Binge drinkers beware. A new study from researchers at the University College London (UCL) found that binge drinking is a major factor in developing liver disease.
Those who binge drink and have a certain genetic makeup are six times more likely to develop alcohol-related cirrhosis, according to new research from UCL, the Royal Free Hospital, the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.
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Alcohol-related cirrhosis is a severe and often irreversible condition that results from long-term, excessive alcohol consumption. It’s the advanced stage of alcohol-related liver disease (ARLD), and it occurs when healthy liver tissue is progressively replaced by scar tissue, hindering the liver’s ability to function properly.
It is caused by excessive alcohol consumption. Regularly exceeding recommended daily limits (around 14 standard drinks per week for men and 7 drinks per week for women) over many years significantly increases the risk of developing ARLD, including cirrhosis. Other factors affecting risk include genetics, gender, diet, and pre-existing health conditions can influence individual susceptibility to ARLD progression.
Cirrhosis often goes unnoticed initially, with symptoms manifesting later as the condition progresses. In later stages, symptoms may include fatigue, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, weight loss, yellowing of the skin and eyes (jaundice), fluid buildup in the abdomen (ascites), swelling of the legs and ankles, confusion, and even internal bleeding
Liver disease is one of the major causes of premature death globally, with 2-3% of the world’s population having cirrhosis (scarring of the liver) or liver disease. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, alcohol-related deaths have risen by 20%.
In their study, the researchers analyzed data from 312,599 actively drinking adults in the UK Biobank cohort, to assess the impact of pattern of drinking, genetic predisposition and type-2 diabetes on the likelihood of developing ARC.
Those who engaged in heavy binge drinking, which the researchers said is categorized as having 12 units of alcohol in a day at some point during a week, were three times as likely to develop ARC. The risk for those with a high genetic predisposition was four times higher and the risk for type-2 diabetics was two times higher.
Dr Linda Ng Fat, a first author of the study from UCL Epidemiology & Public Health, said: “Many studies that look into the relationship between liver disease and alcohol focus on the volume of alcohol consumed. We took a different approach by focusing on the pattern of drinking and found that this was a better indicator of liver disease risk than volume alone. The other key finding was that the more risk factors involved, the higher the ‘excess risk’ due to the interaction of these factors.”
