Why does alcohol make your heart beat faster, make you out of breath and sometimes blush?
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Alcohol makes your blood vessels dilate (they get wider so the area through which blood can travel is larger). This answers 2 of the parts of your question. It means that the blood vessels take up more space, so blood vessels close to the skin get even closer to the skin, giving off some heat to the local area and maybe giving you rosie cheeks.
Blood vessels dilating means that there is less pressure within each blood vessel to keep the blood flowing. So your blood pressure decreases. In order to compensate, your heart has to beat harder and faster to return your blood pressure to normal.
Interestingly though if you continue to drink more alcohol, it will actually cause your blood vessels to constrict again.
Not sure about making you out of breath though.
As a depressant in some people it relaxes the smooth muscle around the capillaries that causes the blushing and a warm feeling ( and is the root of the avalanche rescue dog with the bottle of liquor on its collar to keep you warm… but it actually makes you lose heat faster) the drop in blood pressure causes the increasing breath and pulse.
Sometimes the blushing is an inability to metabolize alcohol
>[Asian Flushing Syndrome](https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03497442) (AFS) is a genetic disease affecting approximately 70% of patients of East Asian descent characterized by severe flushing with minimal ethanol consumption. This reaction is cosmetically unattractive and socially limiting.
The flushing isn’t just ‘red skin’ there’s some bumpy dermatitis involved to. People other than asians can get it as well.
Also on heart beating faster: when you drink, your brain releases cortisol to counteract the depressant of the alcohol. Cortisol is a stimulant. Your body always wants to stay at homeostasis so with any depressant your body will release “upper” chemicals to even it out. If you keep drinking you essentially are borrowing against the future as more cortisol and stimulants are released.
That’s why if you’re hungover you often will feel horrible anxiety, because the alcohol has worn off but the stimulants are still active unless you drink again, causing the anxiety feelings.
This general idea is also why alcoholics quitting cold turkey can be super dangerous and can cause seizures or delerium tremens (“the shakes”). The only way to stop it is either drinking more or medications to balance out the stimulants.
Alcohol literally kills anything you dip in it.
Alcohol kills biological life.
Your cells are biological life. So are you.
It’s due to our inability to metabolise the alcohol. Our being predominantly in Asians. This causes a build up of the chemical which causes the above-mentioned symptoms. It also increases the chances of developing oesophageal cancer. It’s basically the body telling you that you’re allergic to the alcohol.
It sucks that the drinking culture is so prevalent, but I literally feel like my head is going to explode from the throbbing after one shot, hence why I don’t drink.
You did not say how fast your heart beats but alcohol can trigger bouts of PSVT and/or AF. Both can make you feel a little out of breath. Best to find an alcohol free alternative if that is happening. Look up “holiday heart syndrome”. Alcohol can also trigger panic attacks in some people. Could also be that.
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