My old uncle/kloc-started drinking at the age of 0/8. He is 50 years old this year. Alcoholic hepatitis has already been successfully modeled. I'm glad cirrhosis hasn't appeared yet. Every time he sees me, he will ask, "nephew, how long is alcoholic hepatitis from cirrhosis?" I have been helping him answer this question since the day I went to medical university, but every time I see him, he still asks. To tell the truth, he still has fear in his heart, otherwise he won't ask a question for nearly 20 years.
In fact, my old uncle is the epitome of this great era in our country. Since China's reform and opening up, people's living standards have been greatly improved, and the consumption of alcohol has also increased year by year. You don't have to look at anything else. You can enjoy it by watching TV advertisements. You can time the TV advertisements of 1 minute to see how many alcohol advertisements there are. With the increase of alcohol consumption, the incidence of alcoholic liver disease in China is also increasing year by year. The so-called alcoholic liver disease is actually a liver injury disease caused by long-term drinking. Having said that, I have to talk about the function of the liver.
As a chemical plant of human body, the liver undergoes transformation and metabolism, and all kinds of toxins are eliminated in the liver. As a toxin, alcohol is also metabolized by the liver. So alcohol is bad for health, and drinking too much is harmful. Long-term drinking, acetaldehyde, a metabolite of alcohol, has a great toxic effect on liver cells, and the liver damage caused by long-term drinking also follows. Generally, most people drink alcohol for a long time, and the liver damage will follow the following processes: alcoholic fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, alcoholic cirrhosis and liver cancer. For many drinkers, this process is gradual. At first, the liver was damaged and there was no feeling. Once there are symptoms such as liver pain, it is basically a more serious stage, such as cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Speaking of which, many friends who drink all the year round will be more nervous. Then you will ask, "What about this situation? Is there any room for redemption? Is it too late to give up drinking now? "
Objectively speaking, abstinence from alcohol is a very effective way to restore liver health for patients with alcoholic liver disease. Let's talk about the successive stages of liver disease:
① For mild alcoholic fatty liver, active and successful abstinence from alcohol is a very effective treatment method, and it can be said that the effect is immediate.
② For patients with early alcoholic hepatitis, studies show that after 2-4 weeks of complete abstinence, histology and liver function can be significantly improved, and even liver function may return to normal.
③ In the more serious stage of early cirrhosis, liver function can also be improved rapidly after abstinence, and the most obvious improvement period is six months to one year after abstinence.
④ For severe liver cirrhosis, abstinence can significantly improve the 5-year survival rate.
In fact, having said so much, Dr. Zhang just wants to draw people's attention to the harm of drinking through my own personal experience. As night falls, there will be no more bosses drinking and smoking on the wine table in restaurants of all sizes in China, and more warm men will go home to see their wives and children.
Can a regular drinker's liver recover after abstinence? Being able to ask this question shows that we have realized the harm of alcohol to liver health, but whether the harm of alcohol to liver can be restored depends on the specific situation.
What harm does alcohol do to the liver? Alcohol can do harm to the liver in many ways.
First, alcohol is mainly metabolized by the liver. The process of alcohol metabolism in the liver after entering the human body is mainly as follows: when alcohol enters the liver, it is first converted into acetaldehyde under the action of alcohol dehydrogenase, and acetaldehyde is further converted into acetic acid under the action of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, and acetic acid is further decomposed into water and carbon dioxide. Such an alcohol metabolism process seems simple, but because alcohol itself and acetaldehyde, the intermediate product of alcohol metabolism, are toxic to some extent, if acetaldehyde dehydrogenase in the next step is insufficient or can not decompose acetaldehyde in time, acetaldehyde will accumulate in the body and cause toxic reactions, and it will also have certain toxic reactions to liver cells. Therefore, when drinking alcohol, alcohol will have a certain toxic effect on liver cells in the process of liver metabolism. Many people who drink heavily for a long time will have fatty liver or even cirrhosis, which is mainly related to this factor.
