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Long-term or heavy alcohol intake can take a toll on your health.
Alcoholic myopathy is an alcohol-induced health condition that causes weakness and dysfunction of the skeletal muscle. It affects the muscle fibers and muscle tissue.
Alcoholic myopathy is otherwise known as alcoholic muscle disease or alcoholic skeletal muscle dysfunction.2 It’s a common condition in people with alcohol addictions.
Myopathy is caused by abnormalities in the functioning or metabolism of the muscles’ cells. Drinking too much alcohol is among many causes of muscle dysfunction or metabolism abnormalities.
Alcoholic myopathy can cause debilitating muscle pain. You’ll also likely experience muscle weakness and other alcohol-related symptoms.4
Alcoholic myopathy is considered a toxic type that can be acute or chronic.2
Acute alcoholic myopathy and chronic alcoholic myopathy are common among people who struggle with binge drinking or alcohol use disorders.3, 4
Between about 0.5 and 2% of people who struggle with alcoholism experience acute alcoholic myopathy. Meanwhile, 200 of the 100,000 of the general population develop chronic alcoholic myopathy.5
Alcoholic myopathy affects the muscles in a few ways:
Alcohol adversely affects your anabolic and catabolic pathways for maintaining muscle mass. It can cause proinflammatory and oxidative milieu in your skeletal muscle, which is the leading cause of alcoholic myopathy.
Over time, this can decrease your muscles’ regenerative capacity. As a result, you lose muscle mass and strength. Losing muscle mass and strength can also lead to other health issues. If you lack the strength to exercise, this can affect your heart, lungs, and more.
It’s important to treat alcoholic myopathy to stop it from leading to even more health problems.
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Alcohol research suggests that alcoholic myopathy is caused by drinking too much or too often. Heavy alcohol use can cause alcoholic myopathy, such as during binge drinking. Prolonged heavy use of alcohol can cause chronic alcoholic myopathy.
Because alcohol use disorder (AUD) affects about 15 to 20 million people in the United States, alcoholic myopathy isn’t uncommon. But there are ways to prevent it from happening to you.
Alcohol can cause myopathy after just a few drinks in one sitting. Drinking even more alcohol, or drinking a lot of alcohol very often, can make alcoholic myopathy even worse.
Over time, such as several weeks to months of regular heavy drinking, chronic alcoholic myopathy can develop.
The symptoms of alcoholic myopathy range in severity, depending on the person and how much or often they drink.
Some common symptoms of alcoholic myopathy in people with alcoholism include the following.2
Another more serious symptom of alcoholic myopathy is cardiomyopathy. Cardiomyopathy is the weakening of the heart muscle, which causes the heart to not function properly.
Some long-term symptoms of alcoholic myopathy include potentially fatal heart problems:
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Treating alcoholic myopathy involves abstaining from alcohol consumption. The only surefire way to make alcoholic myopathy go away is by not drinking anymore.
If you’re struggling with alcohol addiction, quitting isn’t easy. Alcohol withdrawal is real and can even be deadly.
Seek professional help to cut back on or quit drinking alcohol and improve your body’s ability to function how it should.
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Here are some tips to prevent alcoholic myopathy.
Ultimately, the best way to treat alcoholic myopathy is to stop or severely cut back on drinking.
In most cases, you can reverse alcohol myopathy. Reversing acute alcohol myopathy is easier than reversing chronic alcohol myopathy.
Acute alcoholic myopathy tends to resolve within a week or so. Chronic alcoholic myopathy, however, can take weeks or months to go away.
Alcohol myopathy, acute and chronic, is a serious health concern. If you or someone you know is struggling with alcohol abuse or alcoholism, reach out for professional help. You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) try to quit drinking alcohol alone.
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