The liver is the body’s primary site of alcohol metabolism and is supplied directly with blood from the intestines via the portal vein, which in heavy drinkers will contain large amounts of alcohol. The liver tissue is subject to two main types of damage resulting from this overexposure: inflammation (hepatitis) and scarring (cirrhosis). Women are more adversely affected than men, probably because of a harmful interaction of female sex hormones and the enzymes involved in alcohol metabolism. Genetic differences in enzyme metabolism may account for other individual differences in the severity of liver disease, but overall the risk of death from cirrhosis of the liver is ten times higher among alcoholics than the normal population.
Wednesday, 14 August 2013
Effect of Alcohol on Liver
The liver is the body’s primary site of alcohol metabolism and is supplied directly with blood from the intestines via the portal vein, which in heavy drinkers will contain large amounts of alcohol. The liver tissue is subject to two main types of damage resulting from this overexposure: inflammation (hepatitis) and scarring (cirrhosis). Women are more adversely affected than men, probably because of a harmful interaction of female sex hormones and the enzymes involved in alcohol metabolism. Genetic differences in enzyme metabolism may account for other individual differences in the severity of liver disease, but overall the risk of death from cirrhosis of the liver is ten times higher among alcoholics than the normal population.
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