Relations between alcohol consumption, heart rate, and heart rate variability in men.

We have previously reported a strong positive association between average day time and nighttime heart rate measured during 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and usual alcohol intake. Acute alcohol consumption has been previously described to reduce ECG indices of vagal activity, and men who are severely dependent on alcohol have been reported to have significantly lower indices of cardiac vagal nerve activity than normal volunteers. We performed 24 hour ambulatory ECG monitoring and power spectral analysis of heart rate variability in apparently healthy middle aged men to examine the association between alcohol consumption, heart rate, and indices of heart rate variability.