A new study has shown that excessive drinking can increase a person's chances of heart attack and heart failure.
Previous studies appeared to find that moderate drinking could be good for the heart, but the new research suggests that intake can be deadly.
The NHS estimates that around two million people in England are harmful drinkers, defined as men who drink more than 50 units per week (22 pints) or 35 units for women (three and a half bottles of wine.)
But although it was known that heavy drinking damages the liver, raises high blood pressure, and triggers cancer, there had never been any direct link to heart attack and heart failure.
Researchers at the University of California San Francisco analysed data from 15 million patients who attended hospital between 2004 and 2009, 286,000 of whom had been diagnosed with alcohol abuse.
The found that heavy drinking doubled the chance of suffering an irregular heartbeat, raised the risk of a heart attack by 40 per cent and more than doubled the risk of heart failure.
Charities said that the findings were yet more evidence of the deadly impact of too much alcohol.
