How Does Alcohol Affect Your Liver?

How Does Alcohol Affect Your Liver?

After you swallow the alcohol, it lands on your stomach and your body begins to absorb it. Alcohol passes into the blood of the stomach and intestines directly through the wall of the stomach. Before this blood laden with alcohol passes into your bloodstream, it makes its way to the liver. Although the liver produces more of the above dehydrogenase, the enzyme that helps metabolize alcohol, than another organ in the body, is still severely affected by alcohol. Alcohol is a demanding force in the liver that requires you to put aside your normal activities to metabolize alcohol. In fact, metabolizing large amounts of alcohol can permanently change the cellular structure of the liver, which in turn affects the ability to metabolize fats. The fat stays in the liver instead of moving towards the body and being used. Using the liver to store fat creates a fatty liver.

The Importance of the Liver

If the liver is given more alcohol than it can metabolize in one hour, about 1/2 ounce (14 grams), alcohol spills on other parts of the body. Alcohol continues to circulate throughout the body until the liver is able to metabolize it. This can be a very slow process depending on how much alcohol has been consumed. It is also very demanding on the liver and if it continues for some time, it can permanently damage the liver. This organ is an important component of the metabolism in the body but also manages the storage of glycogen, the synthesis of plasma proteins, the production of hormones and the detoxification of the body. Whatever you put in your mouth and swallow, it will interact with your liver at some point. Without a functioning liver, the body can not survive.

Alcohol and liver function

There are three main diseases associated with excessive consumption of alcohol, fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis and alcoholic cirrhosis. Requiring too much of the liver with alcohol begins to damage and eventually kill the liver cells. Although the body can continue to function with fewer cells in the liver, continued use can increase this loss over time. Put this together with a fibrosis (scar tissue) in the liver, which begins to affect the growth of the cells, and you will have cirrhosis. This combination is seen in severe drinkers for ten or more years. Fatty liver (steatosis) can be reversed if alcohol consumption is stopped and is usually seen in heavy drinkers. Sometimes people with fatty livers develop inflammation, scar tissue in the liver, and in severe cases, hepatitis.Alcoholic hepatitis can occur at several levels. Severe cases can cause the liver to fail. Chronic drinkers who abuse drinking are highly susceptible to alcoholic hepatitis.

Video Tutorial: What Alcohol Can Do To Your Liver.

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