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In a paper scheduled to be published August 1 in the American Journal of Cardiology , the UCSF researchers report that people with atrial fibrillationhad almost a four and a half times greater chance of having anepisode if they were consuming alcohol than if they were not. "One of the remaining big unknowns is why or how thishappens," said senior author Gregory Marcus, MD, assistantprofessor of medicine at the UCSF Division of Cardiology. "Ina previous publication, we suggested that there was an effect onthe electrical activity of the atrium that leads to thesearrhythmias but we do need additional studies to prove that." Alcohol and Heart Palpitations In the study, conducted from September 2004 to March 2011, UCSFresearchers interviewed 223 patients with documented cardiacarrhythmia, a term that encompasses both atrial fibrillation andsupraventricular tachycardia (SVT), or rapid heart rate originatingabove the ventricles. Researchers asked patients, "Doesalcohol trigger your heart palpitations?" Participants rankedtheir symptoms on a scale from one to five (i.e. never, rarely,sometimes, frequently, and always). "We defined 'yes' as frequently or always versus the rest ofthe responses," Marcus said, "and found that, afteradjusting for potential confounders, atrial fibrillation patientshad statistically significant greater odds of reporting thatalcohol would trigger their symptoms." Of those patientsinterviewed, 133 reported intermittent or paroxysmal atrialfibrillation, or irregular heart palpitations, when drinking, and90 had SVT, without any atrial fibrillation. After adjusting forvariables, the paroxysmal atrial fibrillation group had a 4.42greater chance of reporting alcohol consumption as an arrhythmiatrigger, compared to the SVT group. Patients' claims of atrialfibrillation were verified by surface electrocardiograms andinvasive cardiac studies. The mean age of the study participants was 59 years. Eighty percentwere Caucasian; 11 percent were Asian; 5 percent Latino, and 4percent declined to state their ethnicity in the atrialfibrillation group. All were referred to and studied at UCSF. "We didn't find any clear associations between age and race asa trigger, but we probably had insufficient number of people in thestudy," Marcus said. Studying the Effects of Alcohol Other studies have suggested that alcohol could help decrease thechance of developing atherosclerosis, which clogs or narrows thearteries. One of the proposed sources of benefit is the antioxidantin red wine called resveratrol, which may help prevent heartdisease by increasing the "good" cholesterol in aperson's body. "There may be some beneficial effects to alcohol, but it'simportant to look at actual heart outcomes, like stroke anddeath," Marcus said. "Keep in mind that we used to thinkestrogen was good for your heart based on observational studies,and now we know that's not exactly true." He says there's insufficient information at this time to recommendany lifestyle changes related to alcohol and heart disease risk.Still he points out that this report and previous reports indicatealcohol can cause cardiomyopathy and worsen hypertension. "If someone has heart palpitations or atrial fibrillation, I'moften asked, 'Can I drink at all?'" Marcus said. "And Idon't know the answer, but it may be that certain people aresusceptible. "The clinical evidence suggests that some people aresusceptible and other people aren't, but if they know that they'resusceptible they should avoid alcohol," he said. Co-authors are Mala Mandyam; Vasanth Vedantham, MD, PhD; MelvinScheinman, MD; Zian Tseng, MD, MAS; Nitish Badhwar, MBBS; ByronLee, MD, MAS; Randall Lee, MD, PhD; Edward Gerstenfeld, MD; andJeffrey Olgin, MD, all of the UCSF Division of Cardiology,Electrophysiology Section. This study was supported by the National Center for ResearchResources, the National Center for Advancing TranslationalSciences, and the Office of the Director, National Institutes ofHealth, through UCSF-CTSI Grant Number TL1 RR024129. Its contentsare solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarilyrepresent the official views of the NIH. I am an expert from laser-stage-light.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Disco Laser Lighting , Animation Laser Lighting, Laser Lighting Effects,and more.
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