Liver after alcohol. Effect of alcohol on conception. Recovery of the liver with minor damage

The liver is one of the most important organs human body after brain and heart. The liver performs many functions, supporting the vital activity of the whole organism. Many people know that excessive alcohol consumption leads to the development of liver diseases, but the lack of understanding among people of why and how this happens and what exactly is expressed pernicious influence alcohol on the liver is the cause neglect to your own health. Full awareness of negative impact alcohol on the liver may help to reconsider your views on drinking and be more attentive to your health.

The liver is the guardian of the body

The main function of the large gland located in abdominal cavity human - the liver - is the neutralization of toxic substances. The liver cleanses the blood harmful substances, more than 720 liters of blood passes through the filter per day.

This organ is called the most important "chemical laboratory" in the human body. It is the liver that is responsible for the production of enzymes that are so important for normal digestion.

The “laboratory” consists of 100 billion hepatocytes (without auxiliary cells), which around the clock process some substances into others and synthesize vitamins.

A healthy liver provides the body with strong immunity.

In the liver, under the influence of an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase, ethanol is decomposed into water and carbon, which are absolutely harmless to the body.

Finally, the liver has a unique ability to heal itself. But cell renewal occurs when favorable conditions and up to a certain point. In people who often abuse alcohol, the degree of damage to the organ is so great that its complete recovery becomes almost impossible.

Alcohol and liver disease

The first "obstacle" on the way of ethanol to the brain, heart, pancreas, kidneys and other vital important bodies becomes the liver. It serves as a filter that absorbs alcohol and its decay products, so hepatocytes (liver cells) are the first to be hit.

Alcohol abuse - even for a few days - can contribute to the formation of adipose tissue in the liver. Similar state medically known as hepatic steatosis or fatty degeneration liver. Steatosis is considered the most early stage liver disease associated with frequent use alcohol. This is the most common liver disorder caused by alcohol. With an excess of adipose tissue, the functioning of the liver becomes more complicated, which makes the organ vulnerable to the development of such dangerous inflammatory processes as, for example, alcoholic hepatitis.

How much alcohol exactly you need to drink to provoke liver damage, scientists do not know, this amount is individual for each person. However, studies show that even minimum doses alcohol at daily use lead to the development of liver failure.

In most cases, alcoholic hepatitis develops asymptomatically, without any obvious signs. However, the disease can be accompanied by fever, nausea, loss of appetite, abdominal pain, and even confusion. If the severity of alcoholic hepatitis increases, the liver increases in size and jaundice, a tendency to bleed, and impaired hemocoagulation (blood clotting) occur.

According to research results, the fairer sex is more susceptible to toxic alcoholic liver damage. In addition, women are more likely to become addicted to alcohol and drink too much faster.

Heavy drinking causes another serious liver disease - fibrosis. The essence of the disease is the accumulation of scar tissue in the organ. The effect of alcohol on the liver leads to a change in it chemical substances needed to destroy and remove this scar tissue. This negatively affects the functions of the body.

If, with liver fibrosis, a person continues to abuse alcohol, excess scar tissue accumulates over time, which leads to the development of cirrhosis of the liver - a slow and irreversible destruction of the organ. Cirrhosis interferes with the critical functions of the gland, such as removing toxins from the blood, controlling infections, and absorbing nutrients.

A liver weakened by cirrhosis stops working normally, the likelihood of various complications increases: jaundice, insulin resistance, diabetes Type 2 and even liver cancer.

This is the scenario for those who do not know or do not fully understand how alcohol affects the liver, and are often addicted to alcoholic beverages.

chances of recovery

A person's individual propensity to develop alcoholic liver disease depends on many risk factors, including: heredity and gender, availability of alcohol, social drinking habits, and even diet. According to statistics, about one in five people who abuse alcohol suffer from alcoholic hepatitis, while one in four will have cirrhosis of the liver.

The effect of alcohol on the liver is due to the time factor: the shorter the period of drinking, the more likely full recovery. In the fight against alcoholic hepatitis, the main thing is to eliminate the cause of the disease. This means giving up all alcohol completely.

