Is one glass of red wine a day an acceptable amount of alcohol for patients diagnosed with AFib?  Is heavy drinking associated with an increase in AFib intensity or frequency?  Until quite recently, the thinking around AFib was that you either have it or you don’t.  But just as the medical community realized several decades ago that diet/lifestyle and alcohol consumption were important factors in coronary heart disease and MI, we are now seeing research results pointing to alcohol and other lifestyle choices having a causal effect on Afib.  In this episode, I speak with Dr. Gregory Marcus about all things alcohol and AFib.

Dr. Marcus is Associate Chief of Cardiology for Research at UC San Francisco Health. His particular research interests include cardiovascular effects of alcohol and caffeine and other common, modifiable, lifestyle factors. More recently, as one of the leaders of the Health eHeart Study and the NIH-funded Eureka platform, Dr. Marcus' interests have included mobile health technology and leveraging devices, sensors, mobile apps, and the internet to conduct clinical research more efficiently and to understand "real-time" and "real life" effects on patients.

All Things Afib is hosted by me, Dr. Armin Kiankhooy. As a board-certified cardiothoracic surgeon, my focus is on advanced treatments for heart and lung failure and minimally-invasive surgical treatments for atrial fibrillation such as the Hybrid Maze procedure. You can find me on staff at Adventist Health Heart and Vascular Institute in St. Helena California.

Discussion points:

Gregory Marcus– background and research focus

“Holiday Heart” – the anecdotal evidence of cardiac incidents following excess alcohol

DIfficulties of studying alcohol and AFib– self-reporting, etc.

A study of dry vs. wet counties in Texas

What are the numbers– drinks vs. timeline of AFib episodes?

Research found a median 4 hours between consuming alcohol and AFib occurrences

We as surgeons don’t often discuss reducing alcohol after ablation

Any correlation between amount of alcohol and length of AFib incidents?

We hear about moderate consumption (one drink per day) being part of healthy heart/reduction of MI’s and coronary disease– how does that apply to AFib?

We are just now considering lifestyle/diet/alcohol in relation to AFib, the way we looked at it with MI’s and coronary disease 20-30 years ago.

Last words– moderation is always key, and abstinence is probably best

 Resources:

Dr. Gregory Marcus LinkedIn

Dr. Gregory Marcus at UCSF

Dr. Kiankhooy LinkedIn

All Things AFib Website

All Things AFib Twitter

All Things AFib YouTube Channel