Are women more sensitive than men to the toxic effects of alcohol on striated muscle, including the development of cardiomyopathy?
Women appear to be more sensitive than men to the toxic effects of alcohol on striated muscle, developing alcoholic cardiomyopathy at lower lifetime doses.
Despite the fact that the mean lifetime dose of alcohol in female alcoholics was only 60% that in male alcoholics, cardiomyopathy and myopathy were as common in female alcoholics as in male alcoholics. This finding, together with a more pronounced response of the ejection fraction to the dose of ethanol, indicates that women are more sensitive than men to the toxic effects of alcohol on striated muscle.
Á Urbano-Márquez (1995) studied this question.