Lifestyle changes can help treat alcoholic liver disease. One of the main measures is abstinence from alcohol. Avoiding alcohol will prevent further damage to the organ. Smoking, excess weight and poor nutrition are also factors contributing to the development of alcoholic liver disease. In order to constantly control your condition, it is very important to refuse bad habits and improve your diet. If the disease, such as cirrhosis, becomes advanced, the only treatment and life-saving option may be a liver transplant.

Alcohol abuse is the cause of many diseases internal organs. Physicians have long described bad influence which it exerts on the heart, kidneys, lungs, stomach, bone tissue. But the harm of alcohol to the liver is a topic for a separate article. Why is this happening? What kind chronic diseases risks getting a person who consumes alcohol in an immoderate amount?

Alcohol and the liver: alcohol starts and wins

The liver is one of the most complex and multifunctional bodies. Doctors have calculated that it performs over 500 different functions in our body, while most organs only have 2-3. The liver not only synthesizes and accumulates vital substances, but also produces bile, which is necessary in the process of digestion. That's why healthy liver and alcohol are absolutely incompatible things.

How does alcohol damage the liver?

Alcoholic beverages, consumed in any quantity, destroy the membranes of the cells that make up the liver. As a result, this body is increasingly coping with its responsibilities.

One of the main functions of the liver is to neutralize and remove toxins from the body, for which special enzymes are produced. However, doses of alcohol for a long time lead to the fact that the liver produces less and less enzymes, and toxins gradually poison the body.

Violation of the normal functioning of the liver immediately affects the work of all other organs, since they are closely interconnected, and the cessation of the liver means the death of the whole organism.

Acute and chronic liver disease due to alcohol consumption

Alcohol and the liver are absolutely incompatible things if you care about your health and do not want to become a regular patient of hospitals and clinics. Most alcohol-related illnesses go from acute to chronic if not started. timely treatment and cut down on alcohol intake.

One of the first alarming "calls" that the liver gives can be alcoholic hepatitis. it inflammatory disease liver with necrosis of individual lobes develops over three to five years, while initial stage there may be no warning signs. Alcoholic hepatitis in their clinical manifestations similar to normal. Patients complain about:

Elevated (up to 37 degrees Celsius) temperature;
Yellowed whites of the eyes, skin and oral mucosa;
Cloudy urine and light-colored feces;
Nausea, belching with a taste of bile;
Weakness, fatigue;
Heaviness under the right rib.

Alcoholic hepatitis can be diagnosed by palpation of the liver (it turns out to be enlarged) and a blood test (which will show elevated bilirubin). If in doubt, a biopsy is performed.

In two out of ten patients, in the case of refusal to drink alcohol and maintain healthy lifestyle life, alcoholic hepatitis can be cured.

If a person continues to abuse alcohol, the next stage begins - the liver after alcohol begins to malignantly degenerate and alcoholic hepatitis leads to cirrhosis of the liver. This disease is diagnosed in a quarter of people who drink alcohol.

The main symptoms of cirrhosis of the liver

Cirrhosis - incurable disease which can lead to liver cancer. Signs of cirrhosis:

A sharp decrease in body weight with a simultaneous increase in the abdomen;
Lack of elasticity and swelling of the skin;
Vitamin deficiency and, as a result, bleeding gums, slow wound healing, bone fragility;
Change in color and consistency of stool and urine;
Bitter taste in mouth after eructation;
Pain in limbs, including muscles.

Against the background of cirrhosis of the liver, diseases of other internal organs can also develop, for example, chronic pancreatitis, . disruption of the central nervous system cirrhosis can cause unmotivated aggression, sleep disturbances, the occurrence of delirium tremens.

With cirrhosis of the liver, the prognosis of treatment is extremely unfavorable. At complete failure from alcohol and timely treatment started for five years, only half of the patients survive.

Least likely to recover:

among women;
patients who are overweight;
in the presence of a disease chronic hepatitis type "B" and "C";
patients over 50 years of age.

