Alcoholic heart disease

Alcohol has been suspected for many years of being a cause of heart disease. For a while its role was obscured by its association with beriberi heart disease and, more recently, by the toxic effect of cobalt in beer. Experimental studies, however, have provided convincing evidence of the primary role of alcohol itself. The mode of action is still in dispute. In the absence of specific findings, the diagnosis is made chiefly by exclusion of other known causes of heart disease and by a history of excessive alcohol intake over a number of years. The usual methods of treatment for the manifestations of heart failure, arrhythmias, and thromboembolic phenomena are important, but total abstinence from alcohol is the single essential factor. The sooner this is instituted, the better is the chance of interrupting the otherwise inexorable course to death.