In addition to the influence of alcohol on liver health in the process of liver metabolism, alcohol will also affect the lipid metabolism of the liver, leading to an increase in the proportion of lipid components in liver cells, thus leading to fatty liver problems. Alcoholic fatty liver is one of the most important manifestations of liver damage caused by alcohol. Never underestimate the problem of fatty liver. Although it may not be felt, fatty liver is closely related to insulin resistance, elevated blood sugar, decreased liver function and abnormal blood lipid metabolism. Therefore, fatty liver may have no abnormal indexes when doing liver function examination, but if it is not taken seriously, it may have adverse effects on many aspects of health, and it may continue to develop, leading to a decline in liver function.
Another point that cannot be ignored is that alcohol will affect the metabolism of many substances, especially drugs in the body. Therefore, for some friends who need to take medicine, if they don't pay attention during taking medicine, they still drink alcohol, which will easily lead to drug overdose or metabolic changes in the body, leading to increased drug risk and impaired liver function. Many friends know that "cephalosporin leaves as soon as it is said", but in fact, many drugs may be affected by alcohol when they are metabolized in the body, and may even affect the health of the liver. Therefore, friends are advised not to drink, drink or take drugs as much as possible. This is not only to ensure the safety of medication, but also to protect liver health.
Can the liver damage caused by alcohol be recovered after abstinence? For this problem, we should treat it dialectically, and we can't generalize it.
The harm of alcohol to liver health is not formed at once, but gradually formed in the process of long-term drinking. Some friends may pay attention to moderate drinking, not too much, not too much, and not every day. Such a friend may have no problem with liver function all his life; And some friends will get drunk with every drink, often drink a lot, and drink too much for a long time. If this situation continues, the problem of alcoholic fatty liver will appear after a period of time. If you still don't actively control drinking and continue to drink, it is not uncommon to cause alcoholic cirrhosis and liver cancer due to long-term excessive drinking.
Therefore, although alcohol will do harm to the health of the liver, whether the liver can recover after abstinence depends on the specific state of the liver when abstinence. Let's talk about three different situations-
For example, people who used to drink a lot often had alcoholic fatty liver problems, but there were no obvious symptoms of liver damage such as elevated transaminase. For such a situation, if you can stop drinking in time, the problem of mild to moderate fatty liver can often be recovered. After abstinence, alcohol does less harm to the liver. If you can actively control a healthy diet, you can not only stop drinking, but also control a low-fat and low-sugar diet, eat more healthy ingredients rich in vitamins and protein, exercise actively, and control your weight. Fatty liver problems can usually be better recovered, and there is little chance of further damage to liver function.
For example, people who drink heavily for a long time find that not only fatty liver appears, but also liver function is slightly damaged. The specific performance may be the increase of transaminase, or the change of bilirubin and other indicators. If you exclude the influence of other liver diseases, you can stop drinking in time. Because the liver is an organ with strong compensatory function, if they can actively adjust their lives and protect their liver after drinking, their liver function will gradually return to normal. Although the damage caused by alcohol to the liver may not completely return to normal from the morphology of the liver, it can restore liver function, which is also a health benefit brought by abstinence.
Some friends have been drinking heavily for years, and the damage to the liver has been very serious. Not only abnormal liver function appeared, but also alcoholic cirrhosis appeared. Under such circumstances, such liver health problems are irreversible. At this time, it is of course impossible to completely restore the liver and restore the liver function again after abstinence.
To sum up, we want to protect the health of the liver by abstaining from alcohol, which is of course a good health consciousness. However, whether the liver can fully recover after abstinence depends on the specific situation. Of course, we still have to understand that alcohol is an important risk factor for liver health. No matter whether there is no liver problem, it is important to actively limit drinking or abstinence, which is an important aspect to reduce the risk of liver health. Although sometimes, if the liver has been seriously damaged, it is difficult to recover, but it is never too late to actively control drinking and protect the health of the liver.
First of all, does drinking often damage the liver? I think no one can give a definite answer. If there is, he must be talking nonsense!
Drinking hurts the liver, and this statement must also distinguish between alcohol and people. If a person often drinks too much, without restraint or even too much, then his liver is likely to be damaged. And if you drink fake wine, it goes without saying that not only the liver will be damaged. However, different people have different metabolic abilities to alcohol, and their living habits and eating habits are also different. When a person happens to drink a lot, he also has liver problems. We are not so sure that it is caused by drinking. Many people drink a lot and are still healthy.
Let's assume that this regular drinker has liver problems, whether fatty liver or cirrhosis, and has given up drinking now. So can his liver recover?
