Home
Addiction
Researchers Find Daily Drinking Biggest Risk Factor in Liver Disease
According to UK researchers, long-term daily drinking, rather than weekly binge drinking, is by far the biggest risk factor in serious liver disease.
The study concludes that increases in UK liver deaths are a result of daily or near daily heavy drinking, not episodic or binge drinking, and this regular drinking pattern is often discernable at an early age. It also recommends that several alcohol-free days a week is a healthier drinking pattern.
In the study of drinking patterns, dependency and lifetime drinking history in 234 subjects with liver disease, 106 had alcohol liver disease, 80 of whom had evidence of cirrhosis or progressive fibrosis, the team found that 71 per cent of alcohol liver disease patients drank on a daily basis.
In contrast to the patients with alcohol-related cirrhosis or fibrosis, patients with other forms of liver disease tended to drink sparingly with only 10 subjects (8 per cent) drinking moderately on four or more days each week.
The study also explored lifetime drinking histories of 105 subjects and found that alcohol liver disease patients started drinking at a significantly younger age (on average at 15 years old) than other subjects and had significantly more drinking days and units than non- alcohol liver disease patients from the age of 20 onwards.
Lead author of the study Dr Nick Sheron says "If we are to turn the tide of liver deaths, then along with an overall reduction in alcohol consumption, which means tackling cheap booze and unregulated marketing, we need to find a way to identify those people who are most likely to develop alcohol-related illnesses at a much earlier stage, and perhaps we need to pay as much attention to the frequency of drinking occasions as we do to binge drinking.
"The transition from a late teenage and early 20's binge drinking pattern to a more frequent pattern of increased intake may prove to be a useful point of intervention in the future, and the importance of three alcohol-free days each week should receive more prominence."
References:
1. Nick Sheron, et al. Addiction journal. Wiley-Blackwell.
Related Articles
An ingredient in licorice shows promise as an antidote for the toxic effects of cocaine addiction, including deadly overdoses of the highly addictive drug, researchers in Korea and
|
New research findings suggest that structural abnormalities in the brains of those afflicted by cocaine addiction are related in part to drug abuse and in part to a predisposition toward
|
When given a choice between viewing pictures of cocaine and a variety of other images, individuals with cocaine addiction, as compared to healthy, non-addicted research subjects, show a clear
|
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders alcohol abuse is a psychiatric diagnosis describing the use of alcoholic beverages despite negative consequences.
The
|
Researchers have identified the precise mechanisms by which binge drinking contributes to clogs in arteries that lead to heart attack and stroke. The study adds to a growing body of evidence
|
Latest Health News
 Tuesday, 09 February 2010 {loadposition cardio_ads}
High blood pressure appears to predict the progression to dementia in older adults with impaired
|
 Monday, 08 February 2010
Workers exposed to tricholorethylene (TCE), a chemical once widely used to clean metal such as auto parts, may be at
|
 Monday, 08 February 2010
Consuming two or more soft drinks per week increased the risk of developing pancreatic cancer by nearly twofold
|
 Monday, 08 February 2010
The benefits of marijuana in tempering or reversing the effects of Alzheimer's disease have been challenged in a new
|
 Sunday, 07 February 2010
Tiny circles of DNA are the key to a new and easier way to transform stem cells from human fat into induced
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |