Alcohol and Fast Heart Rate

[d07581]

I'm a 40 year old female who is very healthy and works out on a regular basis 5-6 times a week.  I drink socially which isn't that often, maybe once a month.  Over the past 2 years when I have more then 3 drinks, four hours (on the dot) my heart races and I can't get it back to normal (which I do so by taking 1/2 a Xanax (.25 mg) - which I know isn't good for you.  It doesn't matter if it's when I'm awake or asleep.  If I'm asleep it actually will wake me up.  Note that I have the drinks over a period of several hours and even the amount of time doesn't matter, it seems to be the number of drinks.  I've tried different things...beer, wine, hard liquor, but it happens with all of them.  I did have a sonogram done on my heart last year since every now and again my heart feels like it skips a beat....everything checked out perfectly normal.

I've talked to 2 doctors, who both looked at me weird and told me that I just shouldn't drink...but what kind of answer is that?  I should at least be able to know what's causing it and if it's something I should be worried about.

Any recommendations on where I go from here?

[d07581]

so what can you do about it?  and why after all these years is it happening...never did before?

[deedle1976]

Alcohol is a vasodilator which means it causes your blood vessels to widen resulting in a drop in blood pressure. In order to counteract this and ensure that your body gets an adequate supply of blood the heart rate increases.