New memeber. Hi.

Hi. New to this forum. I live in the uk. 4 yrs ago I went to my local a &e dept with palpitations and erratic heart beats after binge drinking for 2 days at a wedding.
I’m 46 fit and healthy. They put me a an ecg machine and saw the irregular beats had heart scan and everything seeems ok. Had to wear a monitor for 48 hrs but that was fine
The nurse said lone Af
Last week after again drinking heavily for a couple day the irregular beats started and went after about 36 hrs
Should I go back to the doctors or just cut down the alcohol. Do I need medication ?
It’s happened twice in about 4 yrs
Cheers

Well, I think your cause and effect analysis is pretty spot on. Reduce the alcohol and see if symptoms abate. If you do drink, stay hydrated and replenish electrolytes such as magnesium and potassium. There are numerous threads on here discussing just how to do that in detail.

You might want to read up on Holiday Heart Syndrome.

What's your problem - alcohol is not an essential nutrient. You answered your own question. Your choice, i know what i'd choose.

A fellow from Wales posted here 11 or 12 years ago. He had afib after going to the pub with his mates, repeatedly. I suggested not drinking when he went to the pub. He said that was impossible and I didn't understand his culture. My only suggestion after that was to learn to live with it.

I can tell you that much as you enjoy drinking, and don't want to give that up, or at least drinking heavily, afib is a difficult beast. 2 times in 4 years is not a big deal. However the saying is, "afib begets afib." This is because both physical and electrical remodeling happens. This makes it much easier for afib to happen in the future. Meds and ablations, while necessary at times are not the ideal options. In my opinion, you have a good chance of keeping the progression at bay with lifestyle changes. This is an opportunity that, if you pass on it, will likely not reappear. I'm guessing that most who have been in the afib world for a while, that the lifestyle change is much more satisfactory than either ablations or meds (neither of which are guaranteed to work).

George

Excessive alcohol use also confounds both medication and ablation. While many can continue to enjoy alcohol in the wake of successful treatment, abusing it will put you back at square one.

I haven't had a drink in 6 months, and barely any for the 2 years before that. There was a correlation if not 100% causation to afib episodes for me.

I am 3.5 months post what so far has been a successful ablation with Natale. I'd be lying if I said I don't think about an occassional glass of wine or beer but will I ever, I don't really know how to answer that? Many here have differing views from I had the ablation so I could have a normal life and do what I want to you're a complete idiot to have a drop of alcohol.

What I can say is you need to put the heavy drinking and binges behind you for good. For the record lifestyle and meds utimately made no difference, my Afib continued to progress until Natale tamed it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2018 11:11AM by Fibrillator.

I guess mentioning Holiday Heart Syndrome wasn't quite sufficient....

Binge drinking can cause afib even in people who don't have afib. Most likely if you quit binge drinking, it will stop happening. Simple as that.

I've found that I like NSR a whole lot better than I do alcohol. I'll have a small glass of red wine every 5 or 6 weeks. And I respect the dedication of Dr. Natale and his staff to getting me in NSR way too much to spoil by over-indulgence. Yeah, that sounds a little self-righteous, but it's true.

ABpage, do you notice any difference when you have that small occassional glass of wine? Though king of a pointless question I know as we are all different but I am asking anyways.

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Fibrillator
ABpage, do you notice any difference when you have that small occassional glass of wine? Though king of a pointless question I know as we are all different but I am asking anyways.

As you say, we're all different but alcohol in moderation makes no difference to me and never has.

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Fibrillator
ABpage, do you notice any difference when you have that small occassional glass of wine? Though king of a pointless question I know as we are all different but I am asking anyways.

I do not. I’ve been tempted to sort of push it, but the risk/reward isn’t worth it for me. Prior to my ablations, when I drank afib typically presented. I did enjoy beer too. While alcohol is absolutely, unquestionably a trigger, genetics is the cause I think. And I agree, everyone is different.

I do have a couple beers almost every week, Dr. Natale told me that I can do everything but with moderation. I insisted with this question many times and he said one or two beers is fine, just remember to be hydrated. So for me a typical Saturday is to do some exercise in the morning and in the afternoon I normally have one or two beers without any problem at all.

More than one drink seemed to be a trigger when I had afib, but since my one and only ablation 11 years ago, no more afib. I drink one glass of wine every evening, and socially, maybe two glasses of wine and sometimes two beers. Now, I stay hydrated, take magnesium and potassium and alcohol is no longer a problem. I don't know what would happen if I pushed it more, but I have no desire to do it. Two drinks are perfect for me in a social environment.

Thanks everyone. Something to consider, as I was out for my anniversary dinner last night sharing a glass of red wine would have been nice. Like others above, zero desire to push my luck with more than one or two.

I'll probably wait a bit longer, I can already hear Shannon in my ear!

Both of my episodes were also with copious (do I get extra points for that word) amounts of alcohol and I've never had issues with my health outside of the binge episodes. Both situations also had heavy amounts of caffeine (which I never drink). In between these episodes (which was a 9 month time frame) I drank plenty of wine, but always did so with berries, cheese, and water hydrating me the entire time, and I was fine.

So lesson for me seems to be just being smart about it. I'm only 46, but I'm not 22 anymore, so it's high time I stop trying to act like I am.