Drinking too much alcohol can damage the liver's cells. Alcohol-related cirrhosis usually develops after 10 or more years of heavy drinking. Women who drink heavily are more likely to get liver damage than men, partly because of their different size and build.
Alcohol Related Cirrhosis: The most serious form of ALD, it occurs when the entire liver is scarred, causing the liver to shrink and harden. This can lead to liver failure. Usually the damage cannot be reversed. Between 10 to 20 percent of heavy drinkers develop cirrhosis typically after 10 or more years of drinking.
Depending on the cause, cirrhosis can develop over months or years. There is no cure. Treatment aims to halt liver damage, manage the symptoms and reduce the risk of complications, such as diabetes, osteoporosis (brittle bones), liver cancer and liver failure.
About 2% of American adults have liver disease, and therefore are at risk of developing cirrhosis. However, those who drink too much alcohol, those who are overweight and those with viral hepatitis are at a greater risk. Not everyone with these risk factors develop cirrhosis.
How long do you have to drink before liver damage? People with serious liver damage have usually been drinking for 20 or more years. But complications can develop after 5 to 10 years of heavy drinking. Again, this can be highly variable between individuals and is likely genetic.
Alcoholic liver disease is a major source of alcohol–related morbidity and mortality. Heavy drinkers and alcoholics may progress from fatty liver to alcoholic hepatitis to cirrhosis, and it is estimated that 10 percent to 15 percent of alcoholics will develop cirrhosis.
The disease is common in people between 40 and 50 years of age. Men are more likely to have this problem. However, women may develop the disease after less exposure to alcohol than men. Some people may have an inherited risk for the disease.
Between 10 and 20 percent of heavy drinkers develop cirrhosis, usually after 10 or more years of drinking.
People with cirrhosis in Class A have the best prognosis, with a life expectancy of 15 to 20 years. People with cirrhosis in Class B are still healthy, with a life expectancy of 6 to 10 years. As a result, these people have plenty of time to seek sophisticated therapy alternatives such as a liver transplant.
People with cirrhosis of the liver have a life expectancy of between two and 12 years. If you have early-stage cirrhosis, treatment and lifestyle changes can help you live longer.
Cirrhosis
Up to one in every five long-term heavy drinkers will develop alcohol-related liver cirrhosis. While cirrhosis is not reversible, there is good evidence that stopping drinking completely improves the outcome for some people.
Do all alcoholics get alcoholic hepatitis and eventually cirrhosis? No. Some alcoholics may suffer seriously from the many physical and psychological symptoms of alcoholism, but escape serious liver damage. Alcoholic cirrhosis is found among alcoholics about 10 to 25 percent of the time.
With any alcohol consumption, the risk for liver cirrhosis increased exponentially among women; among men, the risk increased beyond consumption of 1 drink or more per day. Drinking daily and outside of meals increases the risk for liver cirrhosis at any given level of overall alcohol intake.
Cirrhosis cannot usually be cured, but there are ways to manage the symptoms and any complications, and stop the condition getting worse.
Myth: I don't have any symptoms so there's no way I could have cirrhosis. Fact: It is possible to have cirrhosis of the liver and not know it. Many patients who have cirrhosis still have enough liver function to support their body's daily operations and have no symptoms.
The most common symptom is fatigue. The cirrhosis is still reversible during this stage, but not enough liver tissue has been damaged to produce obvious symptoms of disease. Patients with stage 1 cirrhosis have a 99% 1-year survival rate.
Mild cirrhosis may not cause any symptoms at all. Symptoms may include: Fluid buildup in the belly (ascites) Vomiting blood, often from bleeding in the blood vessels in the food pipe (esophagus)
It's generally not reversible, but stopping drinking alcohol immediately can prevent further damage and significantly increase your life expectancy. A person who has alcohol-related cirrhosis and doesn't stop drinking has a less than 50% chance of living for at least 5 more years.
According to the NIAAA, consuming seven or more drinks per week is considered heavy drinking for women, and 15 drinks or more per week is determined to be excessive or heavy drinking for men.
A liver blood test measures the levels of various things in your blood, like proteins, liver enzymes, and bilirubin. This can help check the health of your liver and for signs of inflammation or damage.