RICHMOND, Va. -- As you gather with friends and family to celebrate over the holiday and ring in the New Year, if those celebrations include alcohol health experts urge people to be aware of "Holiday Heart Syndrome" (HHS).
"It really describes a heart rhythm response to binge drinking," said UVA Health Cardiologist Dr. Pam Mason of the syndrome first described nearly 50 years ago. "It was described that basically with that excessive alcohol consumption, patients with develop arrhythmias and the most common arrhythmia that folks will develop is atrial fibrillation."
Mason said binge drinking is generally defined as more than five drinks for men and more than four drinks for women.
"We also are aware that around the holidays, everyone's also consuming more caffeine, more sugar, just kind of indulging more. And all of those things are implicated in heart rhythm abnormalities as well. But, for Holiday Heart Syndrome, alcohol is really the major culprit."
Mason said while many people may develop atrial fibrillation in their lifetime, even young people who have no other heart problems can develop HHS.
"We'll even sometimes see this in college students who have gone out for a night of partying and will come into the emergency department with atrial fibrillation," said Mason. "[For atrial fibrillation,] the most common symptom is palpitations. People will feel like their heart is racing, they oftentimes will have associated shortness of breath or dizziness. Sometimes, patients will even have chest discomfort which is, of course, quite frightening for patients who don't know what they're dealing with."
Mason said if you develop these symptoms, seek medical treatment.
Among the concerns of HHS, Mason said they do not want anyone's heart beating in the 150-200 beats per minute range for long periods of time and if people have atrial fibrillation for more than two days, there is a risk of stroke.
"With regards to long term development of atrial fibrillation, there's actually a lot of really, really good data that shows that controlling blood pressure, diabetes, treating sleep apnea, exercising, maintaining a good weight are all associated with reduced amount of atrial fibrillation," said Mason. "And that's true whether patients true choose to use medications or have procedures for their atrial fibrillation. Good lifestyle management has been definitively shown to reduce the episodes of atrial fibrillation."
Meanwhile, on the topic of general heart health, Mason said she also encourages people to get trained in basic CPR and can do so through the American Red Cross or the American Heart Association.
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