Alcohol, AFib, and Women: A Hazardous Mix?

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Hello. This is Dr JoAnn Manson, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. I'd like to talk with you about a recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine that provides the most compelling evidence to date that alcohol consumption is causally related to atrial fibrillation (AF), and that by reducing or abstaining from alcohol, the burden from AF can be reduced.

Previous epidemiologic studies have shown evidence of a link between alcohol consumption and AF—even a dose-response gradient—but this is the first time that a randomized trial has shown that reducing alcohol consumption can lower the burden of AF.

This randomized trial was conducted in Australia. It was a small trial—only 140 participants—and all had to have at least two prior episodes of AF (either paroxysmal or persistent) and had to be in normal sinus rhythm at baseline, receiving rhythm-control therapy. About one third were post ablation therapy. They also had to have a moderate to high alcohol consumption. On average, they had about 17 drinks per week or a little more than two drinks per day. They had to agree to be randomized to modify their alcohol consumption.