United States: According to the latest finding, scientists have found a new way to prevent irregular heart rhythms, which is contributed by binge drinking.
More about the news
The binge drinking phenomenon becomes so common on Christmastime that it is now also known as “holiday heart syndrome.”
Moreover, the scientists would also present the findings at an American Heart Association conference in Chicago.
According to Saugat Khanal, the study author and a post-doctoral scholar at Ohio State University, “Around the holidays, opportunities for celebration — often accompanied by heavy drinking — occur during a brief period of time,” as the New York Post reported.
He said, “Unfortunately, this sometimes sends revelers, even those with no previous heart condition, to the hospital with a racing or abnormally beating heart.”
About Atrial fibrillation
As per the experts, Atrial fibrillation or AFib is the most common form of arrhythmia, a scientific name for a heartbeat that is very slow, very fast, or irregular.
These conditions lead to the rising risk of causing stroke or heart failure.
AFib is impacting not less than five million US adults, where almost one-third of new cases are linked to alcohol abuse.
Moreover, repeated binge drinking, defined as an intake of five drinks per hour in men and four drinks in two hours in women, could cause issues such as high blood pressure, liver disease, and a rising risk of cancer and arrhythmias, as the New York Post reported.
What more are the expert team stating?
According to Khanal’s team, a heart-protective molecule might prevent the activation of a stress-induced protein inside the heart, which can lead to AFib.
While conducting experiments, the scientists put an effort into simulating human holiday heart syndrome in mice. They noted the treatment they developed with the molecule Alda-1 lessened the stress protein spike linked to binge drinking and the resulting irregular heartbeats.
Khanal said, “Studies using larger animals will be a future direction to translate our exciting findings into clinical applications,”