Fast Heart Rate After Drinking Alcohol

is anybody here on any medications at all OR stopped any recently? Meds can cause these problems when drinking.

I used to be able to drink 20-30 drinks in a day and had no problems. My hangovers weren't even that bad really. I was on trial low dose thyroid medicine for several months for hypothyroidism awhile back because I was having some skin problems. I later figured out I had celiac disease and gluten intolerance. I'm 33, overweight and a light smoker. I didn't have problems with rapid heart rate until several months after I stopped taking thyroid medicine and started my gluten free diet. Lately I get totally blasted off just a few drinks and suffer very high BPM at night. Scares the bejebuz out of me. Also after a couple drinks it seems I have some heart palpatations. Been to the doc and they say my heart is good. It seems to help if drink more (8-10 drinks) but I get really drunk and hungover the next day. I found drinking half a gallon of water and stopping drinking early helps. I really don't drink as much as I use to so my social life really stinks. Oh yeah, my liver tests good too. I'm trying to quit smoking to see if that helps.

I to have a resting heart most mournings of 67 to 70 but when I drink rum n coke the night before my heart rate has shot up to 130 in the mourning but when I don,t drink I cant get my heart up to 130 even after thirty minutes on the bike at the gym,,,,go figure,,,I say to others don,t drink to much and try exercise for stress instead of alcohol,,,,,

I am a 27 year old man and also feel very relieved to find other people with the same problems. My issues began at 25 before which i seemingly didn't have a care in the world but it all began after a silly night taking a herbal ecstacy, drinking and smoking. My heart was pounding out of my chest and i could not sleep etc. I had also just broken up with my girlfriend of the time and could not stop thinking about that coupled with a relatively stressfull job. Since then i have stopped taking drugs, smoking, have a lovely girlfriend and a less stressful job. Am i still woken up in the middle of the night with palpatations after drinking? Yes, and i find sitting up in bed, re-hydrating and controlling my breathing helps. I do find it very difficult to get back to sleep and it is only really until later the following day that i begin feeling normal. This is obviously after having a few good meals and keeping myslef well watered. I find that i really don't enjoy nights out anymore and hold back on my consumption in the full knowledge of what will happen in the middle of the night. I'm at the point with it where i just think the whole thing is very irritating and boring. My problem also isn't exclusive to alcohol and i experience chest pain when stressed at work plus my heart can beat very hard at any level of confrontation. I can also experience pins and needles in my left arm and back pain again on the left hand side (which panics me more as isn't this heart attack territory?). I went to the doctor who took my blood pressure + did a physical examination and could not see any issue. I also went into a walk in centre after an episode at work but by the time i was seen to and rigged up to the ECG they also could see no issue. All said it could probably be panic attacks, anxiety. On the 2nd visit to the doctor he went down the whole acid production in the stomach route which one of you also commented on and i was prescribed some useless tablet. On the third visit to the doctor he had no answers for me and i ended up promting him into blood tests, the results of which were clear although they revealed a slight concern on my liver to which he asked me to cut down on my binge drinking weekends. After this i have not returned to the doctor as i feel like a hypocondriact. Reading your comments does put me at ease though and i will try some of your helpful tips.

I am glad other people have the same issue!
I am a 36 year old male, overweight but I do exercise a fair bit and have lost about 20kg over the past 2.5 years.
I used to be able to have 15-20 drinks in a binge session when I was younger with no ill affects, but wouldn't do that anymore. and would now only drink once every few weeks.
About 12 months ago I started having the heart rate issue which first occurred after I had drunk about 10 beers at a party. I usually stop drinking about 1-2 hours before I go to bed and drink lots of water so that I don't wake up feeling like crap. On the night in question I went to bed a little bit drunk, then woke up at about 3am with my heart going at double rate!! I also started to panic thinking that I was having a heart attack!! After about 30 minutes it went away, and about 30 minutes after that I fell asleep.
I woke up in the morning and felt fine. I didn't drink again for about a month, and was fine, as I had only had about 3 beers that time. I then went off alcohol for 2 months as I was working out a lot and was trying to get fit. Each time since then that I have drunk more than 5 beers, I wake up after a few hours with this double rate heart beat. I have tried different types of alcohol, drunk plenty of water, tried to go to bed sober and it still happens. I hadn't been to the doctor about it, but 2 weeks ago, during an episode, I decided to get up and go to the toilet(normally I lay there not moving until it goes away) , and whilst in the bathroom, felt very dizzy, passed out and split my head open on the side of the shower. I then decided that I should visit the doctor, who got me to do an ecg, and blood test. All of the tests came back fine and I have normal blood pressure. She has suggested I wear a "holter monitor" for 24 hours and that I go drinking to replicate the problem, and I will do that in the next few weeks.
If I work out at the gym, my heart rate stays very steady throughout a half hour workout on the cross trainer.
The only medication I take is Nexium which helps with my reflux ( I have GORD).
I have wondered whether or not it is low blood pressure causing this issue?? After I passed out in the bathroom, I woke up and my heart beat was back to normal, something that would take 30 minutes if I was laying in bed, on either my back, or my side.

