Early Signs of Liver Damage From Alcohol: How to Tell, What to Know

You can’t pass the disease on to others in the same way that you might pass on a virus. However, chronic heavy drinking can be “viral” in the social sense. When friends or family binge drink together, they reinforce in each other the behavior that can lead to alcohol-induced hepatitis. The first step in treating any level of alcoholic liver disease focuses on removing alcohol from the diet. Having hepatitis C increases the risk, and a person who consumes alcohol regularly and has had any type of hepatitis faces a higher chance of developing liver disease.

• Alcohol hepatitis and alcohol cirrhosis previously were called alcohol steatohepatitis , a term that still arises among some circles.
• A bruise is a discoloration of the skin that is a result of leakage of blood from capillaries into the skin.
• Sign up to receive the latest health news and trends, wellness & prevention tips, and much more from Orlando Health.
• On average, 1 in 3 people with the most advanced stage of liver disease and cirrhosis are still alive after 2 years.

Family members may express concern about drinking habits and behaviors that you engage in while intoxicated. So if you bump your body on a hard, blunt surface, your relaxed blood vessels are more likely to release the floodgates. Since more blood will be released to pool beneath the skin, your alcohol bruises may seem bigger and more intense than your sober bruises. The liver makes proteins that the blood needs for clotting, so if it’s not doing its job, you may bleed or bruise more easily. It could be a sign that you’ve got a condition called cirrhosis, which is scarring of the liver.

Who can get alcohol-induced hepatitis (formerly known as alcoholic hepatitis)?

Purpura might look like bruises, but they aren’t caused by an injury as most regular bruises are. They are tiny, flat, red or purple spots in the skin. But they are different than the tiny, flat, red spots or birthmarks that are on the skin all the time. Getting a professional intervention early on is a person’s best chance of reversing the strain alcohol puts on the liver.

Alcohol use disorder can include periods of being drunk and symptoms of withdrawal. Brain tumor, breast cancer, colon cancer, congenital heart disease, heart arrhythmia. If you think you might have a problem, there are why do alcoholics bruise easily ways you can get help and Dr Levy said there are some people who can successfully stop drinking on their own. These are what produce normal blood coagulation, this he said can lead to large bruises from small bumps.

Procedures & Tests

To determine how much they are drinking, they need to know the alcohol content of alcoholic beverages. Different types of beverages contain different percentages of alcohol. This can even lead to liver failure or death, with more than 40,000 people in the U.S. dying from cirrhosis each year. With cessation of alcohol use, drinkers can usually reverse liver disease in this stage. If drinking continues, damage to the liver will not subside and will result in irreversible disease. Much time is spent on discussing and researching how alcohol affects the person consuming alcohol. Fetal alcohol syndrome occurs when an unborn fetus is affected by the mothers consumption of alcohol. Some of the damage caused is slower than normal body growth and development, palpebral fissures, underdeveloped facial bones and a very thin and fine upper lip.

However, liver disease does not develop in every person who drinks heavily for a long time. The liver is a vital organ that has the ability to heal itself, even after years of heavy drinking. In the event that 50-60% of the liver cells die, then it should be able to regenerate within 30 days. However, it’s important to recognize that good liver health is an ongoing Sober Home effort that requires adherence to a healthy lifestyle. This scar tissue makes it difficult for the liver to perform its functions properly. Sadly, symptoms of many liver disorders do not manifest until serious – sometimes irreversible – damage has occurred. A population-based study found that 69 percent of adults with cirrhosis were unaware of having liver disease.

Females who consume high amounts of alcohol and also carry excess body weight have a greater chance of developing chronic liver disease. However, having obesity is also a risk factor for males. Drinking a large volume of alcohol can cause fatty acids to collect in the liver. Sometimes, heavy drinking over a short period, even less than a week, can cause this.

Typically, only people who can show at least 6 months of abstinence from alcohol before the procedure will be suitable candidates for a transplant. Quitting alcohol and treating this condition early on is the best way for a person to increase their chances of reversing or slowing the disease. Cognitive behavioral therapy and medications called benzodiazepines can ease withdrawal symptoms in a person with alcohol dependency. People with severe alcohol dependency may stay at an inpatient rehabilitation facility for closer monitoring. It can be easy for someone to dismiss the early symptoms as the effects of a stomach bug or general malaise.

Does Drinking Alcohol Cause Cirrhosis?

Most alcoholic drinks are laden with sugar, so if you’re drinking too much then you could also be piling on the pounds. Lee TH, Park YS, Chung DJ, Kim JH, Kim SM, Im EH, Huh KC. Spontaneous rupture of the lateral thoracic artery in patients with liver cirrhosis. A case of idiopathic iliopsoas hemorrhage in an alcohol abuser effectively treated with vitamin K therapy. And that’s especially true when it comes to heavy drinking. This means it’s a substance that actually relaxes the muscular walls of the blood vessels and allows more blood to flow to the skin and tissues — aka a blood thinner. Bruises that take a long time to heal or getting bruised for no apparent cause could be signs of a bleeding disorder.

You can talk to a professional adviser by online chat or over the phone or find a list of support services either online or local to you. Research has shown that Brits increased their alcohol intake by five units a week during the third lockdown, with the average Brit having 14 units a week, research from Reassured found. Dr Pratsides said drinking too much can do damage to the liver and can stop it from performing to its full capabilities. « So often, a person with a heightened biological risk encounters psychosocial stress, which sets the wheels into motion to develop the disorder », he said. Dr Michael Levy, author of Take Control of Your Drinking, said there are many reasons as to why people could develop a drinking problem. But when you bruise, your vessels are literally injured or broken in a sense, and blood pools around those vessels and rises to the skin.