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Heart rate day after drinking alcohol

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I am a data geek so I like tracking the HR data from my Fitbit.  I am an runner and I log my average heartrate during my runs as well as my resting heart rate for that day to get a % HR number.  It lets me know how hard I am working.

 

One thing I did notice about my resting heart rate is that it would elevate 1 - 3 bpm for the day after drinking alcohol (for me usually a couple of glasses of wine) the night before.  The HR would stay slightly elevated for a day or two, then drop back down again.

 

Has anyone else noticed a casual correlation between resting heart rate and low to moderate alcohol consumption?

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254 REPLIES 254
Appreciate what you are saying. And I'm not telling anyone what to do. I've now come down to 63 and stayed there. Alcohol doesn't agree with my specific body and I'm healthier for stopping. I'm known to enjoy the little things in life.

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Appreciate what you are saying. And I'm not telling anyone what to do. I've now come down to 63 and stayed there. Alcohol doesn't agree with my specific body and I'm healthier for stopping. I'm known to enjoy the little things in life.

Sent from my iPhone
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I did a power hour last night, drank 8 cans of busch light in an hour. I threw up on my 45th shot, but just went right back into it (60 shots total). It was the first time I was more in pain than having fun while drunk, but when i woke up in the morning I was very faint and my heart was racing. Just all day my heart has been beating much faster than usual, it's almost 3 am I can't go to sleep. I didn't drink anymore after those 8 beers, I had 2 before that but I did throw up 2 more times after that. My hands were also shaking pretty bad, but that may have just been from smoking, although I only smoked 2 or 3 cigarettes.

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It's interesting that I am seeing the exact same effect! Not that it surprises me now but there isn't a lot of information on how even moderate drinking effects RHR except here. So I am in good shape for 41 and excites regularly all indicators show good health even my RHR was in "normal" range. What I noticed is that for the amount excercise my work out partners all had considerably lower RHR (mine was 77-80 theirs 59-62) I increased my workout intensity which had no affect on my RHR. I drink 1-3 Vodka cocktails a day basically every day but hardly ever overindulge. After reading this forum I decided to cut out the alcohol to see what happens. In 5 days my RHR has dropped every day and is now at 70bpm!!! That got my attention!!! Even my max and adv are consistently lower.  So I'm off the sauce so to speak untill it levels out and then try and add back in and see what happens. I'm anxious to see if the occasional drink increases or if it is the consistent daily use that increases my RHR. Either way my life style has changed due to Fitbit and your postings! Thanks! 

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I actually came here to write about the same thing. My RHR will jump up to 4-5 points if I drink heavily and then fall about a point each day after that. If I drink lightly, say a couple of glasses both Friday and Saturday, the same will happen. My RHR may not get alarmingly high, but there's a correlation to how stressed I feel and my RHR. Normally when we think of a hangover, we think of the headache (from dehydration), but the effects can apparently last a good while longer.. at least for me.

 

There are other things to life and happiness than RHR, and having a good time with friends can be important, but while alcohol may help your mind relax (*), is certainly doesn't help my heart relax.

 

(*) I saw a documentary where a sleep scientist recommended people who couldn't fall asleep, because their mind where racing, to have a few glasses of wine. They may help with the immediate problem, but I'm thinking that the extra stress to the body will just make the problem bigger the day after. I would rather recommend breathing exercises.

 

We had a company party on Friday (this is Sunday morning for me) and I had quite a lot to drink. This is my graph... Screenshot_20170521-085826.png

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Hi, I have noticed the same thing in past two weeks. My heartbeat goes high by 2 next day if I drink two glasses of wine but nothing happens with one glass of wine. Weird!

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There is definitely a correlation with wine, especially white wine. I've been on a bender for the last two months while on a business trip to Germany. When I left my RHR was 64. When I got back last Friday it was up to 78. There were some down days but more up ones obviously. I've been back a week and I'm down to 72. All that time in Germany I was still averaging 14K steps per day, but the German food and beer beckoned. I've already lost 4 of the 8 pounds I put on there. I'm still drinking here in the States, but I've cut back to one glass of wine with dinner and one minitini of Tito's Vodka a night. That's enough booze to take the edge off and put me to sleep.

 

I think that a lot of it has to do with the sugars in the wine. I think that helps get the heart racing at night. I wake up often around 2am and my RHR is 80-84. By 5am it's down to 60 or less. A couple of tricks to get the RHR down at night is to slow your breathing, I get it down to about 4 deep breaths a minute. Lying on your stomach in bed will get your HR up slightly more than lying on your back. Also, I have found a direct connection between RHR and gas and bloating. If I sit up in bed and burp once or twice and lay back down and fart once or twice the RHR will drop by as much as 10 points. Funny but true!