Hey
I also suffer from this problem. I am a healthy 20 year old who recently started getting very high pulse rates and pounding heart beat after only 1 drink. Champagne triggers it the worst! white wine and vodka don't cause such heavy pounding but still speed it up. so annoying:-( I do suffer from SVT attacks ( very very high pulse rate like 240 beats per minute) these attackes are random and I go to the emergency with these. The alcohol related high pulse rate is very different to these atfacks though.. and they only make it go up to about 120/130. it's so scary and i want it to stop!

I'm 29/female/108lbs at 5ft1". For the past 10yrs, I've binged drink maybe 2x a week to once in 3 months, varies. Then I became an alcoholic at 26yrs old for 1 & 1/2yr because of a huge relapse of social anxiety. Pulled chest/stomach muscles because I had horrible neck tension & stress.. When I started noticing shooting chest pains, doctor had thought it may be an acid problem. I know it wasn't though. The shooting chest pains only came from thinking an emotion, and I didn't have to move my body to feel it. The doctor also suggested (stresstabs, advanced..they are over the counter vitamins). Cardiologist said Ekg & thyroid tests came back ok. I decided to take some over the counter herbs for my heart, and it caused liver pain. Doctor ran tests and my liver was ok. He told me to eat more protein plus the vitamins. I cut back on the drinking, because of the heart pain, liver reaction to the herbs, head sinus soreness next to my ears, and vertigo at times.

My dad's side has early heart attack history, grandfather died in early 30s, and cousin died at 32 right after I had my EKG done which freaked me out more. Dad takes high blood pressure medicine plus was diagnosed with electrical short, not sure what you call that.
In the last couple years from becoming a hermit and laying around my computer for hours, I've noticed my blood circulation has become bad. I had gained 30lbs, and was eating lots of junk food/sugar, getting no physical activity.
About 1 year ago is when I cut my drinking down to about 2x in one month, and then a little over half a year ago I cut it down to once a month or once in 2 months. I also went on a diet one year ago, where I started eating mostly salads/fruits/anything natural (sometimes I cheat). I started exercising an hour everyday (sometimes I go 2weeks no workout but overall I stick with daily). I've lost 22lbs in the last year. I guess I never had been a huge coffee drinker until the last year, but I noticed sometimes it can cause me irregular heart thuds. I never had very many asthma reactions, but the last couple years I guess, had some asthma to things I'm allergic to, and when that happens my heart rate increases/pounds, less oxygen circulating plus dizziness.

It's been about 1month since my last drink, tonight I only had 2 & 1/2 shots of premium vodka with natural cranberry juice, plus 1/2 an anxiety pill (I have a backup of anxiety pills if needed on rare occasion but I don't take pills for anything else ever). Before I drank I had a salad with meat with one cup of coffee. While drinking that vodka, I had 3 cups of water. Two hours later I was done drinking, no more liquor. I had some salty junkfood, plus some chocolate and littlle soda. I was just relaxing in bed, and noticed I was a little warm, when I sat up the heart rate was horrible. Resting heart rate of 100 beats per minute. Never have I measured more than 85 as a resting heart rate, (which 85 was probably due to having an energy drink plus feeling stressed). Normally as of lately my resting heart rate is usually 73 (2 weeks ago my blood pressure was 126/86). It gets around 100 only when almost doing an aerobic exercise. Anyways.. freaked me out a bit to see myself having a resting heart rate of 100 tonight. It wasn't anxiety related, I know what a panic attack is after 12yrs of studying myself and every thing related to how I react to social situations and stress. So I had already had 3 cups of water when drinking the liquor, but decided maybe the food caused more dehydration and drank a couple coups of water slowly.. when I laid down my heart rate decreased to 86. 30 mins later I had a stresstab vitamin, 30mins even later my heart rate was down to 76.

