Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-2025

Department

Department of Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology

Abstract

Evening binge alcohol consumption contributes to sleep disruption and autonomic dysregulation that persists into the following morning. However, its impact on morning-after arterial stiffness and aortic wave reflection remains unknown. Using a randomized, crossover, fluid-controlled design, we hypothesized that heart rate (HR), carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV), aortic augmentation index (AIx), and aortic pulsatile load (APL) would be increased acutely after binge drinking at night (study 1) and the morning-after binge drinking (study 2). Participants (n=33, 18 females, 15 males, age 25±1 years, BMI: 27±1 kg/m) completed binge alcohol (4-5 drink equivalent) and fluid control protocols. Study 1 examined cardiovascular responses during resting baseline and within 30 minutes of evening alcohol consumption, while study 2 examined cardiovascular responses within 15 minutes of waking the morning-after binge alcohol or fluid control. In Study 1, HR and APL increased after the final dose of alcohol (p< 0.001) but decreased with fluid control. In Study 2, morning HR (63±2 vs. 57±1 beats/min, p< 0.001), APL (2060±82 vs. 1857±66 a.u., p=0.012) and AIx normalized to 75 beats per minute (AIx@75) (6.5±2.4 vs. 2.9±2.5%, p=0.042) were increased, while unadjusted AIx was unchanged, after binge alcohol compared to fluid control. cfPWV was not altered by binge alcohol acutely (study 1) or the morning-after (study 2). Our results indicate evening binge alcohol consumption elicited acute increases of HR and APL and morning-after increases HR, APL, and AIx@75. These findings highlight physiological mechanisms that might contribute to well-documented associations between binge alcohol consumption and heightened cardiovascular risk.

Publisher's Statement

Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpheart.00466.2025

Publication Title

American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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