Moderate amounts of alcohol usually don't affect normal liver function or cause alcohol-related liver disease (ARLD). Moderate alcohol consumption is considered one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men. Heavy drinkers have a high risk of developing alcoholic fatty liver disease, also known as fatty liver disease. In fact, an estimated 90% of heavy drinkers have some degree of this condition.
Drinking too much alcohol can inhibit the breakdown of fats in the liver, therefore, fat accumulation occurs. Liver disease caused by alcohol is preventable. Most reputable sources cite moderate alcohol consumption as 1 drink per day for women and 2 for men. In general, there is no type of alcoholic beverage that is safer for the liver.
While the above graph is not inherently interesting because it shows that more alcohol leads to more liver disease, what is interesting is the rate at which the risk of cirrhosis increases with each drink per day. If we look at the graph, it seems that “two drinks a day are equivalent to approximately 170 g of alcohol a week or 12 g of beverages, approximately 15% less than standard American beverages. When you consume 7 standard American drinks a week (100 g of alcohol), it appears that the risk of developing liver cirrhosis is only 20 to 25% higher than not drinking anything (or very rarely, 1 drink a week). However, with 14 standard American drinks a week (200 g of alcohol), the relative risk of developing liver cirrhosis is approximately 300% (“3 times”) higher.
Although the graph does not go any further, this trend continues to rise, with 21 standard US drinks a week (about 300 g of alcohol). This point is confirmed in the following graph, on the blue line, as it shows that risks continue to increase until almost 28 drinks before the graph is interrupted. The graph above is my work trying to break down the Lelbach curve in terms of drinks per year with different amounts of drinks per day due to the age of the study. I didn't have access to the real data of the curve and I had to see the% of risk.
Regularly drinking more than prescribed by UK chief medical officers (CMOs) (no more than 14 units a week, with several days without drinking) can damage the liver. Scar tissue can then replace healthy liver tissue after years of routine alcohol consumption and liver damage, in a process called fibrosis. It is well documented, according to purchase orders from local alcohol distributors, that he consumed about 10 drinks a day practically all of his adult life and lived to be 90 years old. Now, you'll have the latest and greatest news about food and healthy eating in your inbox every day.
It might even be more accurate today, considering that recent research seems to show that many people develop cirrhosis with lower amounts of alcohol due to the fact that human diets and exercise habits continue to worsen and people are more obese than ever, all of which can cause liver disease on its own and are extremely risky when combined with alcohol. This is thought to be the reason why the liver is the organ that suffers the highest degree of tissue damage due to excessive alcohol consumption, leading to alcohol-related liver disease. So, if you drink a lot of beer regularly and start to notice discomfort near your liver, feel fatigued, or have unexplained weight loss, know that these are symptoms of alcoholic liver disease. If we look at the graph, it seems that “two drinks a day are equivalent to approximately 170 g of alcohol per week or 12 g of beverages, approximately 15% less than standard American beverages”.
In the meantime, limit yourself to one or two beers every other day or even less often to help protect your liver from damage. Obviously, just about anything in the upper right quadrant is totally unrealistic: the person would die from alcohol poisoning on the first day; the largest amount of daily consumption in the Lelbach study cohort was a whopping 33 drinks a day. In other words, according to this curve made by Lelbach and Pequignot, about 13 drinks a day for 25 years would give someone a 50% chance of suffering from liver disease. .
.
