The general impression is that alcohol consumption is a basic reason for cirrhosis. As per this new research; it depends on how much you drink—also due to recent drinking – it is what depends on according to the researchers.
Cirrhosis causing the scarring of liver, it is the last stage of alcoholic liver disease, as per the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Everyday drinking has raised the risk of liver cirrhosis more than the on and off drinking. According to the research reported on Jan. 26 in the Journal of Hepatology that recent drinking is the basic cause of alcohol related liver cirrhosis and not what the whole life drinking affects.
“For the first time, our study points to a risk difference between drinking daily and drinking five or six days a week in the general male population, since earlier studies were conducted on alcohol misusers and patients referred for liver disease and compared daily drinking to ‘binge pattern’ or ‘episodic’ drinking,” said lead investigator Dr. Gro Askgaard, of the National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark.
“Since the details of alcohol-induced liver injury are unknown, we can only speculate that the reason may be that daily alcohol exposure worsens liver damage or inhibits liver regeneration,” Askgaard added in a journal news release.
For research; the researchers looked at the history of almost 56,000 people between the age of 50 to 64, in Denmark. They found out through the questionnaires that were filled by them about their basic life styles and their habit of daily drinking of beer, wine or other hard liquor consumed by them every week. They were also rates on how much drinking they did on the basic average during their past life and in each stage during their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s.
They found out that out of all 257 men and 85 women were diagnosed with liver cirrhosis.
As per the normal drinking in a week, wine is less risky than beer and liquor according to the researchers.
The trends were almost the same in women but there was no final detail available due to a not very far-reaching research.
According to the research, it was concluded that daily habits affect more than what is consumed over a lifetime.
Experts like the report.
“This is a timely contribution about one of the most important, if not the most important risk factor for liver cirrhosis globally, because our overall knowledge about drinking patterns and liver cirrhosis is sparse and in part contradictory,” said Jurgen Rehm, director of social and epidemiological research at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.
Rehm, who was not involved with the study, said the report “not only increases our knowledge, but also raises questions for future research.” However, “the question of binge drinking patterns and mortality is far from solved,” he added, saying there may be genetic differences or other factors not yet discovered that also play a role.