Liver cancer as a result of alcohol consumption

According to medical statistics, in 15% of cases, cirrhosis transforms into liver cancer. Distinguish between primary (the tumor is located in the organ itself) and secondary or metastatic cancer. The symptoms are similar to those that occur with cirrhosis, but they are more pronounced, and the pain in the right hypochondrium is stronger. These may include stomach bleeding.

Video about the dangers of alcohol for the liver and not only

Video about the dangers of alcohol

AT last years in most industrialized countries, the number of liver lesions of alcoholic etiology is steadily increasing, often exceeding in frequency viral lesions. Alcoholic liver damage is 30-40% in overall structure liver diseases.
In a liver biopsy in a general therapeutic clinic, alcoholic hepatopathy takes the first place. There is a strong correlation between mortality from liver cirrhosis(CP) and the level of alcohol consumption per capita. At autopsy, the frequency of detection of liver cirrhosis in patients chronic alcoholism is 8%, while "non-alcoholics" have about 1%.
The body of women is more sensitive to toxic effect alcohol. The lower threshold of the daily dose, the use of which for more than 15 years dramatically increases the risk of developing alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver, for women is 20 g of pure ethyl alcohol, for men - 60 g. Liver damage does not depend on the type of alcoholic beverages, but is determined only by the alcohol content in them. In addition to the dose of ethanol and the duration of its intake, risk factors for alcoholic liver disease include the type of drunkenness (the constant type has a more pronounced damaging effect on the liver than the intermittent type), unbalanced diet, age of onset of drinking, heredity.
With the systematic use of alcohol in toxic doses 5 stages of alcoholic liver damage develop sequentially or gradually: adaptive hepatomegaly (liver enlargement), alcoholic fatty steatosis, alcoholic hepatitis, alcoholic liver fibrosis, alcoholic cirrhosis. In 5-15% of cases alcoholic disease the liver ends with the development of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Adaptive alcoholic hepatomegaly

Adaptive hepatomegaly (enlargement of the liver) is caused by a violation of protein metabolism in the liver. As a rule, liver enlargement is not accompanied by subjective sensations and changes in laboratory parameters. Morphological study using light microscopy does not reveal pathological changes. Electron microscopy reveals mitochondrial hypertrophy, proliferation of the endoplasmic reticulum associated with the activation of microsomal enzymes, which leads to increased production of lipids and lipoproteins.

Fatty steatosis

Fatty steatosis is the most common morphological variant of alcoholic hepatopathy. It occurs in 60-75% of patients with chronic alcoholism. Alcohol abuse in 30-50% is the cause of fatty steatosis.
Patients with alcoholism up to 50% daily calories food is covered by ethanol. Utilization of ethanol goes with consumption large quantities nicotinoamide-adenine dinucleotide (NAD), which is also necessary for the final stage of oxidation fatty acids- conversion of hydroxybutyric acid into acetoacetic acid, which leads to the accumulation of fatty acids in the liver. Alcohol promotes the activation of lipogenesis, the release of catecholamines, which cause the mobilization of fat from peripheral fat depots. In addition, the transport of lipids from the liver, the utilization of non-esterified fatty acids and triglycerides are disturbed. muscle tissue. These mechanisms naturally lead to the formation of fatty liver steatosis.
In 50% of drinkers, there are no complaints from the digestive organs. The rest of the drinkers have a feeling of heaviness and discomfort in the right hypochondrium and epigastric region, bloating, fatigue, decreased performance, irritability. At objective research hepatomegaly (enlargement of the liver), sometimes significant, is most often detected. The consistency of the liver is densely elastic or doughy, the edge is rounded, palpation causes moderate soreness. Laboratory liver tests in many patients are not changed.
Clinical diagnosis alcoholic fatty steatosis is diagnosed when hepatomegaly (enlarged liver) is detected without significant compaction or deformation of the liver with normal or not drastically altered biochemical tests in a person who abuses alcohol.
Of decisive importance in the diagnosis of fatty steatosis is needle biopsy liver. The diagnosis of fatty steatosis is justified only in cases where at least 50% of the liver cells contain fat droplets. Fat usually accumulates in the form of well-defined vacuoles or droplets that push the nucleus and organelles of the liver cell to the periphery.
With the complete exclusion of alcohol, fatty steatosis is completely reversible. Fat disappears from hepatocytes 2-4 weeks after the cessation of alcohol consumption.
The treatment for fatty steatosis is; in appointment good nutrition with a sufficient content in the diet of protein, unsaturated fatty acids, vitamins, trace elements, some restriction of animal fats.

