Treatment for Liver Afflictions
If you have fatty liver, or alcoholic hepatitis, which is not severe, you need to stop drinking.
In case of severe hepatitis, intensive care treatment may be needed. The condition is potentially fatal.
In cases of cirrhosis, again, it’s quitting that works. Cirrhosis that is not too advanced will not progress if you stop drinking. A liver transplant would be needed in serious cases.
If the load on the liver is more than it can handle, the stage is set for problems.
Effects of Excessive Drinking
Years of excessive drinking creates toxicity in the liver. The strain of continuous drinking ultimately leads to alcoholic liver disease.
As per researchers, the risk is maximum for people who started drinking early, at age 15 or less. Daily drinking can exacerbate the condition with time. This is not to say weekly bingers are safe. They are also prone to alcoholic liver disease.
In fact, excessive drinking can lead to three kinds of liver conditions. These include cirrhosis, fatty liver, and hepatitis. To make matters worse, any or all of these conditions can occur at the same time in the same person.
Alcoholic Hepatitis
Hepatitis means inflammation of the liver. It can range from mild to severe. Mild hepatitis may not cause symptoms and the only indication may be an abnormal level of liver enzymes in the blood. This can be detected by a blood test.
In severe cases, the affected person may feel sick, suffer from jaundice, and feel out of sorts. There may also be pain in the liver. In some cases, hepatitis becomes chronic, which can gradually damage the liver and cause cirrhosis.
Alcoholic hepatitis can even lead to liver failure. Some of the other disorders caused by alcoholic hepatitis are deep jaundice, coma, blood clotting, disorientation and bleeding in the guts.
Fatty Liver
The condition is caused by build-up of fat in the liver cells of regular heavy drinkers. In itself, fatty liver is not serious and does not cause symptoms.
The condition is reversible if one stops drinking heavily. However, in some people, fatty liver progresses into hepatitis.
Alcoholic Cirrhosis
Normal liver tissue is replaced by scar tissue (fibrosis
). The scar tissue affects normal structure and re-growth of liver cells, eventually causing cells to become damaged and die.
In the condition, which takes time to develop, the liver gradually loses its ability to function well. Scar tissue can also affect blood flow through the liver.
Cirrhosis can lead to end-stage liver disease. However, in the early stages of this condition, there are often no symptoms.
According to a U.K. study, binge drinking may be less harmful to the liver than daily, long-term drinking. However, although binge drinking may be relatively safer, minimizing alcohol consumption is the best option. The safe limit for men is 21 units of alcohol per week.
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