Published in NEJM Jan 2.
3 salient points:
- The “drinkers” had 10 drinks per week – less than 2 drinks per day. What we usually refer to as “social drinking” 🙂
- Quitting alcohol reduced chances of recurrence of AFIB by 20% (absolute risk reduction) – or 55% relative risk reduction. This is HUGE!
- Getting patients with AF to abstain from alcohol is challenging – 697 patients were approached to participate in the trial but only 176 agreed and 140 actually enrolled. This may be because a) these were the patients who actually figured out before the trial that alcohol was a trigger for their AFIB. b) Giving up alcohol is really difficult. Not all patients may benefit.
If this piques your interest, here is a well done JACC review article. It states: “On the basis of the current review, we did not find a safe level of daily alcohol intake in patients with a history of AF; however, this recommendation is on the basis of observational and nonrandomized studies.”