Alcohol and your liver explained
Written by:
Hepatologist
Published: 11/06/2019
Edited by: Cal Murphy
It is no secret that alcohol and liver disease go hand in hand. Drinking too much is associated with liver cirrhosis (scarring), liver failure and even liver cancer. What you might not know is how alcohol damages the liver, how much is “too much”, and if the damage can be reversed. Leading hepatologist Professor Roger Williams CBE answers all these questions and more.
How does alcohol damage the liver? What occurs on a molecular or cellular level?
Alcohol is directly damaging to the cells of the liver due to a breakdown product in the liver known as acetaldehyde and there is a cut-off level of 14 units of alcohol a week (the equivalent of six glasses of wine or six pints of beer or 14 single shots of a spirit) at which this becomes significant.
Is all alcohol intake damaging, or do you need to have a certain “threshold” of alcohol consumption at a time?
Below the level of 14 units of alcohol a week, the risk of liver damage is relatively minimal. What is not well known by the public is that there is an increased risk of cancer development with excess alcohol consumption, particularly of the common cancers, which are namely breast cancer in females and colon cancer in males. There is also an increased risk with harmful drinking of developing hypertension and cardiac disease, and in the elderly this is a major route to dementia.
Is the damage reversible?
Stopping excess drinking or reducing the level of drinking does enable the liver to recover to some extent, even at late stages of the condition. This should be better known to encourage a person to do so.
A good way of cutting down on alcohol consumption is to have several drink-free days each week and the safest way of drinking is with a meal.
Binge drinking is a particularly harmful activity and should be avoided at all costs.
Are some people more susceptible to liver damage than others? Why?
Though drinkers tend to blame the genes they have inherited, genetic influences play only a small part in susceptibility to alcohol.
Visit Professor Williams’s Top Doctors profile to book an appointment.