Alcoholic liver disease (ALD)

The liver is a very resilient organ that has the unique ability to regenerate. Even if it will has a bit of healthy cells, the liver will continue to perform its functions.

However, alcohol can destroy this organ completely in just a few years. The consumption of alcohol leads to alcoholic liver disease (ALD), which ends with cirrhosis of the liver and death.

How alcohol effects the liver?

Almost all the alcohol ingested is metabolized by the liver. It ethyl alcohol is converted first into toxic acetaldehyde, then to a safer acetic acid.

If ethanol enters the liver regularly, the cells involved in its processing, gradually no longer cope with their responsibilities.

Acetaldehyde is accumulated in the liver, poisoning it, and alcohol promotes fat deposition in the liver and death of its cells.

How is ALD?

According to statistics, to guarantee the development of alcoholic liver disease – men need daily take about 70 g of pure ethanol, and women only 20 g for 8-10 years.

So, for female liver critical dose of alcohol is a bottle of light beer a day, and for the male – equivalent of a bottle of wine or three bottles of regular beer.

What increases the risk of developing ALD?

— Frequent consumption of beer and other alcoholic beverages have been associated with increased risk of ALD.

The female body absorbs alcohol slower and therefore more susceptible to ALD development.

— A strict diet or malnutrition – many fans of alcohol do not eat enough.

— Lack of vitamin E and other vitamins due to an unbalanced diet.

First stage: fatty liver disease – steatosis

This disease develops for almost all alcohol lovers. Ethyl alcohol provokes the transformation of fatty acids into fats and their accumulation in the liver.

While steatosis people feel heaviness in the abdomen, pain in the liver area, weakness, nausea, loss of appetite, worse to digest fatty foods.

But often steatosis are asymptomatic, drinkers do not realize that liver begins to break down. If you really stop drinking alcohol at this stage of ALD, hepatic function can recover completely.

Second stage: alcoholic hepatitis

If the influence of alcohol continues, the liver begins inflammation – hepatitis. The liver increases in size and some of its cells die.

The main symptoms of alcoholic hepatitis – abdominal pain, yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes, nausea, chronic fatigue, fever and loss of appetite.

In severe alcoholic hepatitis die up to a quarter of alcohol lovers. But those who just stopped drinking and started treatment may become a part of 10-20% of the cases for whom the recovery of the liver may become.

The third stage: cirrhosis

If inflammatory processes in the liver continue for a long time, they lead to the appearance in it of scar tissue and the gradual loss of operational functions.

At an early stage of cirrhosis, the person will feel weak and tired, he will have skin itching and redness, weight loss, insomnia, and abdominal pain.

Advanced stage of cirrhosis is characterized by hair loss and the appearance of hemorrhages under the skin, swelling, bloody vomiting and diarrhea, jaundice, weight loss and even mental disturbances.

Liver damage from cirrhosis is irreversible, and if they develop further, people die.

Death from cirrhosis – the main cause of death from the effects of alcohol consumption. But giving up alcohol on the early stage of cirrhosis will save the remaining healthy parts of the liver and prolong human life.

How to prevent?

Do not drink alcohol or refuse alcohol as soon as possible.

The most important

Alcoholic liver disease develops with regular use of alcohol. The female body it strikes faster than men. The disease passes through three stages, and for the first two complete rejection of alcohol can reverse the liver damage. The third stage is cirrhosis of the liver – often is deadly for the drinker.

More about ALD watch in the video below:

Alcoholic Liver Disease - For Medical Students

Leave a Reply