About Alcohol & Liver Function

When consumed in excess, alcohol impairs antioxidants in the body that defend against the harmful effects of free radicals. Once unprotected, the metabolism of alcohol in the liver leaves free radicals unhampered in their destructive path. Although health organizations have established alcohol-consumption limits, both behavioral and genetic factors can contribute to---or prevent---the onset of alcohol-induced liver disease.

Effects

• In 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed chronic liver disease and cirrhosis as the 12th-leading cause of death among Americans. Alcohol-induced liver disease (ALD) comprises each of the following three diagnoses: fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis. Although treatments for alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis are limited because of the severity of their conditions, a fatty liver can be cured if the patient abstains from alcohol.

Significance

• Ethanol is the contributing ingredient in alcoholic beverages that can lead to liver impairment, as it is converted into free radicals in the organ. Normally, the body's antioxidants will disable the free radicals created during alcohol consumption. However, when alcohol is consumed in excess of recommended threshold limits, and antioxidants are rendered useless, the free radicals are then able to attack the liver's healthy cells.

Consumption

• Alcohol-induced liver disease usually becomes apparent once a threshold level of alcohol has been consumed on a daily basis over an extended period of time. That level is estimated to be the equivalent of a liter of wine, 72 oz. of beer or 8 oz. of hard liquor in men, and about one-fourth to one-half that amount in women. More conservatively, the "Dietary Guide for Americans" suggests that in order to sustain a healthy lifestyle alcohol consumption should not exceed more than two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women.
  Between the two-drink maximum, which maintains a healthy diet, and the threshold level, which brings about ALD, is binge drinking, which can also result in damage to the liver. Binge drinking is defined by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism as achieving a blood-alcohol level that exceeds 0.08 percent due to the consumption of five or more drinks for men, occurring within an estimated two-hour period, or four or more drinks within that same timeframe for women.

Other Contributing Factors

• The mere fact that a person meets or exceeds the threshold drinking limit determined to cause liver damage does not necessarily mean that they will incur this diagnosis. Several factors contribute to ALD, accounting for the random susceptibility of the disease. A diet high in fat and low in carbohydrates, for example, has been shown to be a contributing factor in ALD. Other determined links to the disease, however, have not been as narrowly accounted for; both gender and genetics are proven predispositions to ALD, but the reasons for this connection have yet to be discovered.

Nicotine and Coffee

• Some lesser-known contributors---including nicotine and coffee---to developing ALD are often associated with the lifestyles of excessive drinkers. Alcoholics who smoke more than one pack of cigarettes per day are three times as likely to contract ALD than those who smoke less than a pack per day. That "morning after" cup of coffee, however, may actually be beneficial to heavy drinkers. It has been shown that alcoholics who drink four or more cups of coffee per day are five times less likely to contract ALD than those who do not. While the reasons are inconclusive, caffeine has been ruled out as the component in coffee that assists in a diminished chance of contracting ALD.