Exploring Alcohol’s Effects on Liver Function

N association between Liver disease and heavy alcoholconsumption was recognizedmore than 200 years ago (Smart andMann 1992). Long-term heavy alco-hol use is the most prevalent singlecause of illness and death from liverdisease in the United States (NationalCenter for Health Statistics 1994).The Liver is particularly susceptible toalcohol-related injury because it is theprimary site of alcohol alcohol is broken down in theliver, a number of potentially danger-ous by-products are generated, such asacetaldehyde and highly reactivemolecules called free radicals. Per-haps more so than alcohol itself, theseproducts contribute to alcohol-inducedliver Liver is one of the largest or-gans in the body; it has not only con-siderable reserves but also the abilityto regenerate itself. Consequently,symptoms of Liver damage may notappear until damage to the organ isquite extensive. Epidemiologicalstudies suggest that a threshold doseof alcohol must be consumed forserious Liver injury to become appar-ent (Mezey et al.)

of beer, 1 liter of wine, or 8 oz dis-tilled spirits (i.e., 5–6 standard drinks1) daily for 20 years. For wom-en, the threshold dose is one-fourth to one-half that amount. In this article, the phrase “heavy drinking” refers to this daily intake. Heavy long-term alcohol consump-tion clearly plays a major role in the

Loading..

Tags:

  Spirit, Wine, Liver, Beer

Information

Related search queries