A Boozy Night Out Could Upset Your Heart's Rhythm
By Ernie Mundell HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Oct. 14, 2024 -- Binge drinking at a party or club could feel great when the music's beating, but it's your heart beat that might pay the price.
Researchers in Germany found that 1 in every 20 young Munich revelers developed "clinically relevant arrhythmias" as they got drunk and then recovered from a hard night's drinking.
“Our study furnishes, from a cardiological perspective, another negative effect of acute excessive alcohol consumption on health,” said study lead author Stefan Brunner. He's with the department of cardiology at Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Hospital in Munich.
He and co-author Dr. Moritz Sinner, also of LMU University Hospital, had previously studied alcohol's effect on heart rhythms during Munich's famed OktoberFest in 2015. At that time, they only had a one-time electrocardiogram (ECG) "snapshot" to base their findings on.
This time, the two experts used mobile equipment to track 48 hours' worth of changes in heart rhythms in more than 200 young partygoers before, during and after a night of heavy drinking.
They tracked people headed to parties where high intoxication was likely. They compared ECG results for before (hour 0) during (hours 1 to 5) and after (hours 6 through 19) the parties.
"Despite the festive mood of the study participants, the quality of the ECGs was almost universally high throughout," the researchers noted.
The main result: "Clinically relevant arrhythmias were detected in over five percent of otherwise healthy participants,” Moritz Sinner said.
He noted that these aberrations in heart beat largely occurred in the hours after the drinking bout had ended.
The study confirms alcohol's toxic ability to upset heart rhythms, the researchers said.
Even when participants were actively partying, "alcohol intake during the drinking period led to an increasingly rapid pulse of over 100 beats per minute," the team noted.
As to the longer-term effects of excessive drinking on the heart rhythm, that may be elucidated in future research, the investigators said.
The findings were published Oct. 4 in the European Heart Journal.
Sources
- Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, news release, Oct. 9, 2024
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted October 2024
Read this next
HHS Withdraws Report Linking Alcohol To Higher Cancer Risks
MONDAY, Sept. 8, 2025 — Federal health officials have withdrawn a government report warning that even small amounts of alcohol could raise the risk of cancer and other...
Diet, Exercise Protect Liver Health From Alcohol Damage, Study Says
THURSDAY, Aug. 28, 2025 — Enjoy a pint of beer, a glass of wine or a dram of whiskey? Then make sure you have some healthy eats and a good dose of exercise on the side, a...
Middle-Aged Folks At Risk For Irregular Heartbeat, Especially If They Don't Work Out
THURSDAY, Aug. 28, 2025 — Middle-aged folks who don’t exercise are putting themselves at risk of life-threatening complex heartbeat irregularities, a new study...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.