Binge drinking could trigger abnormal heart rhythms

Conclusion This cross-sectional study found binge drinking is associated with an increased risk of having an irregular heartbeat. However, the type of irregular heartbeat found was mainly sinus tachycardia, which isn't life threatening but involves the heart beating at an abnormally fast rate of over 100 heartbeats a minute. This research also has some notable limitations: The ECG recordings from the acute alcohol group were taken using a smartphone application operated outside the manufacturer's recommended environment. The lively atmosphere within the beer tent may have caused inaccurate recordings. The population recruited from Oktoberfest was varied in ethnic origin and only 69% were from Germany – it may not be appropriate to compare them with the KORA community population, where more than 99.5% were of German descent. The volunteers in the acute alcohol group were self-selected and might not be representative of the average binge drinker in terms of potential confounding factors like health background. They also provided details of their age, sex, heart disease history and use of heart medications, which may not be accurate because of recall bias and alcohol consumption. But the main limitation is the study design – cross-sectional studies cannot prove cause and effect.  These findings do not prove there is a significant link between alcohol and dangerous heart arrhythmias, but the researchers did find less serious heart irregularities. To reduce...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news