Acute Alcohol Consumption Increases Risk for Atrial Fibrillation

THE BEAT GOES ON… –

Jan. 25, 2022 – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say about 12 million people in the US have AF, and that AF contributes to about 158,000 deaths in the US per year.

Based on breathalyzer data for 36,158 deidentified individuals, researchers identified 8 holidays or recurrent national events during which users consumed more alcohol than normal. The researchers then reviewed records of emergency department visits coded to a diagnosis of AF between January 1, 2005, and December 30, 2015, according to California’s Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.

The researchers found “was a significantly elevated number of hospital visits for AF when all those empirically identified events were compared to all other days of the year,” according to a news release. The greatest association between alcohol consumption and hospital visits for AF was observed among those over the age of 65.

Senior study author Gregory Marcus, MD, MAS, a professor of medicine at UCSF and associate chief of cardiology for research at UCSF Health, said the findings also indicate many new cases of AF are triggered specifically by acute alcohol consumption.

“This may be kind of a wake-up call for those individuals who have an identifiable trigger for their atrial fibrillation, who we might presume would be more highly motivated to avoid alcohol consumption and subsequently to experience a lowering of their atrial fibrillation risk,” Dr Marcus said in the release.