Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy

Alcohol reduces both the ejection fraction and overall contractility of the heart, impairing its effectiveness as a pump. Alcohol suppresses the body's anti-apoptosis pathways, causing more heart muscle cells to die than normal with no compensatory regeneration. Alcohol impairs protein synthesis in myocytes, preventing adequate repair and regeneration of heart tissue. Alcoholic cardiomyopathy is a condition in which the heart becomes severely dysfunctional due to chronic alcohol use. Chronic alcohol use causes asymmetric dilation of the heart's four chambers, with one side potentially enlarging more than the other. Asymmetric chamber dilation causes heart valves to fail to close properly, producing murmurs and arrhythmias.