At low concentrations, alcohol acts differently on the right ventricle than on the left ventricle, reports Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
The right ventricle pumps blood to the lungs, the left ventricle pumps oxygenated blood in the lungs to the rest of the organs and the rest of the body. It is known that high and moderate levels of alcohol make it difficult for the heart to work. Scientists from the Cardiologia Univesitaria in Siena, Italy, decided to investigate how the heart cope with low alcohol levels.
Matteo Cameli and his colleagues easily found 64 volunteers (35 men and 29 women) of about twenty. In two separate experiments, these people drank a dose of Italian red wine – equivalent to 5 milliliters per kilogram of body weight – and the same amount of fruit juice. Specialists using an echocardiograph measured the parameters of the heart before the administration of the fluid and an hour later.
As it turned out, a relatively small dose of red wine weakened the function of the left ventricle, but enhanced the function of the right ventricle (PAP).