How does drinking a lot of alcohol affect the liver?

Alcohol is one of the leading causes of liver failure, which in turn leads to many other serious liver diseases. So how does drinking a lot of alcohol affect the liver, we will find out soon.

1.1. Liver and alcohol metabolism function The liver is known to be the part that performs many important functions in the body such as: Creating natural healing factors for the body, producing clotting factors, using use and store glycogen, metabolize protein and fat in food... Not only that, the liver is also a metabolic machine, eliminating toxins in the blood from the body, producing proteins, enzymes and protective hormones. body before the risk of infection,...
1.2. How alcohol affects liver function When alcohol enters the body, the liver has the ability to metabolize them more than 90%, the rest will be eliminated through sweat, urine and breath. For a healthy person, it takes about 1 hour to fully metabolize alcohol. The higher the concentration of alcohol in the blood, the longer it will take for it to be eliminated from the body. However, it is worth mentioning that the liver can only metabolize a certain amount of alcohol, so if you drink too much, the amount of alcohol that is not metabolized by the liver will stagnate and circulate in the blood, thereby directly affecting the liver. heart and liver.
1.3. Alcohol and the process of damage to the liver Although, up to now, there have not been any accurate studies on the harmful extent of alcohol to the liver when drinking a lot of alcohol. However, the following hypotheses have been proposed to explain this problem:
Activation of inflammatory responses Inflammation itself is a local response of the body, in response to tissue damage. or foreign, harmful agents, in order to protect the body against the attack of disease-causing microorganisms.
Drinking a lot of alcohol can cause hepatitis b, in fact hepatitis is a typical condition caused by alcohol. The process of hepatitis begins when liver cells release chemicals that attract white blood cells or invade damaged tissue. Therefore, if consumed in excess, it will increase the permeability of endotoxins in the intestinal tract.
Meanwhile, endotoxins are elements that are circulated and absorbed in the blood through the liver. In the liver, they will stimulate Kupffer cells and release chemicals, stimulating the inflammatory process to initiate, thereby causing direct damage to the liver and body tissues.
Toxic metabolites Thanks to oxidation, the liver can convert alcohol into acetaldehyde, which is quite toxic. Therefore, if you drink a lot of alcohol, the liver will have to work with higher intensity to eliminate them, so the amount of acetaldehyde is generated more and continues to adversely affect liver cells. After the liver tries to repair itself, inflammation and scarring occurs.
Oxidative stress In terms of oxidative stress, the harmful effects of alcohol on the liver can be explained as follows: The toxic metabolites present in alcohol are capable of damaging liver cells by creating more free radicals, at the same time they make the body's source of antioxidants depleted, as a result, a series of healthy cells die due to oxidative stress.
Meanwhile, free radicals contain oxidizing agents with high reactivity. A small part of it is a byproduct of normal metabolism, on the other hand, is also quickly eliminated by antioxidants in the cells. If free radicals are overproduced, exceed the body's self-protective threshold, or do not decline in antioxidant levels, then free radicals will cause cell death. The reason is because free radicals cause changes in cell signaling pathways, directly affecting DNA and protein synthesis.
Therefore, if you drink too much or abuse alcohol, the concentration of antioxidants in the body will decrease, which means that free radicals make liver cells more susceptible to impact and damage.

