KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Cheers to basketball, but your body may not actually be celebrating the beer that often goes along with the games.
Friday, it was all about having fun with some adult beverages in the Power and Light District before the Men’s Big 12 Championship Tournament tips off.
“It’s fun to get to know the other team’s fans. Drink some beers and have some fun,” Abby Lara, basketball fan said.
The green beer will begin flowing over the weekend at the Snake Saturday Parade and into next week with St. Patrick’s Day.
“People tend to overindulge in alcohol, which often can lead to heart problems. So ethanol, alcohol in the drinks that we consume, is actually a toxin to the heart,” Dr. James O’Keefe, cardiologist at the Mid America Art Institute at St. Luke’s, said.
Add salty foods into the mix and it can lead to a condition doctors call “holiday heart.”
“The most common thing is rapid heart rate, and you can feel people feel pounding. And when a lot of times pounding the heart can be experienced with a normal heart rate,” Dr. Charlie Porter, Cardiologist at The University of Kansas Health System, said.
Holiday heart can also lead to more long-term heart issues, according to doctors. It can even happen in people who don’t have a history of heart disease.
“So I’m not going to tell anybody the week before St. Patrick’s Day to stop drinking. But if you’re trying to think about whether another drink would be a good idea, it probably isn’t. Although I know, nobody’s nobody’s meeting at the salad bar on St. Patrick’s Day, it’s the Bar and Grill,” Porter said.
They said you may want to consider alternating beverages. For every beer ordered follow it up with a glass of water.