Then we need to distinguish the extent of his liver damage. Our bodies have the ability to repair themselves, but there are limits. We cut a hole, and the throat is inflamed, which will heal itself, but can the whole finger grow well after being cut off? If there is something wrong with your liver, you have been to the hospital. After the examination, the doctor must have said what the problem was, and also made clear the serious situation, existing treatment methods and precautions. So, please follow the doctor's advice! As for restoring health, we have to change our living habits for a long time. How long this can last depends on your health. No one can guarantee it.
I've been sober for over a year. What is my real situation?
It can be said that this physical examination is the best result since I 1995. At that time, I already had severe fatty liver. Last year, the doctors who examined their bodies for B-ultrasound were shocked, because the liver deformation was very serious and the organs of the whole body were basically not very good, which really pushed them to the edge of danger.
The reason is that the source of all diseases is a word "wine". In those years, the name "alcoholic" was firmly attached to the body and never left behind. Drunk, don't go back until you are drunk. I am addicted to alcohol. I often get drunk alone and drink a bottle of Erguotou almost every night. Even a bag of peanuts and a small pig head can make you deeply intoxicated in the wine country. Severe alcohol dependence is terrible. If you don't drink it, you will lose sleep and even have hallucinations and auditory hallucinations. The longest time was when I didn't drink for ten days. I really didn't sleep for ten nights, and my mental state has been on the verge of collapse.
The "alcohol addiction" that goes deep into the bone marrow has made me fail to give up drinking countless times. Many friends even told me directly: If Yan gives up drinking, I will give up drinking! This is not irony, but the helplessness of facing a drinker. I consume my will, backbone, responsibility and mission in pushing a cup for a change! Let yourself fall into the sea of wine.
I'm glad I'm not doomed, and I'm not really trapped in hell. In the face of one friend after another who left me because of wine, yin and yang are separated. They are slapping me with their lives! Am I still so cold? In the face of a series of shocking digital symbols on the physical examination platform over the years, transaminase increased by more than 20 times, heart rate reached 100 times, and all indicators flashed red. Between wine and life, of course I choose the latter! Even if there is a heaven after death, I will live without hesitation, because my relatives and friends are all in this world, and heaven is lonely no matter how good it is!
Being hospitalized last year made me understand the importance of health. From then on, I lost my glass to regain my glory and threw the hat of "drunkard" to Lao Wang next door!
It was really painful at the beginning of abstinence, and insomnia, chest tightness, shortness of breath, night sweats, nightmares and so on followed. The drawer is full of medicines for heart, liver, spleen, stomach and kidney. It used to be soaked in wine, but now it is buried in medicine. I am really afraid that I will become a real "medicine jar" in the future! I went through a long recovery process from illness to illness.
After getting rid of the control of drunkards, you should find ways to make your weak body healthy. So exercise and drugs have become my only choice. Because physical weakness is not conducive to strenuous exercise, the only way to exercise is to walk quickly. When I was in Shenzhen, I got up at five o'clock every day and walked several kilometers. Then wash and eat, and take a walk in the evening. Long-term adherence to weight loss is effective, but chest tightness and shortness of breath still exist. During the epidemic, the cold weather did not insist on exercising at home and the weight rebounded. The medicine beside the bed is still a necessity, and I dare not give up.
When you come to Hangzhou, no matter how hot it is, windy and rainy, you have to walk 20,000 steps without interruption every day. In order to prevent knee injury, I bought patellar strap and ammonia candy online, and simply stretched it before and after walking, which effectively prevented knee injury. I have persisted all the way, but I still feel light, although I am not refreshed. The weight is always maintained at around 160 kg. Yesterday, the physical examination results were finally close to normal. This is the biggest reward for determination, perseverance and sweat, and it is also the biggest health medal marked on the body since 1995!
As a person who has gone through a lot of hardships to get rid of the wine sea, I still want to advise those who are addicted to wine glasses to give up drinking as soon as possible for themselves and their families, and don't deceive themselves. It's really the abyss of wine, and it's a turning back! Don't believe the story that drinking less is good for your health! So far, there is no science to prove that any element in red wine, beer and liquor, including medicinal liquor, can be beneficial to the body! On the contrary, more and more scientific research institutions can prove that alcohol is as harmful as cigarettes! Brothers and sisters, wake up! Stay away from this kind of torture device that God uses to punish human beings, it will be addictive and harmful to your health! Break the glass and stay away from the wine demon, and you will have a different perfect life!
