Therapy options | Tachycardia after alcohol consumption – Is it dangerous?

Therapy options

If the heart palpitations are only triggered by the consumption of alcohol, it is recommended to reduce or completely avoid the consumption of alcohol. Since wine or alcohol products containing wine in particular can trigger tachycardia within the scope of a histamine intolerance, it is recommended to avoid them completely. If the tachycardia is based on physical causes (e.g. hyperthyroidism), it is recommended to treat the underlying disease first. In most cases, this already causes the symptoms to disappear. If the treatment is unsuccessful, beta-blockers such as metoprolol can be prescribed.

How long does the tachycardia last?

Cardiac arrhythmias after drinking alcohol are by and large dependent on two things. One is how much alcohol has been consumed and the other is how “susceptible” the person is in itself to the development of cardiac arrhythmias. As a rule, the palpitations disappear around the time when sobriety returns.

Thus, the metabolic performance of the liver is another factor that influences the time of the palpitations. Not every person develops cardiac arrhythmia when drinking alcohol. However, if one assumes that the body can break down between 0.1 and 0.15 per thousand of alcohol per hour and that the palpitations end when sobriety is reached, one can roughly calculate the duration for the respective blood alcohol content.