A daily alcoholic drink for women or two for men might be good for heart health, compared to drinking more or not drinking at all. But while there is some evidence that drinking in moderation might prevent heart attacks, now a randomized, double-blinded clinical study of 100 heart patients has added a new wrinkle to the contours of the debate over alcohol and heart disease.Â
UC San Francisco researchers found that alcohol has an immediate effect on the heart in patients with atrial fibrillation (AFib), the most common life-threatening heart-rhythm disorder.Â
In the study, published online Jan. 27, 2021, in the
Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Clinical Electrophysiology, electrical properties that drive the muscles of the heart to contract changed immediately in patients who were randomly assigned to an infusion of alcohol maintained at the lower limit of legal intoxication, compared to an equal number of control subjects who instead received a placebo infusion