Of course, even if you can't fully recover, it won't get worse, right? Don't use "it's no use giving up drinking, this body is like this" as an excuse to continue drinking! The longer you drink, the more you drink, and the greater the damage to your liver. The sooner you give up drinking, or reduce the number and amount of drinking, it will only be good for your liver, not bad.
If mild alcoholic hepatitis (alcoholic liver disease or alcoholic fatty liver) abstains from alcohol for 3 months, the liver indexes can basically return to normal. If the condition is serious (liver tissue damage has occurred), the recovery time of the liver may take one year or more. Although statistics show that 18% of moderate and severe patients still develop cirrhosis after abstinence for 5- 10 years, abstinence can obviously improve their physical condition, prolong the life span of patients with liver diseases and improve their quality of life.
A habit cannot be formed overnight, nor can a habit change be completed overnight.
Once people who drink heavily for a long time give up drinking completely, they may have "alcohol withdrawal symptoms" such as anxiety, irritability, sweating, nausea and vomiting. This is a normal physiological reaction. Because of long-term alcohol intake, the alcohol concentration in the blood is very high, and suddenly the alcohol concentration in the blood drops sharply, which will cause these symptoms.
But abstinence is an important part of treating alcoholic hepatitis, and we can't indulge ourselves to continue drinking because of this uncomfortable stage. Therefore, when the above uncomfortable symptoms appear, you can seek medical advice in time and ask the doctor to prescribe some medicine as appropriate to help your body through this difficult period. "God will be a great responsibility for the people of Sri Lanka, so we must bear it first." If you want to restore your health, you must have a firm determination to "stop drinking"!
In addition, during abstinence, it is of great significance to enrich diet, drink plenty of water and supplement adequate vitamins and minerals. Because patients with alcoholic hepatitis are often accompanied by mild to severe malnutrition, obesity and emaciation are the manifestations of malnutrition. Specific can refer to the following principles:
I believe that while correcting bad living habits, your body will also recover!
Regular drinkers can recover their liver after abstinence, but this is a prerequisite. If they do well, they can recover. If they don't do this, their liver condition will continue to deteriorate.
First of all, the liver has many functions, one of which is detoxification, such as detoxification of alcohol, detoxification of food, detoxification of drugs, including killing bacteria in the liver and so on. In the process of detoxification, liver cells will fight bravely like soldiers to eliminate toxins and germs until they die. But at the same time, the body will continue to let more hepatocyte soldiers into the battlefield. In the process of liver recovery, if we can make the cells of the liver recover faster than the damage, the liver can recover, and vice versa.
Here are several ways to help the liver recover. If done well, the liver can recover quickly.
1, choosing the right food and eating the right food can help the liver recover quickly. Especially foods with high protein and rich vitamin B group.
2, going to bed early and getting up early can better increase body repair and nourish the liver.
3, keep a good mood, angry and hurt the liver, in a good mood, the liver will soon recover.
After abstaining from alcohol, if you do the above three points, your liver will recover easily.
One day, I have a healthy feeling and look forward to sharing it with the right person.
There is no way to recover. A colleague of mine used to love drinking, but later gave up drinking, but suddenly died of liver disease.
First of all, because drinking often will cause certain damage to the liver, which is irreversible. That is to say, even if you take care of it slowly in the future, the damage still exists, but you can't feel it for a while. And when your body function declines, your resistance is low, and your defense ability is also declining, the sequelae of this liver injury will be reflected.
One of my colleagues used to drink a lot. He is also the leader of the company, so he receives more. Usually, his health is very good, but he is only in his thirties. Later, for other reasons, he stopped drinking. After about two years of abstinence, he always felt a stomachache for a while, and then went to the hospital for examination and found that there was something wrong with his liver. Later, I went to a special liver hospital for a comprehensive and systematic examination. It turned out that his liver was necrotic. If you want to live, you can only change your liver. But liver replacement, liver source and matching are a big problem. With the help of the whole company, he finally matched a suitable liver source and successfully performed liver replacement surgery. I sent him a short message at that time. I want to see him, but I'm afraid to disturb him. He also replied to me, saying that there was no problem and he would come back to work in a few days, but he died suddenly on the third day after changing his liver. It is said that his liver has a serious rejection problem. Even if his blood type can match anything, this rejection is inevitable. While regretting the death of his young life, we also feel that frequent drinking is too harmful to the liver. Therefore, you must not drink or smoke. Keeping healthy is more important than anything else.
