Alcohol Addiction Side Effects: How Does Alcoholism Destroy Your Liver?

Alcohol has been around for thousands of years. The earliest archeological evidence of beer brewing suggests that people were drinking beer 13,000 years ago. In many different cultures around the world, drinking alcohol is not only allowed, but also encouraged in certain situations, as getting drunk on a specific occasion is a part of different traditions.

How does alcohol affect the liver?

All alcoholic beverages contain ethanol, and the effect ethanol has on the brain is the reason why people like to drink. After you drink it, ethanol is absorbed in the intestines, from which it enters your bloodstream. Eventually, it ends up in the brain, causing dopamine to be released. Dopamine is a hormone and a neurotransmitter which, in short, makes us feel good.

Ethanol also messes with other neurotransmitters, making us feel cozy and sleepy. But it comes at a cost. A nasty hangover is very unpleasant, but all it takes to get rid of it is a lot of water and an ibuprofen. But it's also a reminder that you have, in fact, drunk poison last night, in large amounts. And long-term exposure to that poison damages a number of organs, including the liver.

The liver is an organ with many roles, one of which is metabolizing toxins to non-toxic molecules and getting them out of our organism. Once ethanol reaches the liver, the liver cells produce several different enzymes to metabolize the molecule. These enzymes destroy the toxins, but, if the amount of ethanol in the organism is high, a large amount of by-products of metabolism appear.

Fatty liver

Fatty liver is a condition in which lipids accumulate inside the cell. In excessive alcohol consumption, this happens because the cell switches to another type of metabolism, which creates fatty acids as by-products. This is the most common complication of alcoholism, as more than 90 percent of people who drink four to five standard drinks a day suffer from this condition. As more and more lipid droplets accumulate in the cell, the cell slowly loses the capacity to metabolize those molecules. 

Alcoholic hepatitis 

Alcohol abuse can lead to liver tissue inflammation. About 30 to 40 percent of heavy drinkers suffer from alcoholic hepatitis. This inflammation of the liver tissue causes a number of symptoms, which might include: 

• Abdominal pain
• Jaundice
• Fatigue
• Accumulation of fluid in the abdomen
• Fever
• Loss of appetite

This condition can be treated and managed, but it can also be very serious, and even deadly. 

Fibrosis and cirrhosis

In most cases, and in most types of tissue, when cells are destroyed, they are replaced by scar tissue. The same goes for the liver. When hepatocytes die, they are replaced by fibrous connective tissue. This process is reversible up until one point, since the liver has a high regenerative capability.

Quitting the drinking, and taking appropriate medication, may return the patients liver to normal. But, at one point, if the scar tissue in the liver is too extensive, it messes up the anatomy of the organ and its functions. This condition is called cirrhosis. The scar tissue continues to grow, slowly surrounding the healthy liver tissue. At first, the remaining cells are able to compensate for the loss of other hepatocytes, but, as the illness progresses, the liver slowly loses the capacity to do its job. Cirrhosis can lead to liver failure or liver cancer.

What can we do about it?

Prolonged alcohol intake slowly destroys the liver. But, there are several things one can do to prevent further deterioration of the organ. The most important thing to do is to stop drinking. Not only does quitting help in the case of fatty liver or fibrosis, but it also improves survival rates in patients who suffer from cirrhosis. Steroids are known to help in the case of alcoholic hepatitis, since they suppress the immune response. In the case of liver failure, or cirrhosis, liver transplantation is the only treatment option available.