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I've had my Fitbit blaze for 5 months and I'm amazed at the effect drinking has on my RHR and my blood pressure!

And according to Fitbit, the RHR is an AVERAGE calculated by an algorithm that isn't designed for short dramatic increases in RHR. So after a night of drinking, where my heart rate is 80-85 all night (59-65 without drinking) the Fitbit RHR only increases by 2-3 point increments per day, when in fact it's more like 15-20 per day in my case. The inverse is also the case when I quit drinking, it takes several days in increments of 2-3 per day, for my Fitbit to adjust, even though my graph shows my RHR sitting around 60 to 64 bpm a few nights after no drinking. So it's not a real 2-3 beats increase in RHR .....it's much more in a very short time frame! I'm glad I know this, because now I'm much more aware of the potential damage this could be doing over the long term!!

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You're well within safe ranges of heart rate, buddy. There's negligible
"damage" done to the heart. Stressing out over your body's responses will
only increase your cortisone levels, which is far more damaging in the long
run.
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This is something I have observed for a year or so now. If I go two weeks without drinking any alcohol at all, my resting heart rate can drop by 20 beats or so. When I partake in drinking alcohol, it depends how much I drink and over how many days, but even having a single glass of wine will bump me up a few beats and last a few days. If I drink moderately over two days during a weekend, that's where the jump up 20 comes and then it falls off each day.

 

Haven't noticed any connection with how I feel during those times, but I have noticed I can make the impact of this less and duration less by exercising on the day before alcohol or on the days after.

 

I also have water weight fluctuations with alcohol, as much as 3-4kg (in plus) for a few days. This is again something which is more quickly remedied or mitigated by a strong cardio session. Likely this is all connected somehow.

 

Probably something I will need to keep an eye on in later life.

 

 

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I have noticed that my resting heart rate increases the night after drinking alcohol 


@MarathonChris wrote:

I am a data geek so I like tracking the HR data from my Fitbit.  I am an runner and I log my average heartrate during my runs as well as my resting heart rate for that day to get a % HR number.  It lets me know how hard I am working.

 

One thing I did notice about my resting heart rate is that it would elevate 1 - 3 bpm for the day after drinking alcohol (for me usually a couple of glasses of wine) the night before.  The HR would stay slightly elevated for a day or two, then drop back down again.

 

Has anyone else noticed a casual correlation between resting heart rate and low to moderate alcohol consumption?


 

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I notice the same thing after having a drink; my resting heart rate goes up from 47/48 to about 49/50 after one night of drinking, and if I keep at it nightly will go as high as 56 after a solid week or more of drinking a few drinks each night. It goes down a couple BPM each night of not drinking. I should say I am an athlete; hence the fairly low RHR.

 

I observed recently that when I had a drink or two with dinner between 5pm and 6pm, and not after 9pm as I usually do, that this phenomenon did not occur; my RHR was unaffected by a couple drinks.

 

But there is a confounding factor in this study. Frequently I snack while I am drinking in the evenings (and I do not snack when I don't drink), and I wonder if it is the nighttime digestion process that may be raising my heart rate, and not the alcohol per se. Because why would "time of drink" affect the RHR calculation? If I have drinks in the evening and the RHR goes up, but have the same drinks during the day and it does not go up ... doesn't make sense to me.

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It also has to do with the type of drink you are drinking. I have found that wine affects my RHR a lot more than liquor. If I have a glass or three with and after dinner the RHR will rise, but if I don not have wine and instead have a martini or gin & tonic the RHR will either stay the same or even decline. As far as the timing of the drinks, it may be that because you are an athlete that your heart recovers quicker than most peoples. What you eat can also trigger a spike, especially if you are eating badly while drinking.
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Very interesting I think I will put it to the test

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I agree with you. If I drink early in evening and I am limited to 1-2 servings it does not impact resting HR.

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I have found the same thing - a few glasses of wine and my resting heart rate is up a few points. A bigger concern was coffee. I am a super active person and I could not get my resting heart beat below 60. I started drinking less coffee (I love it and drank about 6 cups a day!) and I went right down to 56, after reducing to one cup a day.

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My heart rate right now is 103. I’m severely hung over.  I have physical every year and a EKG. My heart is normal.  Your cardiovascular system is smarter than any fit bit. 

Drink up! 

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@MrPompous wrote:

My heart rate right now is 103. I’m severely hung over.  I have physical every year and a EKG. My heart is normal.  Your cardiovascular system is smarter than any fit bit. 

Drink up! 


What do you call normal?

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0 Votes

RHR 64 ish . After a weekend of drinking 70 ish.

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@MrPompous wrote:

RHR 64 ish . After a weekend of drinking 70 ish.


So where did that reading of 103 BPM come from?

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