Everyone knows that excessive drinking harms the liver. More and more alcoholics suffer from alcoholic liver disease. According to the statistics of the World Health Organization, there are more than 200 diseases or injuries related to drinking, and the organization advocates that "the less alcohol, the better". As the most important "chemical plant" in our human metabolism, liver plays a key role in alcohol metabolism. After drinking alcohol, alcohol is oxidized into acetaldehyde through a series of reactions in the body, and acetaldehyde has obvious toxic effect on liver cells. Therefore, for people who drink a lot of alcohol for a long time and cause alcoholic liver disease, doctors will recommend abstinence. But after quitting, can the liver recover?
Can the liver of long-term drinkers return to normal after abstinence? Long-term drinking can be said to be a trilogy according to the situation of liver injury:
(1) Mild alcoholic liver disease and alcoholic fatty liver disease
The biochemical indexes, histopathology and imaging examination of patients with mild alcoholic liver disease are basically or slightly abnormal. The imaging of patients with alcoholic fatty liver suggests that fatty liver and liver function test may be normal or slightly abnormal. Due to the steatosis of liver cells, if these two types of patients give up drinking, they will gradually metabolize the fat in the liver after treatment and gradually return to normal completely.
(2) Alcoholic hepatitis and hepatic fibrosis
Alcoholic liver disease generally refers to liver diseases caused by heavy drinking, which generally lasts for more than 5 years. Men drink an average of 40g a day, while women drink 20g a day, or have a history of drinking 80g a day for two weeks. And there may be no symptoms, or abdominal pain, loss of appetite, fatigue, jaundice and so on. If the condition is further aggravated, spider nevus, liver palm and neuropsychiatric symptoms may appear.
A large number of hepatocytes in patients with alcoholic hepatitis are necrotic, and even liver failure may occur in severe cases. Besides abstinence from alcohol, medication is needed. Generally, 70% patients with alcoholic hepatitis can return to normal after abstinence. In addition to cell injury and inflammation, alcoholic liver fibrosis also forms a grid-like structure around cells, resulting in sclerosing transparent necrosis. After abstinence, liver inflammation and fibrosis may still exist, but abstinence can slow down the progress of cirrhosis.
(3) Alcoholic cirrhosis
Alcoholic cirrhosis is the end stage of liver disease, which leads to hepatocyte necrosis and permanent structural damage due to fibrous tissue formation and nodular hyperplasia. Patients have symptoms of decompensated liver function, such as ascites, jaundice, gastrointestinal bleeding, hepatic encephalopathy and so on. At this time, abstinence from alcohol can not completely restore health, but it can improve the survival rate. If you want to have a liver transplant, you should strictly abstain from alcohol for 3-6 months before operation.
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For people with bad liver, you must give up drinking as soon as possible. Once alcoholic hepatitis changes to the third step according to the above trilogy, the situation will be serious, even if we stop drinking, it will be difficult to reverse it, thus making the diagnosis and treatment of diseases difficult and paying a huge price. Therefore, this also reminds us that although wine is good, we must not be greedy!
References:
Fatty Liver and Alcoholic Liver Disease Group of Hepatology Branch of Chinese Medical Association, Fatty Liver Disease Expert Committee of Chinese Medical Association, Li Youming, et al. Guidelines for Prevention and Treatment of Alcoholic Liver Disease (2065438+2008 Update Edition) [J]. Journal of Practical Liver Disease, 20 18, v.2 1 (02): 23-29.
Before 0 1. 19, I worked in the field and met a young man of 3 1, 1 male, 2 females and 3 children. A few years before that, I got alcoholic hepatitis because I drank too much white wine, and my stomach was full of ascites. Not going to a big hospital meant waiting for death at home. But his brother went to another county to find an old Chinese doctor and treated him for two or three months. At that time, he bought more than 300 yuan of Chinese medicine, which was really cured. When I met him, he was fine. This is the magic of Chinese medicine.
