Liver Disease

Liver disease related to alcohol consumption fits into one of three categories fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, or cirrhosis. Fatty liver, which occurs after acute alcohol ingestion, is generally reversible with abstinence and is not believed to incline to any chronic form of liver disease if abstinence or moderation is maintained.

Alcoholic hepatitis is an acute form of alcohol-induced liver injury that occurs with the consumption of a large quantity of alcohol over a prolonged period of time; it encompasses a spectrum of severity ranging from asymptomatic derangement of biochemistries to fulminate liver failure and death.

Type of Liver Diseases:

• Alcoholic Liver Disease: Alcoholic hepatitis is inflSammation of the liver (hepatitis), usually from long-term alcohol use that causes widespread liver damage and destruction. The effects of alcohol vary among individuals. You don't have to be an alcoholic to develop alcoholic hepatitis. Alcoholic hepatitis may also occur in moderate drinkers or after a single episode of binge drinking.

• Fatty Liver Diseases: Fatty liver is the accumulation of fat in liver cells. Simple fatty liver is not a disease, since it does not damage the liver, but is a condition that can be identified by taking a sample of liver tissue (liver biopsy) and examining it under a microscope. Another term often used to describe this condition is fatty infiltration of the liver.

• Biliary Diseases: Primary sclerosing cholangitis is a disease where the bile ducts inside and outside the liver become inflamed and scarred, and over time the ducts become blocked. The ducts are important because they carry bile (a liquid that helps break down fats in food) out of the liver. If the ducts become blocked, bile builds up in the liver and damages liver cells. Eventually, PSC can cause liver failure and cirrhosis.

• Chronic Hepatitis: Chronic Hepatitis is ongoing injury to the cells of the liver with inflammation which lasts for longer than six months. The causes of chronic hepatitis are several: viruses, metabolic or immunologic abnormalities and medications.

• Liver Cirrhosis: is a severe kind of liver disorder which is caused due to Cirrhosis or Hepatitis C virus. The term Cirrhosis means the liver is damaged so severely that its normal shape is distorted. The term also means that there is an increase in scar tissue in the liver and the liver mass is reduced. The main causes behind this disorder include long-term, excessive alcohol consumption; inherited disorders of iron and copper metabolism; severe reactions to certain medications; chronic infection with hepatitis B virus; repeated episodes of heart failure with liver congestion and bile-duct obstruction; etc.

Risk factors for liver disease include:

• Abdominal trauma
• Various congenital disorders
• Primary biliary cirrhosis
• Autoimmune disease.
• Blood clots
• Cirrhosis
• Chronic viral hepatitis
• Exposure to arsenic
• Inflammation or tumors of the bile ducts or pancreas

By: Dr. Mital John

Labels: alcohol liver, cirrhosis, cirrhosis of liver, fatty liver, fatty liver disease, liver, liver cancer, liver cirrhosis, liver damage, liver disease, liver failure, liver function, liver symptoms