Does your liver recover from alcohol abuse?

Alcohol consumption is commonly an action with little consideration. By this, we mean, that most individuals who consume excessive levels of alcohol, beyond the recommended guidelines, fail to consider the consequences that it has on their health, with a specific focus on organ functionality.

It’s understandable why, as alcohol consumption is commonly linked to social and innocent intentions. Yet did you know that excessive, long-term alcohol abuse can cause liver disease? Did you know that the liver is a regenerative organ, yet extreme pressure can cause irreversible damage? Did you also know that by putting a stop to alcohol consumption, at the right moment, can help to reverse the damages of alcohol abuse?

Unfortunately, many individuals lack awareness around the healing potentials of the liver, lack awareness around the long-term impacts of alcohol abuse on the body, and also lack awareness on the possible necessity of a liver transplant. For the average person, drinking within the recommended guidelines, alcohol-related liver disease can be avoidable, where self-healing possibilities are high. Yet, for excessive drinkers, there’s a likelihood that their livers will struggle to recover by itself, resulting in liver cirrhosis.

Understand where you stand with alcohol abuse and how your current consumption can impact one of the most important organs in your body, resulting in life-limiting consequences. Liver disease is a serious illness, where 60% of diagnoses are driven by alcohol abuse, causing an incline of 400% in death rates. If you’re struggling with excessive alcohol abuse, which you cannot break, it’s time to take your health seriously, by reaching out for support at Step One Recovery; here to help you avoid the long-term detriment of alcohol abuse.

Here’s our answer to ‘does your liver recover from alcohol abuse?’, along with steps to avoid a liver disease diagnosis.

Your liver and alcohol consumption

The action of alcohol consumption, in moderation, will likely be digested and metabolised by the liver. Supportive enzyme cells will be present, in differing levels between both men and women, in place to digest the presence of alcohol.

Although identified as a toxic substance, alcohol can be processed by the liver, optimally, helping to preserve its usual functionality. However, through excessive presence of alcohol, this process can go into override, resulting in cellular death. Cellular death can cause harm to those supportive enzymes. Yet, a functional liver can heal itself, resulting in scar tissue, helping to regenerate cellular support.

While for some, liver cirrhosis can be reversed, excessive levels of alcohol can place great pressure on the liver, making it very difficult for self-healing to occur. Here’s where alcohol-related liver disease can be diagnosed, commonly resulting in irreversible damage, making it very difficult for your liver to recover from alcohol abuse.

Alcohol-related liver disease

If liver repair is unlikely, alcohol-related liver disease will commonly be diagnosed, which materialises into three stages. Commonly, the first sign of alcohol-related liver disease will be identified through the symptom of a fatty liver. Here’s where excessive amounts of fat will surround the liver, down to low capabilities of digestion.

Ongoing alcohol consumption can escalate liver disease towards the next stage, known as alcoholic hepatitis. Through excessive presence of alcohol, inflamed liver cells are likely, which influences abnormal blood results, indicating the degree of alcohol-related damage.

The final and most damaging stage of alcohol-related liver disease is liver cirrhosis, where excessive levels of scarring and fibrosis are likely. Here’s where regenerative possibilities are very low, down to the degree of pressure placed on the liver and its functionality, causing life-limiting damage. At this point, for some individuals, a liver transplant will be the only way to overcome liver damage, induced by alcohol abuse.

This is the reality of long-term or excessive alcohol abuse, which of course isn’t considered on initial consumption. Yet, by enabling the addictive and controlling tendencies of alcohol, to take over your body and its functionality, it can harm the organic healing properties of a vital organ, answering the question of ‘does your liver recover from alcohol abuse?’.

Unnervingly, over 7,700 people, each year, advance through the stages of alcohol-related liver disease, sadly resulting in liver cancer and death. Yet, through some lifestyle changes and the disablement of alcohol abuse, that advancement can be avoided.

Does your liver recover from alcohol abuse?

Ultimately, your liver can recover from a degree of alcohol abuse, by bypassing the three-stage advancement of alcohol-related liver disease. This is however only the case where moderate levels of alcohol are consumed, or where excessive consumption has been stopped prior to the development of alcoholic hepatitis.

Naturally, the liver can heal itself through the presence of protective enzymes. However, once pressure is placed on those enzymes, causing extreme cellular death, risks of liver damage will increase, making lone recovery difficult to achieve.

For some, the liver will heal by itself, resulting in normalised functionality levels, helping to digest the toxin of alcohol. Yet, for others, where ongoing alcohol abuse continues, chances of independent recovery will dwindle.

With this in mind, the degree of alcohol abuse and the impacts that it has will dictate whether your liver recovers from alcohol abuse or not. The latter will usually result in alcohol-related liver disease which can be controlled by sourcing professional support.

Avoiding liver disease

Avoidance of alcohol-related liver disease and the necessity of a liver transplant is possible by reducing alcohol consumption, by stopping consumption entirely, and by sourcing professional guidance as soon as alcohol abuse does escalate.

In tandem with this, you can promote greater possibilities of liver repair by following a healthy and balanced lifestyle, by following the recommended guidelines for alcohol consumption by controlling consumption under the 14 units per week gauge, and by understanding the effects of alcohol consumption on your body.

If you are struggling, treatment is available to reduce your alcohol intake, to help you overcome an addiction diagnosis, and to boost liver health. At Step One Recovery, we can help you through alcohol abuse, while also providing personal insight into ‘does your liver recover from alcohol abuse?’.

Take alcohol consumption seriously by being aware of its presence and the impacts of that on your liver.

 
Sources

https://www.piedmont.org/living-better/how-quickly-the-liver-can-repair-itself

Statistics

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/alcohol-related-liver-disease-arld/