Introduction
Liver diseases are also known as hepatic diseases and can be caused because of many different reasons; however, one of the major reasons of liver disease is alcohol. Alcohol diseases are caused by severe drinking of alcohol and can cause three types of diseases - fatty liver, hepatitis and cirrhosis. However, if you drink within bounds, you are unlikely to develop these diseases, but overuse of everything is bad, and same is the case here. Therefore, always try to drink within certain limitations, and do not exceed that because alcohol is the root cause of alcohol diseases.
History
Fatty liver or steatosis is caused by the accumulation of fatty acids in the liver cells. Increased drinking causes the development of macrovesicular steatosis, which is also known as large fatty globules, throughout the liver. This starts to develop just after a few days of continuous heavy drinking. Alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream and through the liver starts to circulate around the whole body. Therefore, the more you drink alcohol the more it passes through the liver increasing the risk of such liver diseases and alcohol diseases. Liver cells can only processes a limited amount of alcohol per hour; therefore, if you drink more than how much your liver can process, then you increase the level of alcohol in your bloodstream. The inflammation of hepatocytes is known as alcoholic hepatitis and can be found in almost 35% of heavy drinkers. This might now occur with everyone because each body reacts differently to different things. Therefore, to do that does react it can cause the inflammation of the liver, and the only way to treat this is to induce nutrition in your diet through steroids.
Features
Cirrhosis is another condition and is one of the alcohol diseases where the liver tissue is replaced by fibrosis which is a scarred tissue. Scarring is a slow process, however, it affects the regrowth of liver cells as the more the liver cells get damaged and die the more the scar tissues develop so much so that the liver starts to lose its ability to function properly. The ratio of those who will eventually develop cirrhosis is about 1 in 10 heavy drinkers; however, as it is a gradual process it can take up to 10 years to develop this disease. Symptoms of cirrhosis are jaundice, liver enlargement and pain due to the damaged liver. If after one has developed one of the alcohol diseases, he does not abstain completely from alcohol it can result in liver failure. It can be caused by other factors too such as being exposed to other heavy toxins other than alcohol. Alcoholic hepatitis and fatty change are somewhat reversible, however, cirrhosis is irreversible but it can be controlled if one starts to completely abstain himself from alcohol.
Tips and comments
Apart from these if you are a heavy drinker you are prone to liver problems and alcoholic diseases, stomach disorders, depressions and anxiety, high blood pressure, cancer, obesity and addiction. Therefore it is always better to stay away from such addictions because they are always harmful to the human body, but if you are already used to alcohol, you can control the amount you drink each day which can in turn help you in the long run.