Alcoholic hepatitis

« Alcoholic hepatitis" is a term adopted in International classification diseases of the liver (WHO, 1978) to refer to acute degenerative and inflammatory liver lesions caused by alcohol and potentially capable of progressing or undergoing regression.
Acute alcoholic hepatitis(OAG) (synonyms: alcoholic steatonecrosis, acute sclerosing hyaline necrosis, inflammatory steatosis alcoholic liver, toxic hepatitis etc.) - acute degenerative and inflammatory liver damage, characterized morphologically mainly by central lobular necrosis of hepatocytes, inflammatory reaction with infiltration of portal fields mainly by polynuclear leukocytes and detection in the liver in some cases; alcoholic hyaline.
When examining large groups of alcoholics acute alcoholic hepatitis detected in 34% drinking people. OAH develops in persons who abuse alcohol for at least 5 years (usually 10 years or more), mainly in men aged 35-55 years. AT initial stage The symptoms of the disease are poor, dyspeptic symptoms are noted, an objective study reveals an enlarged liver, and a biochemical study reveals a mild hyperbilirubinemia, a moderate increase in the activity of aminotransferases.

The icteric form of OAH is the most common clinical variant of the disease. As a rule, there is pain in the liver, varying in severity from abdominal discomfort to the picture " acute abdomen", which sometimes gives reason to assume acute appendicitis, acute cholecystitis and serves as a reason for surgical intervention. In addition to pain in the abdomen, pronounced dyspeptic phenomena are often noted: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, as well as fever, weight loss, in some cases, ascites (enlargement of the abdomen) develops. AT laboratory indicators characterized by leukocytosis with an increase in neutrophils, a stab shift, an acceleration of ESR, hyperbilirubinemia with a predominance of the direct fraction, hypertransaminasemia, a decrease in albumin and an increase in serum y-globulins. Available pruritus, jaundice, discolored feces, dark urine.

With the complete rejection of alcohol and treatment for about 6-8 weeks, regression occurs. clinical symptoms, however, liver enlargement and minimal pain syndrome remain, as will minor changes in blood tests.
Mortality from acute alcoholic hepatitis is 30-44%. AT severe cases acute alcoholic hepatitis during the first 2 weeks of the disease, 60% of drinkers die.
If after treatment a person continues to drink, then in about 65% of cases the disease turns into cirrhosis of the liver after 1 year for the rest a little later (up to 3 years).

Alcohol is one of the main the most dangerous enemies person. Ethyl alcohol ruthlessly destroys the functioning and healthy state of all internal organs and systems of the body without exception. And the liver becomes the first to take on the “alcoholic” blow. It suffers especially in case of prolonged and regular consumption of alcoholic beverages.

AT this case damage to the hepatic organ always occurs and main danger lies in the fact that the destruction of the liver at first passes without visible external manifestations, and its long-term defeat becomes an irreversible process. How exactly does alcohol affect the human liver, and what consequences should be feared?

Alcohol abuse completely destroys the liver, which threatens human life.

This large unpaired organ is vital for the life of the body. It is located below the diaphragm. The liver belongs to the digestive organs. The main task This digestive gland is the production of bile, which becomes a natural barrier to poisonous and toxic metabolites.

The liver is an active and important participant in blood circulation, digestion and metabolic processes. The health of this organ depends on normal functioning these systems, without which human life becomes impossible.

