For anyone who wants to read in more detail the study that led to the recommendation of no more than two alcohol drinks per week for people with AF. To read the full article you can set up a free account (which gives you to access to three articles a month).
It was interesting to read “a large percentage of patients at screening (491 patients, 70.4%) were not willing to consider abstinence”. I guess it reflects much alcohol is embedded in our society and culture.
I’m just sharing what’s in a credible medical journal by credible researchers. All sorts of things affect AF. Alcohol is one of them. That doesn’t mean everyone is affected but if one is, it’s wise not to drink too much. I enjoy an occasional glass of wine or a cocktail 🍹
I tend to agree with John6, this study is woefully underpowered for an observational study.
I do get concerned that the driving force behind a lot of these studies is an anti-alcohol agenda. Take this study "Frequent drinking is greater risk factor for heart rhythm disorder than binge drinking" which covered 9 million patients:
What it actually shows in that those who drank no alcohol had an 8.6% elevated risk of AF compared with mild drinkers. Even moderate drinkers had a 0.9% lower risk of AF than non-drinkers. All they did in the study was take heavy drinkers, who did have a higher risk of AF, and draw a straight line down to non drinkers and they ignored the J shaped curve which is really there which shows a protective effect from moderate alcohol consumption.
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