Consult your healthcare provider if you have any of these symptoms. Even if you don’t have heart disease, they may be signs of a problem. Addiction Resource is an educational platform for sharing and disseminating information about addiction and substance abuse recovery centers. Addiction Resource is not a healthcare provider, nor does it claim to offer sound medical advice to anyone. Addiction Resource does not favor or support any specific recovery center, nor do we claim to ensure the quality, validity, or effectiveness of any particular treatment center.

Management and Treatment

Alcohol abuse has a toxic effect on many of your organs, including the heart. The toxicity of alcohol damages and weakens the heart muscle over time. When it can’t pump out enough blood, the heart starts to expand to hold the extra blood.

Clinical manifestations and diagnosis of alcohol-induced cardiomyopathy

Your provider is the best source of information and guidance, and they can connect you to other resources that can help and experts who can assist. Alcohol-induced cardiomyopathy, especially when more severe, leads to deadly problems like heart attack, stroke or heart failure. Individuals with this condition who don’t stop https://ecosoberhouse.com/ drinking heavily are at the greatest risk. Between 40% to 80% of people who continue to drink heavily will not survive more than 10 years after receiving this diagnosis. Alcohol has toxic effects, but your body can limit the damage and break alcohol down into non-toxic forms if you don’t drink too much too quickly.

Is this condition only a chronic (long-term) problem?

• According to research done in 2018, 27.7 people of people hospitalized due to alcoholic cardiomyopathy die within two to six years after hospitalization.
• This article will take a closer look at the types of cardiomyopathy, as well as the symptoms, causes, and treatment.
• A long history of alcohol misuse may likely result in a diagnosis of ACM.
• That is especially true if you have any kind of condition that affects how your body processes alcohol.

The cardiomyopathy disorders cause changes that weaken or alter the function of the heart muscle. The type of disease you have also affects your treatment and outlook. A treatment alcoholic cardiomyopathy is especially dangerous because center will attempt to verify your health insurance benefits and/or necessary authorizations on your behalf. Please note, this is only a quote of benefits and/or authorization.

• Clinical Review BoardAll Healthwise education is reviewed by a team that includes physicians, nurses, advanced practitioners, registered dieticians, and other healthcare professionals.
• Alcohol in excessive quantities has a directly toxic effect on heart muscle cells.
• However, consistent heavy drinking strains those protective processes — especially in your liver — making them less effective.
• According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), AUD is a brain disorder that doctors characterize by the inability to stop or control alcohol consumption.
• Even in cases where people can undergo a heart transplant, individuals with a history of alcohol-induced cardiomyopathy are more likely to face other health problems down the road.

If the heart muscles become thinner and weaker, the heart is unable to pump out blood efficiently. As a result, it expands to hold extra blood, further causing the muscles to become fragile. The heart muscles and vessels stop functioning correctly due to the strain and damage.

How common is this condition?

• Your doctor can help you put together an exercise routine that’s safe and effective for you.
• Chest radiographs usually show evidence of cardiac enlargement, pulmonary congestion, and pleural effusions.
• The key diagnostic element is the absence of coronary artery disease.

What to expect from your doctor

• The first and most important diagnosis to rule out is coronary artery disease.
• It’s important to check with your doctor and engage in a regular exercise program that’s not too taxing but gets you moving every day.
• Taking the proper medications can drastically alter and improve the prognosis of cardiomyopathy.
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