How does alcoholic cardiomyopathy affect my body?

How does alcoholic cardiomyopathy affect my body?

Alcoholic cardiomyopathy is a type of dilated cardiomyopathy, which is when your heart’s shape changes because its muscles are stretching too much. As the muscles stretch more and more, they also weaken. The effect is much like how a rubber band or spring weakens when stretched too much.

The muscles that control the lower chambers of your heart, the left and right ventricle, are especially prone to this kind of stretching. These chambers are important as they do the majority of the work of your heart, with the right ventricle pumping blood to your lungs and the left ventricle pumping blood to your entire body. Weakening in the muscles around the ventricles means they can’t pump as hard, which negatively affects your entire body.

Changes in your heart’s shape can also disrupt that organ’s electrical system. An electrical current travels through your entire heart with every heartbeat, causing each part of the heart to squeeze in a specific sequence. Your heart’s shape is part of how that timing works, and when parts of your heart stretch, it can disrupt that timing. If it takes too long — even by tiny fractions of a second— that delay can cause your heart to beat out of sync (a problem called dyssynchrony). Similarly, alcohol can have a toxic effect on your heart and cause scar tissue to form. That scar tissue can also cause potentially life-threatening arrhythmias (irregular heart rhythms).