assistant research scientist in the Department of Health, Human Performance & Recreation at Robbins College, worked with a brilliant team of students and technicians.
“I think just working with such a driven group of individuals was really exciting,” Bigalke said. “To be a part of that collaborative experience was great, especially as I was going through my studies.”
According to Carter, two graduate students and several undergraduates participated in the study, along with a full-time lab technician and some collaborators from other universities.
“We hired exceptional people, including some amazing students, some that are off doing great things at other universities now,” Carter said. “One of the undergraduates, Ximena Solis-Montenegro, was engaged at such a high level that she earned co-authorship, which is really commendable for an undergraduate student.”
The results of this study aim to spread awareness of the potentially detrimental effects of overconsumption of alcohol. Young people today, particularly college students, have shown increasing rates of binge drinking. The ability to exercise the privilege of having access to alcohol is oftentimes abused, whether consciously or subconsciously.
“Alcohol may be socially acceptable, but it is so often abused and leads to really negative health impacts,” Carter said. “That includes both psychological and physiological dysfunctions, with our lab focused on sleep and blood pressure control. There is a need to show empirical data how binge drinking negatively impacts health, and this study showed that from a new and different angle.”
