How Does Alcohol Affect the Liver?

Alcoholic drinks like beer, vodka, etc. contain a form of alcohol known as ethanol. The ethanol is a by-product of the fermentation or distillation procedure in making alcohol. This very ethanol is the raison d'être of alcoholic beverages and also what makes them so detrimental to human health. Ethanol acts as a psychoactive drug in the human body and as a depressant. Short-term effects aside, ethanol is more lethal when your body starts needing regular dosages of it. It causes a range of illnesses to a number of parts in the human body right from the brain, down to the liver. The adverse effects of alcohol on human body vary based on dosage, but once you become addicted to alcohol, that dosage will seem insignificant. The broad array of alcohol-based illnesses include dementia, cancer, stroke and various liver disorders such as liver cirrhosis.

The Downside of Alcohol
The whole orbit of liver-based maladies caused by alcohol can be clubbed into one word. Liver Cirrhosis. It is basically the slow death of the organ effected predominantly by continued over-consumption of alcohol. Of course liver cirrhosis, although an unwelcome guest, takes years to develop and gives you plenty of timely warnings before its onset.

The first warnings occur during metabolism. While your body is trying to break down the alcohol code, more toxic compounds such as acetaldehyde arise that damage liver cells and hinder their functioning. To stop the spread of this toxic substance, the body wages war on them causing inflammation. To cure the damage, the body releases cytokines beyond reasonable limits. Seems like everything about alcohol is caused due to exceeding reasonable limits! Cytokines are single-handedly responsible for alcohol hepatitis and tissue scarring.

The next level warnings include conditions such as alcohol hepatitis and fatty liver caused by, you got it, alcohol. Fatty liver is a condition wherein the fats accumulate in the cells. Simply put, if you give the liver too much fat to process, eventually, it's gonna go on a strike. Alcohol hepatitis is a more generic condition which affects the efficiency of the liver. The liver is a massive organ in the body and does some 1500 distinct processes per day. It's already a poor overworked organ. Why make things harder for it?

The way out of these maladies is simple to say, but difficult to implement. The fact that you have contracted these diseases is sufficient proof that your life's quota for alcohol consumption is over. Remember, these diseases may not necessarily be fatal, but if the cirrhosis arrives, surviving that one is going to be quite a handful. So wake up before it is too late.

If you continue to ignore the magnanimity of a malfunctioning liver, you'll be hit by a worse condition. Liver cirrhosis is a permanent disability. It affects more than just digestion. Such a liver is no longer able to make new healthy tissues and instead makes scar tissues as the liver begins to harden. The scar tissues are nowhere as efficient as normal tissues and can barely filter blood. This causes a cycle degeneration and you need to be really lucky to survive cirrhosis.

The range is from near-fatal to fatal. Effects of alcohol circle around your system for a while, asking you to mend your habits, before exercising their vice-like grip of death on your digestive system. Like I said before, it's a degeneration cycle that goes from bad to worse to even worse. The only way out is moderation. Regulate your consumption of alcohol. If you've already contracted one of the above conditions, it is better if you stop it altogether.