Liver

Long-term effects of alcohol use

Chronic heavy alcohol use can damage the liver, causing alcoholic liver disease. This occurs across a spectrum from fatty liver, to acute alcoholic hepatitis, to cirrhosis.

Fatty liver, where fat builds up in the liver cells, is very common in heavy drinkers and is reversible if drinking is reduced. However, a small percentage of people with fatty liver will develop alcoholic hepatitis, cirrhosis or liver cancer.

Alcoholic hepatitis develops in 10 to 35% of heavy drinkers and is an acute injury to the liver which can present with symptoms of feeling unwell, tiredness, jaundice (yellow skin and whites of eyes), swollen stomach and enlarged tender liver. Death from liver failure can occur in severe cases.

Cirrhosis of the liver develops in 5 to15% of heavy drinkers and is where the liver is permanently damaged and replaced by scar tissue, so the liver can no longer function (to detoxify the body, make vital proteins, store vitamins and sugars, and make chemicals necessary for digestion). Cirrhosis can also lead to death from liver failure.

Treatment for alcoholic liver disease must include stopping the drinking of alcohol. Alcohol also causes liver cancer, and treatment options are often limited due to the presence of alcoholic liver disease or the cancer having spread widely by the time of diagnosis. This means liver cancer is often quickly fatal.[9, 24, 25]