Drinking too much alcohol is a leading cause of fatty liver disease.
Heavy drinking can cause serious liver problems, including alcohol-associated fatty liver disease. It’s common in people who regularly drink too much. When you drink too much alcohol, it makes it hard for your liver to work properly. As a result, fat can build up in liver cells, where it’s not supposed to be. Over time, this can lead to more severe liver conditions, such as alcoholic hepatitis or cirrhosis. Quitting alcohol is a crucial step toward getting better. Because alcohol withdrawal from going “cold turkey” can be risky for people with alcohol use disorder, work with your health care provider on getting sober. If you stop alcohol early enough, it may be possible to undo some of the liver damage.
There’s no safe amount of alcohol consumption.
Even moderate drinking may have health risks, especially if you already have liver problems such as fatty liver disease. That includes people with MASLD or MASH, which are types of fatty liver disease not caused by alcohol. (MASLD stands for metabolic-associated steatotic liver disease. MASH, short for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, is what it’s called when MASLD gets worse.) For people with fatty liver disease, any amount of alcohol can worsen liver damage and hinder recovery. Here’s why: The liver is already compromised, and adding alcohol to the mix can mean more inflammation and further fat buildup in the liver. It could also mean getting cirrhosis sooner. Not drinking alcohol is one of the key steps you can take to help get your liver’s health on track.
Alcohol-related fatty liver disease often doesn’t cause symptoms at first.
At first, alcohol-related liver disease may not show any symptoms. As a result, many people don’t know that damage is happening in their liver. When symptoms do appear, usually when the condition has worsened, they can include:
- Fatigue
- Weakness
- Jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes)
- Swelling in the legs and belly
- Confusion
- Unintended weight loss
- Loss of appetite
- Blood in your stool or vomit
To help prevent alcohol-related fatty liver disease from getting to that point, it’s important to keep up with regular medical checkups and liver function tests. And even though it can be hard to do, let your doctor know how much you drink and how often. This can help your doctor suggest the right changes that need to be made to help head off serious liver problems.
Alcohol-related fatty liver disease can affect how your brain works.
In later stages, alcohol-related liver disease can affect your brain and nervous system. It could make someone feel upset or confused, with changing moods. They might also feel numbness or tingling in their arms or legs.
Drinking alcohol with fatty liver can lead to other, more serious conditions.
Continuing to drink with alcohol-related liver disease can make liver conditions worse. Alcoholic hepatitis, a type of liver inflammation, can develop. Symptoms can include jaundice, fever, and belly pain. If someone with alcohol-related hepatitis keeps drinking alcohol, they can get cirrhosis, a late-stage liver disease in which scar tissue has replaced healthy liver tissue. The scarring makes it even harder for the liver to work. That, in turn, can lead to liver failure, which is a life-threatening condition. Liver cancer is another risk if you have cirrhosis, but it doesn’t always happen.
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- Related:The Alarming Health Risks of MASLD and MASH
You may reverse or prevent future damage to your liver by avoiding alcohol.
The good news is that avoiding alcohol may help reverse or prevent further damage to your liver, if you make that change soon enough. The liver has a remarkable ability to heal itself, if given the chance. Not drinking gives the liver a break from the stress of dealing with alcohol. This can help your liver work better and improve your overall health. Along with avoiding alcohol, the lifestyle habits that are good for your entire body – like eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and sticking to a healthy weight – also support liver health.
If you have trouble cutting out alcohol, there are options to help you quit.
Quitting alcohol can be challenging, especially if you’ve been drinking heavily for a long time. Alcohol withdrawal symptoms, such as anxiety, tremors, and nausea, can make it tough to stop on your own. It’s important to seek medical advice before you try to stop drinking, as withdrawal can be dangerous. There are options to help you quit, including counseling, support groups, and medications that ease withdrawal symptoms. Sometimes, if someone has severe alcohol use disorder, they might need to go to a supervised detox program. Remember, seeking help is a sign of strength, and there are resources to support you on your journey to sobriety.