A drink or two may tickle the taste buds and help you relax. But for your heart rhythm, it’s another matter.

New research shows just one serving of beer, wine or liquor doubles the odds of atrial fibrillation — which is a rapid, irregular heartbeat — within four hours. For those having two or more drinks in one sitting, the risk of atrial fibrillation, or AFib, more than triples.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, uncovered the link between alcohol and AFib by placing an alcohol sensor on 100 study participants’ ankles. The devices passively detected when multiple drinks were consumed. A heart monitor was used to track cardiac activity.

After repeated measurements from the same individuals, researchers discovered that more than half of the participants had an atrial fibrillation episode during the four-week study.

The research sheds a new and objective light on what patients have told the researchers anecdotally for some time — that alcohol is a trigger for AFib. It is the first study to demonstrate the real-time relationship between alcohol consumption and irregular heartbeat. The findings were presented at the American College of Cardiology’s annual Scientific Session.

It also complicates conventional wisdom and prior observational research showing that moderate consumption of certain types of alcohol can benefit the heart. But the researchers noted those findings relate to heart attacks and heart disease.

The general recommendation for maximum alcohol consumption is one serving a day for women and two for men. For those looking to avoid an irregular heartbeat issue, the researchers suggest strictly minimizing alcohol — or even eliminating it altogether.