The liver performs essential functions in the body

The liver is responsible for many tasks. Its functions include such important matters as:

Creation of cholesterol (useful) and its esters.
Storage of some vital vitamins.
Supplying the body with the necessary glucose, which the hepatic organ synthesizes from various energy sources.
The liver also functions as a storehouse for a large supply of blood. She throws these reserves into the vascular bed when necessary.
Synthesis of the necessary enzymes, bile acids, hormones and bilirubin. These substances take an important part in the work of the digestive tract.
Neutralization and arrest of various harmful compounds. With the help of the liver, they are broken down into harmless components and excreted from the body. naturally. The liver expels from the body the remains of metabolic products and microorganisms, toxins, excess vitamins and hormones.

And it is the liver that first begins the fight against the abundance of toxic and poisonous decay products of ethanol. In this organ, about 95% of ethyl alcohol is split. But when there is too much alcohol, the liver does not do its job - its capabilities are limited.

"Safe" ethanol

The harm of alcohol on the liver can be minimized under certain conditions. Namely:

moderate (considered safe) consumption of alcoholic beverages;
the absence of liver pathologies and disorders when consuming alcohol.

But even in this case, you should know that even a small dose of alcohol significantly increases the load on the liver, causing significant harm to it. Therefore, if you drink alcohol from time to time, then only being in a completely healthy condition and take alcohol in permitted quantities.

Based on numerous studies, experts have concluded that alcohol consumption in the amount of 1 g of alcohol per 1 kg of a given person's weight is considered safe for human health.

To save the liver and prevent the appearance of alcohol addiction, doctors recommend drinking alcoholic beverages in next amount(daily rate):

Women up to 10 g of pure ethanol:

wine: up to 150 ml;
beer: up to 330 ml;
strong alcohol: up to 30 ml.

Men up to 20 g of pure ethanol:

wine: up to 250 ml;
beer: up to 500 ml;
strong alcohol: up to 50 ml.

But a daily intake of 2 bottles of beer, 150 g of vodka or 500 ml of wine becomes threatening to the liver. But there is another opinion of leading psychiatrists. Medical luminaries are confident that a person’s health will not suffer, and alcoholism will not threaten him if every week you adhere to at least 5 days of complete sobriety.

About 90% of alcohol is broken down in the liver

By the way, in addition to the destructive effects of alcohol, the liver can also suffer from certain foods. flour products, fatty and fried foods - these foods should be avoided if the goal is to save your native liver. But the greatest harm she brings ethyl alcohol.

How does the hepatic organ suffer?

To understand what happens to the liver when drinking alcohol, it is necessary to take into account that it is this organ that is the first to fight for the purity of the body. Once ethanol is in the stomach, it is rapidly absorbed into bloodstream and, together with the bloodstream, enters the liver. In response, it begins to actively produce certain enzymes - alcohol dehydrogenase.

This compound works on the breakdown of ethyl alcohol, its neutralization and removal from the body. But, if this work of the liver has to be done too often, it wears out. That is, irreversible processes begin to occur in the body. Hepatocides (liver cells) are massively destroyed and replaced by fibrous (adipose) tissue.

It is impossible to say exactly how much you need to drink to give a countdown to the beginning of an irreversible process. This number is not known and has not been established by scientists. The fatal dose is individual for each individual. One thing is known - regular consumption of alcohol, even in small quantities, sooner or later will lead to the onset of the development of diverse hepatic pathologies.

What pathologies will you have to face

The systematic consumption of alcohol always leads to a malfunction of the liver and the development of its various diseases. By the way, the vast majority of them are incurable or difficult to treat..

Women are especially at risk. The fair sex is the most sensitive to toxic liver damage. And alcoholism develops in women much faster than in men due to their natural characteristics.

So, what effects of alcohol on the liver are the most dangerous? What kind of diseases come to the body along with alcohol? Doctors note that most often the drinker develops several types of pathologies.

