Even young healthy people are at risk Too much alcohol can lead to cardiac arrhythmia
Alcohol is a cell poison - and can damage various organs. The heart can also be affected, even in young, fit people. This is confirmed by a new Munich study.
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- Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to cardiac arrhythmia, according to a new study.
- The researchers analyzed data from more than 200 young men and women who regularly go out.
- Long-term harmful effects are now to be researched further.
Scientists have long warned that excessive alcohol consumption can damage the heart. A new Munich study now shows that excessive drinking can also have a serious effect on the heart in young, healthy people. Cardiac arrhythmias were discovered in several partygoers.
"Clinically relevant arrhythmias occurred in over five per cent of the otherwise healthy participants, predominantly during the recovery phase," says Moritz Sinner from the research team at the Medical Clinic and Polyclinic I of the LMU Hospital, summarizing the results. "From a cardiological point of view, our study provides another negative effect of acute excessive alcohol consumption on health."
The researchers analyzed data from more than 200 young men and women who regularly went out to consume multiple alcoholic beverages. During the study, they had peak blood alcohol levels of up to 2.5 per mille. The results of the MunichBREW II study were published in the "European Heart Journal".
The heart rhythm of the study participants was monitored by ECG for 48 hours. The researchers differentiated between the baseline value before drinking, the drinking phase and the recovery phase. There were also two control phases. The alcohol intake during the drinking phase led to an increasingly rapid pulse rate of more than 100 beats per minute.
Long-term risks remain unclear
The researchers conclude that alcohol can have a profound effect on the processes of the heart. The long-term harmful effects of alcohol-induced arrhythmias on heart health remain the subject of further research.
The team from the LMU Medical Clinic and Polyclinic I launched the MunichBREW-I study at the Munich Oktoberfest back in 2015. At that time, the doctors led by Sinner and Stefan Brunner had already linked excessive alcohol consumption to cardiac arrhythmia - but only examined a snapshot in the electrocardiogram (ECG).
Other research has also shown negative effects on the heart. A study published a few years ago by the University Heart and Vascular Center at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) showed that even regularly consumed small amounts of alcohol can trigger atrial fibrillation - even in healthy people without pre-existing conditions.
