Researchers monitored the heart rhythms of over 200 young partygoers using mobile ECG devices, finding that binge drinking often led to arrhythmias.

Summary:

A study conducted by doctors at LMU University Hospital, published in the European Heart Journal, found that binge drinking can cause clinically relevant heart arrhythmias in healthy young adults. The researchers used mobile ECG monitors to track the heart rhythms of over 200 partygoers for 48 hours, discovering that alcohol consumption led to increased heart rates and arrhythmias, especially during the recovery phase. The study highlights the potential dangers of excessive alcohol intake on heart health, even in young, otherwise healthy individuals.

Key Takeaways:

  • Alcohol-Induced Arrhythmia: Over 5% of healthy young participants experienced clinically significant arrhythmias after binge drinking, with most cases occurring during the recovery phase.
  • Heart Rate Increase: Acute alcohol consumption led to a rapid heart rate (over 100 beats per minute) in many participants, reflecting alcohol’s impact on heart rhythm regulation.
  • Prolonged ECG Monitoring: The study used 48-hour ECG monitoring to gain deeper insights into the effects of alcohol on heart health.

In a recent study, doctors at LMU University Hospital took mobile electrocardiogram (ECG) monitors along to parties of young people who had one principal aim: to drink and be merry. 

Yet the science produced by the MunichBREW II study made for sobering reading. It revealed that binge drinking can have a concerning effect on the hearts even of healthy young people in surprisingly many cases, including the development of clinically relevant arrhythmia. 

The results of the study were published in the European Heart Journal.

The team from the Department of Cardiology at LMU University Hospital launched the MunichBREW I study at Munich Oktoberfest in 2015. Back then, the doctors, led by professor Stefan Brunner, MD, and Moritz Sinner, MD, studied the connection between excessive alcohol consumption and cardiac arrhythmias—but only through an electrocardiogram (ECG) snapshot.

Now the scientists wanted to gain a more detailed picture, so they set out with their mobile equipment once again. Their destinations were various small parties attended by young adults with a high likelihood “that many of the partygoers would reach breath alcohol concentrations (BAC) of at least 1.2 grams per kilogram,” says Brunner in a release. 

These were the participants of the MunichBREW II study – the world’s largest investigation to date of acute alcohol consumption and ECG changes in prolonged ECGs spanning several days, according to the researchers.

Hearts Out of Sync – Especially in Recovery Phase

Overall, the researchers evaluated the data of over 200 partygoers who, with peak blood alcohol values of up to 2.5 grams per kilogram, had imbibed quite a few drinks. The ECG devices monitored their cardiac rhythms for a total of 48 hours, with the researchers distinguishing between the baseline (hour 0), the drinking period (hours 1-5), the recovery period (hours 6-19), and two control periods corresponding to 24 hours after the drinking and recovery periods, respectively. 

Acute alcohol intake was monitored by BAC measurements during the drinking period. ECGs were analyzed for heart rate, heart rate variability, atrial fibrillation, and other types of cardiac arrhythmia. Despite the festive mood of the study participants, the quality of the ECGs was almost universally high throughout.

“Clinically relevant arrhythmias were detected in over five percent of otherwise healthy participants,” says Sinner in a release, “and primarily in the recovery phase.” Alcohol intake during the drinking period led to an increasingly rapid pulse of over 100 beats per minute. 

Alcohol, it would seem, can profoundly affect the autonomous regulatory processes of the heart. 

“Our study furnishes, from a cardiological perspective, another negative effect of acute excessive alcohol consumption on health,” says Brunner in a release. Meanwhile, the long-term harmful effects of alcohol-related cardiac arrhythmia on cardiac health remain a subject for further research.

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