People who frequently drink alcohol, and drink a lot of it, seem to be more prone to a problem called a heart-rhythm disturbance atrial fibrillation than those who abstain.
The researchers, from the University of Tsukuba Institute of Clinical Medicine in Ibaraki, Japan, built on the already-established knowledge that a drinking binge can trigger the condition, dubbed AF for short.
Heavy Drinking Abnormal Heart Rhythm
What hadn't been clear was whether or not people's drinking habits may factor in to atrial fibrillation, which causes the upper chambers of the heart to contract erratically and wildly rather than at their normal pace and rhythm.
The paper's authors analyzed 14 prior studies and saw that those who drank the most were more likely to develop AF than people who drank lightly or not at all. In fact, heavy drinkers had a 51 percent higher likelihood of suffering from AF than infrequent drinkers and teetotalers.
In all, the chance of AF rose about 8 percent for each additional 10 grams of alcohol a person consumed a day, according to the team.
Heavy Drinking Abnormal Heart Rhythm
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