The Damage Done by Heavy Drinking Cannot Be Undone

By BuddyT

One of the biggest threats to the health of chronic heavy drinkers is the damage that long-time drinking can do to their liver, which can cause cirrhosis, also known as alcohol liver disease.

Normal liver function is essential to life. The liver performs more than 300 life-saving functions, without which the body's systems will simply shut down. In the United States, cirrhosis is the seventh leading cause of death among young and middle-age adults. Approximately 10,000 to 24,000 deaths from cirrhosis may be attributable to alcohol consumption each year, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Approximately 10 to 35 percent of heavy drinkers develop alcoholic hepatitis, and 10 to 20 percent develop cirrhosis.

Alcohol Attacks the Liver

Usually, alcoholic cirrhosis develops after more than a decade of heavy drinking, but that is not always the case. Due to genetic factors some heavy drinkers can develop cirrhosis much sooner. Some people have livers that are much more sensitive to alcohol.

Likewise, the amount of alcohol that can injure the liver varies greatly from person to person. In women, as few as two to three drinks per day have been linked with cirrhosis and in men, as few as three to four drinks per day. Alcohol attacks the liver by blocking the normal metabolism of protein, fats, and carbohydrates.

A damaged liver cannot remove toxins from the blood, causing them to accumulate in the blood and eventually the brain. There, toxins can dull mental functioning and can cause personality changes, coma, and even death.

Cannot Be Reversed

Loss of liver function affects the body in many ways. One of the well-known symptoms of cirrhosis is jaundice, which causing a yellowing of the skin and eyes. Generally by the time jaundice develops, the liver has been severely damaged.

Liver damage from cirrhosis cannot be reversed, but treatment can stop or delay further progression and reduce complications. If the cirrhosis is caused by long-time heavy drinking, the treatment is simply: abstain from any further alcohol.

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A healthy diet and avoiding alcohol are essential because the body needs all the nutrients it can get, and alcohol will only lead to more liver damage.

The Liver Transplant Option

Doctors can treat other complications caused by the cirrhosis, but the damage done by heavy drinking cannot be undone. When complications cannot be controlled or when the liver becomes so damaged from scarring that it completely stops functioning, a liver transplant may be the only remaining alternative.

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However, most liver transplant providers require patients to be sober -- usually for at least six months -- before receiving a liver transplant. This requirement disqualifies many patients suffering from alcohol liver disease.

Even if the patient is sober and a transplant is accomplished, that is still not a 100 percent guaranteed cure. Although survival rates have improved greatly for liver transplant patients in recent years, 10 to 20 percent do not survive the transplant surgery.

Learn more about Effects of Alcohol.