2.1. Impedes detoxification The main function of the liver is known to filter and remove toxins from the blood. When drinking alcohol, the liver will have to focus on eliminating the toxins in alcohol. This will create favorable conditions for other toxins to pass through this "filter" and accumulate in the body.
On the other hand, in every hour, the liver can only receive and metabolize a certain amount of alcohol. The conversion process will convert ethanol to acetaldehyde, eventually producing CO2 and water. If the amount of alcohol consumed exceeds the allowable threshold, acetaldehyde will accumulate more and more and cause a feeling of discomfort and hangover.
2.2. When you drink alcohol, the liver will burn acetaldehyde to provide necessary fuel for the body instead of burning fat. This has caused the amount of fat to be accumulated in the liver more and more, over time it will lead to fatty liver disease.
2.3. Fatty liver This is a condition in which fat particles accumulate in liver cells, accounting for more than 5% of the weight of the liver and making the activity of liver cells limited. On the other hand, it is also an early manifestation of alcoholic liver disease, usually rarely accompanied by symptoms, sometimes the patient will have a feeling of bloating, indigestion, body fatigue, pressure and heaviness in the right lower quadrant, In more severe cases nausea, jaundice, vomiting or abnormally enlarged liver may be felt.
Blood biochemical tests such as liver enzymes are either normal or GGT is slightly elevated. At this time, ultrasound is the diagnostic method that gives relatively accurate results, liver biopsy will help distinguish fatty liver from other causes. Although, the state of drinking a lot of alcohol, fatty liver is quite benign, but the rate of fibrosis is quite high.
2.4. Alcoholic hepatitis Alcoholic hepatitis is a liver disease that is diffusely damaged by alcohol, characterized by inflammatory cell infiltration and hepatocyte necrosis. This is also a prerequisite for alcoholic cirrhosis. Patients often rarely show symptoms, sometimes just a feeling of transient fatigue, indigestion, loss of appetite, bloating, itching, sometimes chest pain, joint pain. In addition, the patient also showed signs of liver enlargement, jaundice, fever, abdominal pain, ... In some special cases, the condition progressed very seriously and there was a risk of death.
2.5. Alcoholic Cirrhosis Alcoholic Cirrhosis is the final stage of alcoholic liver disease. Cirrhosis in the early stages often shows few obvious symptoms. Typical disease with hepatocellular insufficiency syndrome, concurrently with portal hypertension, patients experience loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, sexual dysfunction, gray or yellow skin, yellow eyes. Edema and transition to cirrhosis stage ascites will encounter esophageal varices, coagulation disorders ...
Patients with alcoholic cirrhosis die due to: hepatic encephalopathy, ruptured esophageal varices, infection infection, exhaustion and liver and kidney disease.
2.6. Increased risk of liver cancer According to the American Cancer Society report, most patients diagnosed with liver cancer have signs of cirrhosis. Heavy drinking or high alcohol abuse will increase the risk of cirrhosis, liver cancer, and even death in patients.

With the above information, we have somewhat imagined the harm that alcohol causes to the liver. It should be noted that the risk that any drink poses to the liver is highly dependent on their alcohol content.
It is estimated that each 330ml can of beer will be equivalent to a 135ml glass of wine and about 30ml of spirits. Therefore, as long as men consume more than 60g of alcohol per day and women consume more than 40g of alcohol per day, the risk of liver problems caused by alcohol will increase. On the other hand, when drinking alcohol for a long time combined with not eating properly, it will cause severe malnutrition, causing the body to lack substances and vitamins seriously. This further reduces the body's ability to detoxify, and adversely affects the regeneration of damaged liver cells.
Therefore, once we understand the serious harms of alcohol to the liver, it is best to choose beers and alcohol with an alcohol content of less than 30 degrees, along with eating a combination of starch and protein in the process. drinking process to better metabolize alcohol and protect the liver. In addition, green vegetables are also considered a food containing a lot of fiber, contributing to the rapid reduction of alcohol absorption, so during the process of drinking alcoholic beverages we should also load more dishes. Contains lots of vegetables.
Another important note is that after drinking alcohol, it is not allowed to use antipyretic or pain relievers that contain paracetamol. Because it can increase the risk of poisoning, liver failure, even life-threatening.
In case you have to drink alcohol, it is best to drink it on an empty stomach, then add fruit juice to neutralize the alcohol and quickly detox. Patients with liver diseases caused by alcohol need to stop using this drink if they want to protect their health and life.
Hopefully, the article on the topic of how drinking a lot of alcohol affects the liver has helped you have a more honest view of the impact of this drink on the body. It is best to drink alcohol only when necessary and in moderation, to avoid the unpredictable harm it causes.