Atrial septal defect and alcohol

Question

Hello,
My ASD was discovered when I was 16 and at the time of the echo, I asked the doctor if I need to be wary of anything and he told me not to drink an excessive amount of alcohol. I didn't drink at the time so that wasn't a problem but I'm 24 now and have drank an excessive amount of alcohol plenty of times :-X so I was curious if anyone knew why he warned me about that and what effect it could have on my ASD.
I have found that it is excessively easy for me to black out from alcohol and I was wondering if this is also due to my ASD or if that's completely unrelated?

Thanks

slhlovescats · Answer

Yeah, only a few docs can hear mine during an exam too. Most don't hear it. They only found mine because an EKG came back abnormal. Well my sickness always ended up with blackouts. Its not the blackout where someone puts you in the shower and everythings fine, I literally can't wake up. When I was in the hospital, I didn't even know it until the next day. Did you ever get into the Navy? Do you have any other symptoms, shortness of breath, etc. They don't know why I needed my pacemaker but have said its possible that the ASD cuts off some of the electrical signals causing the need for the pacemaker. So just keep on top of it, you really don't want any other problems because of it. How I mentioned it can sometimes close, it can also get worse. Worse case scenario it can lead to heart failure or give you higher chance of having a stroke, even if you're healthy. I'm sure you know all of this so anyway take care, gotta go for now.

willc0de4food · Answer

interestingly, the only reason i ever had an echo was i went to the medi-center to get a physical so that i could play in my soccer game and the random doctor said that he heard a heart murmur. no doctor since has EVER been able to hear it. but i had another echo done almost 2 years ago as i was attempting to join the navy. got a 96 on the asvab, passed the hell out of the rest of the physical but they wanted to know if the murmur still existed and sure enough, it was still there so on that one point they denied me. but the only thing that alcohol has ever done to me was make me black out fairly easily.. i've never felt really sick because of it (unless i was hung over, and for good reason lol)

slhlovescats · Answer

I can't remember the size of mine, I will have to look my records up at home. If I were you, I would go back to doc and have a new echo done because a lot can change in 8 years. It may have even closed on its own. Until you get it checked though, maybe just don't drink excessive amounts at one time and maybe even eat before you drink. I quit drinking any amount of alcohol because for me the sickness wasn't worth it. What happened physically to you for them to do an echo in the first place?  
Keep in touch

willc0de4food · Answer

they said that it wasn't severe enough to need to be fixed and that there was more of a risk going in and fixing it than their was for me to just keep living with it the way it is. i wonder if the size of the hole has anything to do with it? they said mine was medium, ~3mm

slhlovescats · Answer

hi i'm 27 and was diagnosed with asd at 22. i was never told not to drink but like you everytime i did i would get very sick and blackout. once had to be hospitalized, my body temp was at 92 degrees, all of that happen before i knew i had it. they wanted to fix mine but i refused at the time and now i have a pacemaker. do they want to fix yours?