Catrina Slavin was driving to work earlier this year when she suddenly suffered what she feared was a heart attack.
“I was sweating, my heart was pounding, then it seemed to slow down and then it started again,” says the mother of two.
She drove straight to her GP, where initial tests suggested she could indeed be having a heart attack and Catrina, 41, was told to go straight to A&E.
There they performed an ECG (electrocardiogram), which measures the electrical activity of the heart. This ruled out a heart attack, but there was less reassuring news: Catrina had an irregular heart rhythm.
“It had extra beats where they shouldn’t be,” says the podcaster, who lives in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire.
Trying to find out why, and after ruling out underlying heart disease, the consultant asked Catrina if she drank.
“I told him honestly that I used to drink a lot and drink excessively, but I had stopped years ago,” he says. “He said it could still have an impact on my heart rate and I could still be recovering.”
It may seem like an extraordinary result for someone who last consumed an alcoholic beverage in 2021, but drinking can cause temporary and long-term heart rhythm disturbances.
Catrina Slavin was driving to work earlier this year when she suddenly suffered what she feared was a heart attack.
In the case of temporary changes, this is known as “holiday heart syndrome,” an irregular rhythm that can occur after a bout of heavy drinking, usually seen after the holidays.
Rhythm disturbances occur when the heart beats too fast, too slowly, or irregularly, causing palpitations, dizziness, or fatigue. The most common form of irregular heart rhythm is atrial fibrillation (AF), which causes the upper chamber of the heart to “shaken,” resulting in a fast, irregular heartbeat. Irregular heartbeats mean that blood can pool in the heart, allowing a clot to form.
AF occurs more often in older people, as the heart muscle weakens with age. But a new study has shown that heart rhythm disturbances, such as atrial fibrillation, can occur in younger people who do not have a pre-existing heart condition as a result of excessive alcohol consumption.
In the study, 193 volunteers with an average age of 29 wore a portable ECG monitor for 48 hours around the time they went out drinking and in the hours afterward. None of them had heart problems and they typically drank an average of 6.8 drinks per week outside of their ‘binges’.
About 5 percent of participants developed a heart rhythm disturbance primarily in the “recovery period” of 6 to 19 hours after they stopped drinking, according to results published in the European Heart Journal in October.
One participant, a 26-year-old man, had a significant rhythm disturbance lasting one hour, 13 hours after his last drink.
The researchers, from LMU University Hospital in Munich, said their results showed that holiday heart syndrome “should be recognized as a relevant health problem” and called for future studies to analyze “why these changes might be occurring and what they might be.” the consequences.” .
Excessive alcohol consumption creates the perfect storm for a rhythm problem, says Dr Simon Modi, consultant cardiologist and heart rhythm specialist at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital.
Heavy drinking regularly and over time can lead to high blood pressure and long-term weakening of the heart muscle, which also increases the likelihood of developing an irregular heart rhythm.
This is partly because the toxic nature of alcohol has a direct effect on the heart muscle, but is also due to “post-binge dehydration”, along with electrolyte imbalance (loss of potassium and magnesium) due to the diuretic effect. of alcohol (i.e., you urinate more), which can occur during and immediately after the binge,” he adds. “All of these increase the risk of heart rhythm problems, as they can affect the electrical activity of the heart.”
If you drink heavily on a regular basis, over time this can lead to high blood pressure and long-term weakening of the heart muscle, “which also increases the likelihood of AF and therefore heart failure and stroke,” he says. Dr. Modi.
Some people are more at risk of this than others.
“The more conditions you have that predispose you to heart rhythm disturbances, such as diabetes, obesity, a family history of AF, a previous heart attack or damage to the heart muscle, or sleep apnea (where you stop breathing for short periods while you sleep) – More “Smaller amounts of alcohol are likely to affect the heart,” explains Dr. Modi.
The type of drink may also matter.
“A recent large study in Australia suggested that wine and spirits can be consumed at very low levels (less than seven drinks per week) without increased risk, but that any consumption of beer and cider increases the risks of AF.”
Modi says it’s not clear why beer and cider are different. “Maybe beer and cider drinkers report less than wine drinkers.”
The good news is that abstaining from alcohol, or drastically reducing the amount consumed if you are a heavy drinker, “reduces the chance of having more episodes of AF or worsening heart problems, so binge drinking in your 20s may not always lead to arrhythmia in the long term if the habit is stopped,” says Dr. Modi.
Before the episode that left her in the hospital, Catrina had had her heart racing from time to time after binge eating.
“I could always drink more than anyone else and I drank longer,” he says; whether it was wine, vodka or liqueurs. ‘I was the picture of decorum from Monday to Thursday, but then I would fall off the wagon and drink a lot. “I saw it as my weekend treat, but it had a dark side.”
That dark side regularly woke up in the middle of the night with a racing heart.
“I felt palpitations so strong that they woke me up from sleep,” he says. “I was lying there, counting, trying to get my heart rate down. It started happening more and more after a binge.
Things got worse for Catrina during the Covid-19 lockdown.
“Working from home meant that workdays no longer meant anything,” he says, and he started drinking during the week, too.
In September 2021, Catrina woke up in the early hours of the morning with the worst palpitations she had ever had.
“I lay in bed at home praying that I could make it. I thought about my son and daughter, who were only 14 and 15 at the time. What happens if I die? What would happen if they lost their mother? I knew I had to stop drinking completely.
Catrina has not drunk since then. However, three years after resigning, in January of this year, he suffered even worse palpitations while driving to work.
She recalls: “I was already going to the gym, walking and exercising, but the palpitations were exactly the same as when I was hungover all those times before.”
His primary care doctor put a pulse monitor on his finger and watched his heart jump from 130 beats per minute to 40, then 90, then back down.
“The doctor told me to go to the hospital, where a specialist would see me urgently,” says Catrina.
“I asked him if he was having a heart attack and he told me that the tests would confirm it and that I should go as soon as possible.”
At the hospital, the news that he wasn’t having a heart attack “was a huge relief,” he says. “But then the consultant got serious and said I had an ectopic heartbeat – essentially extra beats where they shouldn’t be.”
Excessive drinking can cause lasting damage to the heart, says Dr. Modi. Other factors that can contribute to an altered heart rhythm include stress, diabetes, high blood pressure, and being overweight.
Catrina was given beta blockers, which slow down the heart by blocking the action of hormones such as adrenaline, but two days later she ran back to the hospital because she had severe palpitations and the dose was increased.
Dr Modi says: ‘Treatment for rhythm disorders like AF involves first changing the lifestyle factors that trigger AF, such as stopping drinking, losing weight, eating healthily and exercising.
‘If these measures do not work, then medications may be offered to slow the heart. Some patients may need an ablation operation (in which the part of the tissue that sends the faulty electrical signals that cause the rhythm disturbance is destroyed), as well as blood-thinning medication to reduce the risk of blood clots and strokes.’
Catrina, who has maintained her most recent healthy lifestyle, such as regularly going to the gym, was able to stop beta blockers and a recent ECG showed that her heartbeat had returned to normal. Since then, she started a podcast, Binge with Catrina, a platform she uses to warn others about the cardiac risks associated with drinking.
“I never imagined that my binge eating would cause such problems in the future,” he says. “I feel lucky to be here.”