More than 2 drinks linked to heart risk

BOSTON, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Women who drink more than two alcoholic drinks a day are associated with a higher risk of irregular heart beat, U.S. and Swiss researchers said.

Dr. David Conen of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, in Boston, and colleagues at the University Hospital in Basel, Switzerland, analyzed data involving 34,715 women participating in the Women's Health Study.

The participants were 45 years and older and had no atrial fibrillation at the start of the study and underwent follow-up from 1993 to 2006. Alcohol consumption was assessed via questionnaires.

During a median follow-up of 12.4 years, there were 653 confirmed cases of new atrial fibrillation. Among the women who consumed no alcohol there were 294 events, or 1.9 percent; for women consuming less than one drink per day, there were 284 events, or 1.8 percent; for one to two drinks per day, there were 35 events, or 1.6 percent; and for women consuming two or more drinks per day, there were 40 atrial fibrillation events, or 2.9 percent.

"Alcohol consumption of up to two drinks per day was not associated with an increased risk of incident atrial fibrillation among initially healthy, middle-aged women," the study authors said in a statement. "In contrast, the small group of women who consumed two or more alcoholic beverages per day had a 1.6-fold greater risk for atrial fibrillation relative to non-drinking women."

The findings are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.