Anyways. I would say that part of the heart rate was due to drinking coffee and having some candy/soda. Some was obviously due to drinking, bc my heart almost never acts like that unless: #1 I drink liquor, #2 wayy too much coffee, or #3 am having an asthma attack. I think laying down helps reduce the heart rate. Last month when I drank, I binged that time having about 12shots, the next day when I got up to use the restroom my heart almost popped out of my chest. So laying down & resting after drinking is best.. I know you shouldn't sleep right away after drinking, but at least lay down when the alcohol is wearing off.. or during a hangover. I've noticed red wine is the worst to cause hangovers and dehydration, esp. the cheap stuff. I realize hangovers and blood pressure problems/heart related problems usually get worse as you get older. The dehydration has gotten worse too as I get older. These stresstabs I took tonight, are very high in thiamin (667%) daily value (good for cardiac) also contains other things useful for those who drink. I've also noticed just how much being inactive can increase the risk for blood clots and bad blood pressure. And I've noticed how sleep helps immensely to repair any damage previously done. When I don't get enough sleep after a night of a 14 shots of liquor binge drink, the next couple days it seems my body does not want to get rid of the hangover..I can have it for 2-3 days. When I was having shooting chest pains two yrs ago sleep was very important then too.. if I didn't get enough each night the chest pains were much worse. I get heart flutters when I drink more than 2 cups of coffee a day, I try to cut back on caffeine overall. I think anyone that drinks more than recommended, and starts to notice heart or liver problems, should get tests done. That's about all I have.

I'm no expert. I just drink a lot and this happens to me. In good shape/competitive athlete.

My theory is that since alcohol thins the blood pumping through your body, the heart pumpsit at a higher rate than usual.

Seems to make since to me.

I only need 1 drink to get my heart going. I'll have a beer with dinner and when I go to bed my heart is pounding like it wants to break out of my chest. It doesn't necessarily beats faster, but it sure beats harder, it's a very STRONG hear beat.

I'm 32, in good health/shape, exercise regularly, and there are no heart problems in my family history.

This all started 2 years ago and hasn't stopped since. I got some tests done (EKG, ultrasound, stress test) and all was fine. My doctor said that I'm too young to worry about heart problems. But I'm afraid my heart will "age" faster because of this.

I rarely drink anymore, maybe once every 2-3 months. I didn't use to drink a lot anyway, maybe once every other week when I went out with friends, or a beer with dinner over the weekend. It sucks that I can't even enjoy that anymore.

When I brought it up with my girlfriends they all laughed at me because I was worrying about it. They said it's normal and it happens to everybody. They obviously haven't had my experience. I've had my boyfriend feel my heart when it happens and he worries too.

The only solution I can seem to find right now is not to drink, but that solution sucks! I'm not saying I want to go on a bender, I just want a beer with dinner on Friday night.

The Christmas season is upon us and I've had to choose at which parties I'll allow myself a few drinks. I'll try taking some magnesium supplements and see if it helps, and I'll post back after the "selected" parties to let you all know if it made any difference for me.

Until then, Happy Holidays and safe drinking.

i have this issue as well. im a 25 yr old female. . slightly overweight..but mostly healthy overall besides issues with anxiety. i do suffer from acid reflux, but only take tums for it. i also get pounding heart with just caffeine sometimes, and then somtimes for no reason at all. like most of you, i use to drink anything i wanted with little to no consequences. within the last year i have started waking up about 3 hours after drinking w/a pounding heart. i notice that getting up out of bed and walking makes it much worse, and that controlling your breathing does help a good amount. eating before bed also makes it worse. i also noticed that it usually doesn't last longer than a half hour, and goes away as quickly as it comes. i feel at ease knowing i am not the only one experiencing this!!!!