Study: drinking in one gulp of alcohol increases the risk of heart attack
Two liters of beer in one sitting break the heartbeat and increase the risk of developing heart failure and heart attack, scientists have found. The study they conducted during the festival “Oktoberfest” in Munich in 2015. The results were published in the European Heart journal.
A distinctive feature of the festival is the abundance of beer tents, Munich where brewers sell special beer with an alcohol content of 5.8−6.3 per cent. The festival is annually visited by around six million people, the number of beer sold also millions liters.
For 16 days the festival scientists watched 3028 his visitors and revealed a pronounced correlation between the complaints of irregular heartbeat in people who have no history of heart problems, and the amount of beer they drank in one gulp. The average age of participants was 34 years, 30% were women.
Analysis of collected data showed that each gram of alcohol per kilogram of blood increased the risk of arrhythmia in 75%.
Three grams of alcohol per kilogram of blood is equivalent to drinking five liters of beer.
Using a breathalyzer and portable devices for removing kardiogramm, the researchers found that every third visitor of the Oktoberfest is suffering from arrhythmia, although among the total population it is observed in only 4%. More than a quarter of cases had sinus tachycardia.
Arrhythmia can lead to fibrillation, which in the long run increases the risk of heart failure and heart attack.
The team compared the results with data on alcohol consumption by the General population and found that people, occasionally consuming small amounts of alcohol, suffer from heart problems much less those who use large quantities in one sitting.
Among 4131 moderate drinkers participant arrhythmia was observed in only 2.7 percent.
Sinus tachycardia is 0.4%.
“We were not able to directly demonstrate that atrial fibrillation occurs after alcohol consumption, however, we found very strong and consistent Association with sinus tachycardia, and violations of the natural variation in heart rate during the respiratory cycle, the researchers write.
It should be noted that during the study, scientists were somewhat limited — so, they were not able to collect data about the visitors of the festival with strong alcoholic intoxication, in addition, were not considered physical activity.
The team plans to continue researching the effects of alcohol abuse on the heart. In particular, researchers are going for a longer period of time to observe the participants of the experiment: arrhythmias, detected during the festival, likely to have been temporary and gone once the participants sober up. A longer observation will reveal what effect these episodes of alcohol use have in the long term. Also they are interested in how you will behave in the human body, is already experiencing heart problems.