Binge drinking can increase your risk of developing abnormal heart rhythms, a study has found.
Researchers in Germany based their findings on more than 3000 drinkers attending Munich's annual Octoberfest.
The study published in the European Heart Journal is the first to investigate the link between acute alcohol consumption and cardiac arrhythmias in a large number of people.
Professors Stefan Brunner and Moritz Sinner from the Department of Medicine at the University Hospital Munich say the findings are important because it's thought arrhythmias can sometimes lead to atrial fibrillation (AF).
AF is a serious condition in which the heart beats irregularly and can lead to heart failure and stroke.
Led by Professor Brunner and Sinner, researchers went to the 2015 Munich Octoberfest and enrolled 3,028 voluntary participants into the study over 16 days who had drunk various amounts of alcohol throughout the day, ranging from none to the maximum amount of three grams of alcohol per kilogram of blood.
The average age was 35 and 30 per cent of the participants were female.
Cardiac arrhythmias were detected in 30.5 per cent of the participants.
The prevalence of arrhythmias in the general population is estimated at between one to four per cent.
A quarter of these arrhythmias were sinus tachycardia, where the heart beats at a higher than normal rate.
Concerningly, breath alcohol concentrations were linked with a significantly increased risk of cardiac arrhythmias.
For each one gram of alcohol per kilogram of blood above zero the likelihood of a cardiac arrhythmia increased by 75 per cent.
"Three grams of alcohol per kilogram of blood reflects a very high alcohol intake, approaching the border of intoxication, and not many people can tolerate it," explained Dr Brunner.
The researchers suspect that the arrhythmias they detected during the Octoberfest were temporary and once the participants had sobered up, their hearts would return to normal.
However, they don't know this as they only conducted the ECGs once while people were drinking.
"This cannot be answered finally by our study and will require further research," said Dr Brunner.
