Increased and hard heart rate

[PhindiSoul]

Hi everyone, I’m wondering if there’s anyone going through what I go through. Everytime after consuming alcohol, at night I get an increased heart heat but furthermore, my heart beats very hard. This only happens after I have consumed alcohol, what could be the issue?

[Hidden]

Hi there,I would talk to your gp and get advice. It could be a lot of things so best to get it checked out

[PhindiSoul in reply to Hidden]

I went about a month ago and got my heart’s condition and BP checked but my GP could not detect anything out of the ordinary. So me coming on this platform is somehow tying to see if this condition is unique to me or there may be someone else experiencing the same thing

[BrezelMan47 in reply to PhindiSoul]

Hi. I'm new to this heart problem lark, and so most things are a learning curve. I stopped drinking alcohol on 27th April (not that I drank much before), partly to help get the weight down, and subsequently because of medication. Last Saturday we went out for our 1st meal since last year, and I had 1.5 pints (A real treat) of beer.

Result = Head felt like it was about to lift off for Mars, and next morning bad AF, and for the rest of the day. It would seem there is a connection, so interested to hear about your experiences. Amazing how these little pleasures in life are slowly being erroded away!

[gilreid1]

There is a very simple solution. Don’t drink alcohol

Stay safe

Gil

[PhindiSoul in reply to gilreid1]

Wow!🤣

[Hidden]

Alcohol is well known to be able to trigger palpitations and raise heart rate. Palpitations aren’t necessarily anything bad, as a word it literally just means the sensation of feeling your heart beating where usually we’re mostly unaware of it. When/if you feel your heart beating after exercising or a major scare, those are also palpitations. Nothing sinister, just being aware of it. I don’t drink these days due to meds I take that don’t agree with alcohol, but back when I did, it was 50/50 whether or not I’d get quite forceful palpitations, even if I only had a single pint, so any decision to have a drink was taken with that in mind and often meant I didn’t bother. However, if you’re a frequent drinker, even just one or two drinks a day, a binge drinker (which is anyone drinking more than 6 units at one time), or a heavy drinker, this has now been shown to increase the risk of developing arrhythmias, particularly conditions like atrial fibrillation, and alcohol does have an overall negative impact on the heart.

[PhindiSoul in reply to Hidden]

Thank you, this is helpful, it worries me because I’m not a heavy consumer at all, I could go a full two weeks without a drop of alcohol, but once I do take about 3 pints and fall asleep, I’m awoken by these palpitations then I panic. Thank you once more for this valuable information, I’ll make further research in this🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

[Hidden in reply to PhindiSoul]

So, depending on what you’re drinking, you are actually verging into binge drinking territory according to the current advice. To reduce the risk of health problems, including heart issues, the guidance now is that both men and women should drink no more than 14 units a week, spread over at least 3 days, which equates to 4.5 units per session of drinking. Lagers like carling and fosters are around 2.3 units a pint, whereas the stronger ones like Stella and Peroni are the equivalent of 3 units a pint. Most stouts and ales are in the same sort of range of 2.3 to 3 units per pint, but 3 pints of any of them would be between 7.1 and 9 units. Some people seem to become more sensitive to alcohol - I do have an underlying arrhythmia, but I’ve had that for 12 years, and it’s only been in the last 3 or 4 that I’ve experienced palpitations associated with having a drink, either at the time of drinking or waking me up later. Anyway, glad it helped.

[PhindiSoul in reply to Hidden]

Thank you so much 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

[Smileyian in reply to Hidden]

Charlie is correct.

[Joliv61]

I think the answer is in your question. I also found my resting heartrate increased at night after a few drinks. This would stay elevated for a few days too. Without alcohol my resting heartrate at night is in the low to mid 50s; with a few lagers it’s up by about 10 beats per min resting.

There is lots of information regarding the effect of alcohol on heartrate and blood pressure increase available.

The next questions would be regarding the alcohol intake and how often?

If in doubt consult your gp/physician but most importantly be honest regarding your alcohol intake, we all tend to underestimate this.

Best wishes J.

[JK5AEO]

Alcohol certainly affects my heart rate and blood pressure. After my heart attack, I didn't drink alcohol for a year. I then slowly reintroduced alcohol in a controlled way, and logged intake against heart rate and BP, ( I made a spreadsheet to keep the data). I was able to document exactly how alcohol affected me which meant I knew how to consume it safely.

I had an AF 6 months ago, so went through the same monitoring and logging process.

What I have found helpful is lengthening the period of consumption; friends find it amusing that I can now make a pint of ale last 4 to 5 hours. But the serious side of this is that slow consumption certainly reduces the cardiac reaction, which has meant I don't have to exclude alcohol from my diet, just be aware of how I consume it.

I have found that sudden shocks to my body, in any form, affect my heart to a point where AF could be triggered. It's not just the obvious thing like running for a bus, but also food and drink intake - slow sips, and considered mouthfuls seem to be kinder to my heart.

After a health emergency there is a great temptation to panic. I have known people who have radically changed their diet and lifestyle, only to find that they did it so suddenly that they were doomed to failure. The wasted gym membership, the exclusion diet regimes.

I have found that measured, intelligent, informed changes in diet and lifestyle are much more effective than suddenly becoming a teetotal vegetarian.

[PhindiSoul in reply to JK5AEO]

You are absolutely right about this, thank you 🙏🏾

[Petercat1]

Don't drink alcohol then as obviously stimulating your heart

[HM24]

I developed pounding heart beat that I become very aware of, particularly after glass of wine. It is due to raise in blood pressure. Next time it happens record your BP and you will notice it's much higher. I experience the same when I have appointment with Cardiolgist and BP shoots up.I now enjoy some really nice zero alcohol drinks, there are so many available and really quite pleasant.