Pericarditis refers to inflammation of pericardium, which is a dual sac layer surrounding the heart musculature. It is caused by bacteria streptococcus. Patient presents with chest pain, which is severe in nature and radiating.
The best diagnostic method is echocardiography. Treatment included NSAIDs and colchicine. Few preventive measures are even recommended, which includes lifestyle modification that is the exercise for minimum 30 minutes daily, nutritional changes which include consumption of less saturated fatty acids and so on. But consumption of alcohol always remains a dilemma. It is a matter of debate as few physicians do not prohibit their patients from consuming alcohol while a large number of physicians strictly prohibit their patient from consuming alcohol. This decision may vary from physician to physician. According to standard text, there is no association between alcohol and pericarditis, thus one can consume alcohol if they wants to.
Can You Drink When You Have Pericarditis?
As already mentioned above alcohol and pericarditis are not directly related, but as it is said prevention is better than cure one should not consume alcohol for being on the safer side.
Few surveys indicated that consuming alcohol precipitated the attack, but still no evidences are there to support the survey, thus this is not accepted presently.
If one has proper control of his drinking habit then they can consume a finite amount of alcohol, as it does no harm. Three drinks are normally tolerated by the patient, but beyond these range chances of heart, diseases increase. Thus, binge drinking should be avoided as it may not directly affect pericarditis, but it may cause other grave problems associated with the heart which might aggravate pericarditis. So one should take proper precautions to prevent him from recurrent pericarditis.
It is also said that alcohol delays the healing process, thus after pericarditis if one consumes alcohol in greater quantity it might affect the healing process. It is well known that alcohol causes an increase in sympathetic activity of heart muscles and thus, may deprive heart muscles of oxygen. All these may affect the healing process. The main objective is to decrease the heart workload.
Excess alcohol causes the increase in heart rate because of which heart workload increases so if one wants proper recovery after pericarditis, then they should avoid alcohol as a precaution.
Besides this treatment of pericarditis includes ibuprofen which being an NSAID should not be given with alcohol. Alcohol interacts with NSAIDs and causes stomach irritation and ulcers. As ibuprofen can cause a gastric ulcer if consumed with alcohol it’s side-effects double up. Plus at times it may be associated with bleeding too. So, alcohol should be avoided until and unless the person is under medication.
So, one can consume alcohol after suffering from pericarditis but one should keep in mind excess of anything in long run causes harm. So, be wise while making a decision.
Alcohol even reduces the immunity of the host thus make host susceptible to infection again and again. As pericarditis is caused by bacteria, on decreasing immunity it’s virulence increases and thus host is again prone to get infected. So, as to keep immunity strong, stop alcohol until you are fully recovered from the disease.
Alcohol at this point of time act as a double-edged sword, it may be beneficial at some point of time at it raises HDL and in a small amount provide few benefits, but on the other hand, it may even precipitate angina. So one should be vigilant while consuming alcohol.
As there is no direct connection between alcohol and pericarditis, one can consume it, but keeping in mind all the precautions.
Few studies are undergoing, which are working to find out if there is a direct relationship between alcohol and pericarditis, but till then one should take precaution. Alcohol though socially accepted these days is not consumed following social guidelines. A person consuming alcohol at some point in time will end up with binge drinking that leads to addiction, that is the reason doctors these days do not recommend alcohol consumption to his patients. So, if you really care for your own health, avoid alcohol.
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