I had this today, on New Years. It was not a fun experience. It was downright scary. My heart started racing and beating so hard I could see it through my chest. It continued for hours. I would have been in the emergency room if not for stubborness and a horrible hangover. I truly have learned a lesson and will not be drowning my heart in alcohol again!!! (Ok, maybe a short swim!)
I've been dealing with this for a few years now. After I drink some yet-to-be-defined amount of alcohol, a few hours later, my heart accelerates to between 100 - 120 beats per minute. If it starts before I've fallen asleep, I can't get to sleep and will be up all night. Last night, it wasn't yet racing when I went to bed (around 1:00 a.m.), but I woke up at 5:00 a.m. with it going full tilt. I was finally able to get back to sleep around 9:00 a.m. or so.
I haven't yet figured out if it's all alcohol or just certain types. I can say right now it definitely happens with red wine and good beer.
I have found recently that moderate amounts of alcohol (the equiv of 5 beers or so) will produce "holiday heart" symptoms in me. It was hard to figure out at first however, since in my case, the symptoms never appear immediately after consumption, but only after 30-36 hours. I thought this was weird .. but believe me .. I've repeated this trial several times and the results are always the same .. lol. I have AF even without alcohol consumption (started about 6-7 years ago), but normally this is being controlled by daily doses of Diltiazem.
Thank goodness its being controlled .. as I love to remain very active .. as a skiier and recently climbed the Inca Trail & Machu Picchu.
Any other ideas about treatment of AF would be greatly appreciated.
I am not in the process of determining if I too have holiday heart. I was given a monitor to wear and told to turn it on, on a saturday. I went out friday night and endulged in many jack and cokes to see if it would provoke it. the monitor alerted the cardiologst 5 times so far that my pulse was 160 or that i was in afib. I do have some chest discomfort and scared to death. I hope it passes Guess I was stupid for trying to narrow it down to holidat heart.
just wanted to leave a followup comment.
I've since determined that if I limit my alcohol consumption to 2 drinks or less per day .. I've had no more episodes of HH. Strangely enough, I've also found out that if I have a period of time .. where I know I'm going to be celebrating for a few days in a row .. the HH heart doesn't start until 36 hours after the last day that I indulge in excess of that 2 drink/day limit. One friend said that I should just make sure I keep drinking at least 3 drinks every day .. to avoid the HH .. lol .. but I think thats not a good answer for too many other reasons .. lol
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