‘I had no idea being a social drinker would damage my liver by 31’

By Free Republic | Created at 2024-11-25 13:39:32 | Updated at 2024-12-04 09:03:12 1 week ago

‘I had no idea being a social drinker would damage my liver by 31’
BBC ^ | Nov 25 | Hazel Martin, BBC

Posted on 11/25/2024 5:20:19 AM PST by RandFan

At 31 years old, I was told by doctors that if I didn’t stop drinking alcohol, I could die.

I was shocked because I didn’t drink every day, I never drank alone and I drank because I enjoyed it as a social activity, not because I felt alcohol-dependent.

But by definition, my alcohol consumption from my late teens to late 20s would be considered binge drinking. It felt normal because people around me were doing the same - and now it was catching up with me.

I’d recently become a mum and had gone to the GP because I felt tired all the time. This led to blood tests and a liver function check.

Further tests revealed I had severe alcohol-related liver fibrosis, or extreme scarring on my liver, most likely because of my drinking habits.

I trundled home from the hospital in a daze, with my daughter in her pram. This might have happened to me, I thought, but I could not be the only one.

I wanted to know what this said about the UK’s drinking culture and began looking into it for BBC Panorama.

Alcohol-specific deaths are at their highest levels in the UK, since records began in 2001.

While the problem is undoubtedly bigger in men - particularly older men - more women under the age of 45 are dying due to alcohol-related liver disease, or ARLD, than ever before, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures from 2001-22.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...

TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Conspiracy; Health/Medicine
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1 posted on 11/25/2024 5:20:19 AM PST by RandFan

To: RandFan

I’m no doctor, but I’m pretty confident “social drinking” does not damage your liver this badly by age 31.

2 posted on 11/25/2024 5:23:16 AM PST by Fzob (“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential)

To: RandFan

alcohol-related liver disease, or ARLD

Great, another abbreviation. There are new ones popping up in commercials all the time. Everybody seems to want one.

3 posted on 11/25/2024 5:25:50 AM PST by FoxInSocks ("Hope is not a course of action." — M. O'Neal, USMC)

To: RandFan

When I drink alone, I prefer to be by myself.

4 posted on 11/25/2024 5:26:43 AM PST by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait!)

To: Fzob

Well, the Brits are *very* social...

5 posted on 11/25/2024 5:26:54 AM PST by dinodino ( Cut it down anyway. )

To: Fzob

This woman engaged in binge drinking, but called it social.

6 posted on 11/25/2024 5:26:56 AM PST by MortMan (Charter member of AAAAA - American Association Against Alliteration Abuse)

To: Fzob

She says she is a social drinker, then says this: “But by definition, my alcohol consumption from my late teens to late 20s would be considered binge drinking.”

Ten years of regularly getting schnockered will kill your liver.

7 posted on 11/25/2024 5:27:43 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (Republicans are the party that says ‘Government doesn’t work.’ Then they get elected and prove it.)

To: Fzob

>I’m no doctor, but I’m pretty confident “social drinking” does not damage your liver this badly by age 31.

Yeah, there was probably illicit drug use or long-term pharma use that exacerbated it. That said, if you start drinking like this during puberty, it does heavily affect your liver. I had a friend who, in middle school, would drink his dads beer secretly and later had liver problems.

8 posted on 11/25/2024 5:27:57 AM PST by struggle

To: RandFan

It depends on one’s tolerance to alcohol, which is often genetic. But the same genetic factor that produce tolerance to alcohol can often result in alcoholism, so don’t think of it as a blessing.

To: Fzob

If your social circle consists of like-minded heavy drinkers, you may get early-onset liver problems.

10 posted on 11/25/2024 5:29:13 AM PST by NautiNurse (With a cough and a sputter, the original lying dog-faced pony soldier is led out to pasture. )

To: Larry Lucido

Stick to poop beer, you’ll be fine.

11 posted on 11/25/2024 5:30:35 AM PST by Kudsman (Hey,, Democrat,,leave them kids alone!)

To: RandFan

Liver is genetic. Blood Pressure may not be. What kills more drunks than anything?

Accidents. Wrecks, falls, stupid stuff.

12 posted on 11/25/2024 5:32:16 AM PST by AppyPappy (If Hitler were alive today and criticized Trump, would he still be Hitler?)

To: Fzob

Binge drinking in the UK is very ugly—and common.

13 posted on 11/25/2024 5:32:41 AM PST by 9YearLurker

To: Larry Lucido

“When I drink alone, I prefer to be by myself.”

One day I was in a local liquor store and another George Thorogood song was playing:

One bourbon, one scotch and one beer...

Sorta surreal...

14 posted on 11/25/2024 5:35:39 AM PST by BBB333 (The Power Of Trump Compels You!)

To: struggle

I know a doctor who told me if it is almost impossible to drink yourself to death over time. But if you tie one on and wake up with a hangover, pop 2 Tylenol every day and your liver will eventually go. Tylenol and alcohol will do kill you.

Show me a drunk who has stopped eating and I can accurately predict when they will die. If your pet stops eating, many times it is liver failure.

15 posted on 11/25/2024 5:36:29 AM PST by AppyPappy (If Hitler were alive today and criticized Trump, would he still be Hitler?)

To: 9YearLurker

When Sharia comes to Britain, it won’t be a problem anymore.

16 posted on 11/25/2024 5:36:47 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)

To: RandFan

Well, even those of us who consider ourselves to have good health oft wonder about how much better it could have been if not damaged by activities from wayward and misspent youth...

To: FoxInSocks

The Liver People love their acronyms. And, when one has overstayed its welcome, they discard it and pick a new one.

From AASLD (American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases):

New MASLD Nomenclature
No more NAFLD! Steatotic Liver Disease is the overarching term; NAFLD is now MASLD

and…

Fatty liver disease gets a new name
Gone is the long-used, problematic term “nonalcoholic fatty liver disease,” (NAFLD) which most members of a 236-person multinational panel of clinicians, patients, public health and regulatory representatives agreed could create stigma.

18 posted on 11/25/2024 5:38:04 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (Republicans are the party that says ‘Government doesn’t work.’ Then they get elected and prove it.)

To: RandFan

I think in the UK a lot of people believe getting blackout drunk is just a typical way to hang out with friends. Pass out in the street. Everyone does that ... right? Just being social.

19 posted on 11/25/2024 5:38:26 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (My decisions about people are based almost entirely on skin color. I learned this from Democrats.)

To: RandFan

If it was “binge drinking” it wasn’t “social drinking.”

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