With the four-day Chuseok holiday running from the 24th through the 27th, doctors are warning of acute arrhythmia brought on by binge drinking during the holiday period. Even healthy people with no history of heart disease can develop "holiday heart syndrome" if they drink far more than usual over a short span. Acute arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation can lead to fatal complications, including stroke.
The arrhythmia team at Samsung Medical Center said on the 24th that anyone who experiences palpitations, chest tightness or dizziness for no clear reason after overeating or drinking should consider the possibility of acute arrhythmia. Unlike the fatigue, lethargy and indigestion typical of ordinary holiday stress, holiday heart syndrome caused by binge drinking can directly affect the cardiovascular system, the team said.
Holiday heart syndrome is a clinical condition in which arrhythmia develops in a person with no prior heart disease after consuming larger-than-usual amounts of alcohol over a short period, such as a weekend or a holiday break. It was first reported in an American cardiology journal in 1978. When a research team at the University of Munich in Germany measured smartphone-based electrocardiograms and alcohol intake among 3,028 Oktoberfest attendees in 2017, 30.5% showed cardiac arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation. That suggests short-term binge drinking can have an immediate effect on heart rhythm.
Doctors point to three main ways binge drinking triggers arrhythmia. First, alcohol and its metabolite acetaldehyde disrupt the autonomic nervous system, suppressing the parasympathetic nervous system while overstimulating the sympathetic nervous system and raising the heart's electrical instability. Alcohol's diuretic effect also depletes potassium and magnesium, which are needed for a normal heartbeat. On top of that, acute alcohol exposure can temporarily weaken the mechanical contraction of the left atrium.
Binge drinking is a common pattern in South Korea as well. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's Community Health Survey, 33.7% of Korean adults binge drink at least once a month. Binge drinking is defined as consuming seven or more drinks for men and five or more for women in a single sitting. The rate of high-risk drinking, defined as binge drinking two or more times a week, stands at 12%.
Cardiovascular emergencies in the days right after a holiday also warrant caution. According to a Korean study published in JAMA Network Open in March 2026, out-of-hospital cardiac arrests on the first weekday after a holiday averaged 88 cases, 9% more than the 80 cases on an ordinary weekday. The risk rose by as much as 10% immediately after longer breaks of two to four days or more.
Typical warning signs of arrhythmia include a pounding chest with a sense of an irregular pulse, and a squeezing or crushing pressure at the base of the breastbone or across the chest. Cardiovascular disease should also be considered when chest pain radiates to the left arm, jaw or teeth, or comes with shortness of breath, cold sweats, dizziness or a feeling of impending fainting.
Kim Ju-won, a professor of cardiology at Samsung Medical Center, offered a way to check the pulse at the wrist when arrhythmia is suspected. "Turn your palm upward, place the index, middle and ring fingers of the other hand on the outer side of the wrist, count the beats for 10 seconds and multiply by six to get your beats per minute," the professor said. "If your pulse at rest falls outside the normal range of 60 to 100 beats per minute, or the intervals between beats are irregular, you may have an arrhythmia." The professor added that using the electrocardiogram feature built into a smartwatch is another option.
Park Kyoung-min, a professor of cardiology at Samsung Medical Center, said: "Palpitations may be nothing more than a symptom, but they should not be taken lightly if you have been drinking heavily. If symptoms last more than 10 minutes, you should visit a medical institution for an accurate diagnosis and treatment."