02. Of course, I have also seen a 42-year-old man who died of cirrhosis after drinking and didn't try to cure it. At that time, there was no medical insurance, and my wife died without treatment. Go to the hospital first, stop drinking, and your liver will recover!
The only way of alcoholic liver injury is to brake early and get better early, and then drink it later, which can also be divided into passive and active types. Passive wine is not good, but it has to be contaminated for entertainment and social interaction. Of course, it does not rule out that long-term immersion unconsciously develops into an active type;
The characteristics of active type are very obvious, such as three meals a day and regular and quantitative eating. Some are too active, from food to wine, supplemented by food; Later, it developed into irregularity and uncertainty. When I think of it, I will take a sip and drink morning wine on an empty stomach. Such people also have several characteristics: for example, they take the initiative to raise their glasses at parties or like to drink by themselves when no one is raising their glasses. He is still wanting more when everyone else has left, and he has to make up a few ounces when he goes home. He prefers to drink alone.
Later, the body has issued a solemn warning: for example, the liver area is dull and painful, the face is dark and pig liver color, and the urine is brown in the morning, but it still can't resist the temptation of alcohol. This is called "alcohol dependence" in western medicine, "alcoholism" in Chinese medicine, and "drunkenness" and "drunkard" in folk.
For example, when alcohol dependence develops to a serious stage, there will be hand shaking after abstinence, and even alcohol hallucinations and epilepsy, which is currently listed as a kind of mental illness in China; From the perspective of zang-fu organs, the five internal organs, which complement each other between transportation and transformation, are undoubtedly the first to damage the liver if they are soaked in wine for a long time.
The liver damage caused by long-term excessive drinking is called "alcoholic hepatitis", also called "alcoholic liver disease". If you don't stop drinking in time, your illness will get worse.
This process is divided into five steps: 1. Mild alcoholic hepatitis.
Mild alcoholic hepatitis has little effect on the normal function of the liver for the time being. After abstinence, the liver will repair itself, but we must pay more attention to it in our life and not treat it lightly.
2. Alcoholic fatty liver
If you don't stop drinking, there will be a lot of acetic acid in the liver, and acetic acid will cause the accumulation of fat, which will lead to the occurrence of alcoholic fatty liver. Therefore, it is necessary to seek medical treatment in time, actively cooperate with doctors, give up drinking, adjust diet and develop good living habits, and the condition will also improve. Therefore, it is hopeful to seize the opportunity to restore normal liver function.
3. Alcoholic hepatitis
Because of long-term heavy drinking, alcohol causes damage to liver cells, leading to necrosis of liver cells, which can lead to fatigue, nausea and jaundice. This shows that the liver has been seriously damaged, and if you don't stop drinking, it will even develop into liver failure and hepatic encephalopathy.
At this stage, your primary consideration is no longer whether you can recover, but not to let it continue to develop.
4. Alcoholic liver fibrosis
This is the early stage of liver cirrhosis, often accompanied by fatigue, liver pain, abnormal digestion and other symptoms. As the symptoms get worse, the mental state will also be depressed.
5. alcoholic cirrhosis
Liver cirrhosis can seriously damage liver function, leading to emaciation, malnutrition, jaundice and other symptoms. If the disease worsens, there will be abnormalities such as hepatic ascites and gastrointestinal bleeding, which will be irreversible, and then deteriorate into liver cancer and even life-threatening.
These five ways of alcoholic liver injury are not alarmist. At present, various diseases induced or caused by alcoholism are not uncommon. Alcoholics should also block the praise of alcohol. Thousands of years of wine culture is true, but the culture has been distilled off, leaving a lot of alcohol.
As a Chinese medicine, although Huangdi Neijing contains:
But I think most of today's wines are hard to be labeled as "the essence of grain", and the focus is only on the word "toughness".
Although wine is also called "the best medicine" in ancient books, many people don't know the second sentence: "moderate drinking".
Finally, a word to those who are addicted to alcohol: you may not bring a better life to your family, but at least don't let others point to the backbone of your family and say: He is an alcoholic! After all, your body and your dignity are never yours alone.