Fatty liver hepatosis

This disease is especially dangerous due to its long undercurrent. A person does not understand for a long time that he has a problem that has already appeared. The disease is based on the gradual replacement of healthy liver cells with adipose tissue. It is noticed that to fatty hepatosis drinkers tend to have overweight or obese patients.

What does the liver look like with fatty liver?

Unfortunately, the symptoms of the disease appear already when the pathology has long and firmly nestled in human body. On even and watching, feeling unpleasant symptoms, the patient may not pay attention to them for a long time, attributing everything to " chronic fatigue" or " bad weather". These symptoms become:

increased flatulence;
development of dysbacteriosis;
heaviness in the liver;
nausea, rare vomiting;
blanching and dullness of the skin;
indigestion (frequent diarrhea);
weakening of vision, a decrease in its quality and sharpness;
the appearance of some discomfort in the right hypochondrium.

Fatty hepatosis, if it is not detected in time and not treated, gradually develops into severe degree, and gives rise to deadly disease. This is cirrhosis of the liver, which is one of the most common hepatic pathologies caused by alcohol.

Cirrhosis of the liver

This is the heaviest and dangerous disease, which threatens the lover of alcoholic beverages. Cirrhosis also proceeds without pronounced clinical picture. Many of its symptoms are similar to alcoholic hepatitis (its one common ailment).

Cirrhosis of the liver is an incurable disease, the main culprit of which is alcohol.

According to statistics, the manifestation of cirrhosis of the liver is most often observed by the age of 40. Women are affected twice as often as men.

This progressive disease, which in very frequent cases ends in death, manifests itself as follows:

skin itching;
bleeding gums;
joint pain;
increased fragility of blood vessels;
heaviness in the right hypochondrium;
ascites (accumulation of fluid in the abdominal cavity);
the appearance of numerous vascular "stars", especially in the upper body.

Death is more often due to prolonged heavy internal bleeding. They develop due to the expansion of the veins of the esophagus. Liver cirrhosis rarely resolves as an individual disease. Often, a number of other pathologies are noted against the background of pathology. In particular:

encephalopathy.
Hepatic coma.

These ailments are also extremely poor prognosis. Cirrhosis and alcoholic hepatitis are often responsible for the development oncological processes liver. Only if it's early timely detection and complete cessation drinking alcohol, you can avoid cancer and prolong life.

Alcoholic hepatitis

This pathology can occur in acute and chronic form. Physicians often compare this disease with viral hepatitis, in which the liver also suffers greatly. The disease develops over a long period of time (sometimes this period reaches 10-15 years). Therefore, the drinker often does not pay attention to alarm bells and writes off the symptoms for other ailments.

Alcoholic hepatitis is another disease caused by alcohol.

To characteristics diseases include the following manifestations:

loss of appetite;
decline in working capacity;
systematic decrease in body weight;
severe weakness and complete loss of strength;
constant nausea, occasionally vomiting;
aching soreness of the right hypochondrium;
yellowing of mucous tissues and eye membranes;
a noticeable increase in the liver (this is noticeable on palpation);
the appearance of increased heartburn with a sour taste (it intensifies after eating).

If there is even a slight suspicion of liver problems, you should immediately stop drinking alcohol and seek the advice of a doctor. You will have to undergo a detailed examination to establish a diagnosis and closely engage in the restoration of health.

How to reduce the effect of alcohol on the liver

To minimize the harmful effects of ethanol on the body, and especially on the liver organ, the level of alcohol consumed should be strictly controlled. And, if there is a certain solemn event with the same intoxicant, arm yourself with the following rules:

Shouldn't mix different types alcohol of different strength.
You should not drink alcohol with carbonated drinks. This will increase the intoxication and make it harder.
Do not keep alcohol for a long time in oral cavity- after all, ethanol is successfully absorbed through the oral mucosa, and it is rich in blood vessels.
Good to have a snack. Ideal snacks for alcohol are meat, meat-flour and hot fish meals. As cold appetizers, you should pay attention to jelly, jellied veal, salted bacon, ham and mouth-watering hodgepodge.

