alcohol intake and heart disease

[sandy102]

i was recently was diagnosed with left ventricular hypertrophy and diastolic dysfunction. i don't have high blood pressure per say , my diastolic has been 88-90 intermittently recently. i do drink alcohol generally once a week, 3-4 drinks while out to dinner with friends. could that amount of alcohol produce these changes in my heart?
literature i've read suggest heavy drinking of alcohol on a daily basis will cause this? i am female  5'5 180 lbs

[NTB]

well, a recent report says that the CV damage from alcohol comes from acetaldehyde, which is a breakdown product of alcohol. You can take lots of vit C periodically when consuming alcohol.

But weight loss probably would help more, especially by reducing your BP.

Besides, isn't alcohol cardiomyopathy of the dilated rather than hypertrophic kind?

[kenkeith]

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a genetic disorder that causes a chaotic growth of heart muscle cells within the ventricles. The disordered, thickened (or hypertrophic) heart muscle can lead to problems pumping sufficient blood to the body’s organs (systole malfunction),... but your diagnosis is a diastole dysfunction and that refers to the fact that thickened ventricles have become stiff, making it more difficult for the ventricles to fill with blood due to a crowding out effect.

Also heart muscle thickness may cause blood to "back up" into the lungs, causing shortness of breath – usually with exertion.

Alcohol can cause cardiomyopathy. I don't believe you have alcohol cardiomyopathy causing DD unless you have a genetic predisposition.  Alcohol acts as a powerful toxin to heart muscle, directly damaging cardiac cells. Alcoholic cardiomyopathy can be seen after as few as five years of excessive alcohol intake (3 or more drinks daily).

Did you have the more reliable echocardiogram rather than just an EKG to determine heart wall dimensions and has systolic functionality calculated?