negative effects of alcohol on the human liver
...to the Department of Health and Human Services “the number of persons with alcohol liver disease is conservatively estimated at more than 2 million”(198). Alcohol does not only break up families and waste money, it also poses many different problems to the human body, especially the liver. The most detrimental effects of the abuse of alcohol include fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and malnutrition. Alcohol poses many different and possibly fatal risks to the liver. The most common alcohol related symptom is called fatty liver. The liver cells being infiltrated by fat cause a fatty liver. This condition is due to the fact that the liver try’s to filter out the calories in the alcohol, which causes a back up in the system producing an overflow of fat on the liver. Most of the time there is no real threat to the health of the patient, but if not treated it could become deadly. According to Dr. Lieber, the fat will disappear if alcohol is abandoned for a couple weeks to a few months depending on the severity of the deposit. Another condition that can become fatal to the liver is Alcoholic Hepatitis. Alcoholic hepatitis is a serious condition in which the liver becomes inflamed. The symptoms vary and range from discomfort, nausea, and severe abdominal pain. The NIH claims that alcoholic hepatitis can develop without any symptoms at all. According to the NIAAA a mortality rate for the individuals who have alcoholic hepatitis is around 1.5 to 8 percent. Dr. Charles S. Lieber, director of alcohol treatment and research center at the university of New York believes that survival of patients with alcoholic hepatitis is dramatically improved when they quit drinking or reduce alcohol consumption. The treatment of a patient with alcoholic hepatitis is usually treated the same as that of a patient with fatty liver. If left untreated alcoholic hepatitis can turn into the most severe complication, cirrhosis. Cirrhosis of the liver was brought to the public’s attention when the popular actor Larry Hagman shared that he suffered from the disease himself. Cirrhosis of the liver is yet another condition that occurs with few early warning signs. This inflammation, according to Dr. Lieber, is severe and continuous where scar tissue develops on the liver. The liver becomes much harder than normal. Cirrhosis is irreversible, even if abstinence is practiced. The NIH contends that “cirrhosis of the liver is the primary chronic health hazard associated with alcohol use and is responsible for substantial illness and death among alcoholics”(227). It is still unknown how alcohol causes cirrhosis. ...