Can I Drink Alcohol With Myocarditis?

Myocarditis refers to the inflammation of myocardium i.e. the heart muscles. The problem affects the heart muscles adversely and its electrical system. In this way, myocarditis reduces the ability of human heart to pump blood and causes abnormal or rapid heart rhythms i.e. arrhythmias. In most of the cases, myocarditis takes place from a viral infection. However, in some cases, it may takes place due to the reaction of a particular drug and may become a part of any inflammatory condition.

Common signs and symptoms in this case include fatigue, chest pain, breathing shortness and arrhythmias. Along with this, myocarditis in its severe form weakens the heart, because of which your remaining body parts fail to get enough amount of blood, which causes the formation of blood clot in the heart and in turn, heart attack or stroke.

Researchers have demonstrated the direct toxic effect of alcohol consumption and the related metabolite acetaldehyde in humans. Accordingly, they have found alterations in the ultra-structure of mitochondria and dilation of the sarco-plasmatic reticulum after conducting an acute level of alcoholic infusion in the patient’s heart. These changes have correlation with the reduced mitochondrial functions, defects in the protein synthesis and the arrhythmias occurrence.⁽¹⁾

The risk related to the development of alcoholic cardiomyopathy has close relations with both the average daily intake of alcohol and the exact duration of drinking it. However, experts have found relatively higher individual susceptibility towards the toxic effect associated with the alcohol.

Cardiomyopathy develops in most of the patients consuming more than 80grams per day of alcohol consistently for about 5years or even high. In addition, the clinical diagnosis about alcoholic cardiomyopathy highlights the coexistence of globalized myocardial dysfunction in any heavy alcoholic drinker and that to when any other cause associated with myocardial disease does not remain present.

Moreover, studies associated with alcoholic cardiomyopathy highlights many surprising histologic findings in the endomyocardial biopsy in approximately 30 percent of the patients. Accordingly, patients have myocarditis as well as lymphocytic infiltrate related to focal necrosis or myocyte degeneration.⁽¹⁾

Myocarditis also leads to disruption in the network consisting of intermediate filaments and microtubules because of the inflammatory reaction involving both resident cells and systemic cells. Here, resident cells include fibroblasts, myocytes and endothel cells, while systemic cells include lymphocytes, monocytes, macrophages and granulocytes.

Variations in the extracellular matrix and cardiac cytoskeleton affect the contractile function in an adverse way, as the cytoskeleton is responsible to organize both inter-cellular and intra-cellular architectures.

Alcohol abuse in the case of myocarditis patients causes malfunctioning of the immune system. A large numbers of research studies have revealed that heavy alcohol intake/drinking leads to the alteration in the function and production of granulocyte and lymphocyte, which further results in severe harm in the immune system.

Another research study has shown that the myocardial damage due to alcohol abuse initiates varieties of auto-reactive mechanisms as compared to those in case of idiopathic or viral myocarditis.⁽¹⁾

Myrocarditis patients with alcohol abuse often possess poor prognosis. Accordingly, most of the patients experience signs related to biventricular failure, which include lungs edema, hepatomegaly, tachycardia and peripheral edema. However, each of the mentioned symptoms is of nonspecific types as same as electrocardiographic and echocardiographic chances, like ventricular and atrial arrhythmias associated with myocarditis and alcoholic cardiomyopathy.

Based on the aforementioned adverse effects of alcohol intake on myocarditis patients, we should that myocarditis patients should strictly avoid the intake of alcohol to reverse or manage their symptoms.

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