🍷Your liver can process small amounts of alcohol easily, but heavy drinking can cause damage.
When we drink alcohol, it is absorbed into the bloodstream from the stomach and the intestines.
This blood passes through the liver first before circulating around the rest of your body.
Your liver breaks down alcohol into other chemicals and then water and carbon dioxide, before it is passed out in urine and from your lungs.
However, when you drink too much alcohol, your liver’s other functions are negatively affected.
Too much can lead to three stages of damage:
1. Alcoholic Fatty Liver
This is a build-up of fat that occurs within your liver cells.
It doesn’t necessarily progress to more severe damage and can be reversed by stopping or reducing the amount of alcohol you drink.
2. Alcoholic Hepatitis (inflammation)
Around a third of people with fatty liver will develop alcoholic hepatitis.
When this develops, it may be the first time a person is aware they are damaging their liver with alcohol.
The liver damage associated with mild alcoholic hepatitis is usually reversible if you stop drinking permanently.
Severe alcoholic hepatitis, however, is a serious and life-threatening illness.
3. Cirrhosis
This is a stage of alcohol related liver disease (ARLD) where the liver is significantly scarred.
There may not be obvious symptoms even at this stage.
Generally, it isn’t reversible.
However, stopping drinking alcohol immediately can prevent further damage and significantly increase your life expectancy.
✅Managing The Risk
The most effective way to reverse or prevent alcohol-related liver problems is to cut back on drinking, or stop altogether.
Try to stick to NHS recommended guidelines of no more than 14 units of alcohol a week. Ideally spread across 3 days or more.
That equates to around 6 medium (175ml) glasses of wine, or 6 pints of 4% beer.
There’s no completely safe level of drinking, but sticking within these guidelines lowers your risk of harming your health!
Going on a detox? Concerned about your liver health? Just want some peace of mind?
Booking a Liver Ultrasound Scan is a quick and non-invasive way to get an in-depth look at your liver and surrounding organs, ensuring any issues are identified early.