(1) Department of Cardiology, Medisch Spectrum Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.
(2) Department of Pathology and Medical Biology, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
* Corresponding author Email: a.klooster@umcg.nl
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to summarize the relationship of alcohol intake with thiamine deficiency and with heart failure and the manner in which they interact with each other.
Discussion
Moderate alcohol consumption has shown to decrease cardiovascular mortality. However, heavy alcohol consumption is associated with alcoholic cardiomyopathy. Excessive alcohol intake is associated with thiamine deficiency. Moreover, heart failure is also related to thiamine deficiency, and thiamine supplementation has shown to increase left ventricular ejection fraction.
Conclusion
Thiamine deficiency should be further studied in heart failure, and more research is needed to show the effect of thiamine supplementation in heart failure.