A link exists between acute alcohol consumption and cardiac arrhythmias, particularly sinus tachycardia, a study published in European Heart Journal suggests.
For the study, German researchers examined smartphone-based electrocardiogram and alcohol consumption measurements from more than 3,000 voluntary participants at the 2015 Munich Octoberfest.
Researchers said participants' mean blood alcohol concentration was 0.85 g/kg. That is approximately equal to a U.S. BAC of 0.09 percent, according to NPR.
The study found cardiac arrhythmias, or abnormal heart rhythms, occurred in 30.5 percent of participants, while sinus tachycardia occurred in 25.9 percent. Researchers found 5.4 percent exhibited "other arrhythmia subtypes."
The study also found "breath alcohol concentration was significantly associated with cardiac arrhythmias overall and sinus tachycardia in particular," and that "respiratory sinus arrhythmia measuring autonomic tone was significantly reduced under the influence of alcohol."
"The more you drink, the more prominent the findings are. So it's probably not a problem if you go drink a beer or two. But if you exaggerate it, it's certainly not healthy anymore," Moritz Sinner, MD, one of the study's authors and an assistant professor of medicine at University Hospital Munich, told NPR.