You should also know the list of products that become great helpers to remove alcohol from the body. These products well stop the accumulation of toxic toxins and slow down their harmful effects:

green tea, which can help restore liver function;
garlic, which kills harmful microflora and helps the hepatic organ to work;
tomato either orange juice, these drinks relieve stomach pain and relieve the feeling of nausea;
lemon, which has large reserves of vitamin C, it perfectly dissolves ethanol and removes its metabolites from the body;
parsley and cabbage, which is famous for high level antioxidants, which also successfully work to eliminate toxins.

To accelerate the withdrawal of toxic alcohol metabolites, the amount of water consumed should be increased. A normal water balance helps a lot with the dehydration problem that alcohol brings with it. Do not forget about the harm that brings with it a passion for alcoholic beverages.. Therefore, it is so important to control the dose of alcohol you drink and to carry out preventive measures for your own health in a timely manner.

How many of us have thought about how alcohol affects the liver and what consequences this can lead to? According to statistics, people who abuse alcoholic drinks, occurs more often seven times than in people who do not drink.

Processes occurring in the liver under the influence of alcohol

No wonder the liver is a filter of our blood and body. During the day, the liver pumps approximately 720 liters of blood. This process is not at all mechanical: the liver contains 300 billion cells - hepatocytes, which process biological and chemical raw materials, transforming substances one into another. are neutralized in liver cells toxic substances entering the body from the outside, before entering the general circulation.

Alcohol is no exception: the entire cycle of transformation occurs under the influence of cellular liver enzymes. The breakdown products of alcohol, which are formed during oxidation, interfere with the metabolic processes that take place in hepatocytes, fat metabolism is greatly distorted. With the help of research, it was possible to establish that a single intake of a significant amount of alcohol leads to changes in the functions of the liver cells. If a person systematically drinks, then pathological changes become stable. And the more alcohol attacks occur, the more hepatocytes are attracted to pathological process. In this case, the first phase of the effect of alcohol on the liver begins - obesity.

What changes occur to the liver when alcohol is taken

In people addicted to alcohol, there is fatty degeneration or obesity of the liver cells. All components (cell organelles) change in this case, the cytoplasm is filled with fat, the nucleus shifts to the periphery. Obese hepatocytes cannot perform their duties. If the activity of alcohol dehydrogenase, the main enzyme that breaks down alcohol, increases, then later the cells are depleted, the metabolic processes, "gets hit" by the barrier function. Doctors are aware of cases where this was the cause sudden death. Fatty liver is accompanied inflammatory processes tissue, which contributes to the development of alcoholic hepatitis. There are aching and stronger than the pain in the right hypochondrium, vomiting, nausea, liquid stool, aversion to food. The less experience of alcohol abuse, the more hope for a cure.

The main thing in the fight against alcoholic hepatitis is a categorical refusal of alcohol. If a person continues to drink periodically, liver cells do not withstand alcohol intoxication and die, cirrhosis of the liver begins to form, which can lead to backfire. The liver affected by cirrhosis ceases to be the "guardian of the body." The functional potential in the liver decreases sharply, and this leads to pathological changes in metabolism, circulation, digestion. These complex life processes of the human body depend entirely on the work of the liver.

It is also known that the liver plays a rather significant role in the regulation of blood systems (coagulation and anticoagulation). In alcoholics, there is an imbalance of these systems, which is expressed in different ways: some have bleeding, some have blood clots, which can cause blockage of blood vessels.

Recent studies of past years help to trace the direct relationship between the effect of alcohol on the liver between light drinking, but systematic and liver damage. Many sources indicate that fatty degeneration of the liver occurs in most cases after about 5-10 years of drinking alcohol, and if you continue to abuse alcohol, this is fraught with consequences, after 15-20 years it can lead to cirrhosis of the liver. These arguments are worth considering.

Cirrhosis caused by excessive alcohol consumption is a rather complex and incurable disease. According to the World Health Organization, this liver disease is one of the most common causes lethal outcome in developed countries. Before you drink, think about the consequences.