Daily Drinkers at Risk for Serious Liver Disease

If you are a daily drinker, you can reduce your risk of developing liver disease significantly if you start planning several alcohol-free days every week.

People who drink alcohol daily, compared to weekly binge drinkers, are at risk of developing more serious forms of liver disease, including cirrhosis or progressive fibrosis, according to a study done in the United Kingdom.

If you started drinking at an early age—around age 15 or earlier—and developed a habit of daily drinking, research shows these to be the biggest risk factors in developing life-threatening alcohol-related liver disease.

Weekly binge drinkers can develop liver disease also, but daily or near-daily heavy drinking has been shown to cause an increasing number of deaths in the U.K. due to liver disease.

The Southhampton researchers began their study on the theory that the rise in alcohol-related liver deaths in the U.K. was related to a corresponding increase in episodic binge drinking in the country. They were surprised to find that most of the study participants with severe liver disease were daily drinkers, not weekly binge drinkers.

The researchers studied 234 people who had some form of liver disease. Their findings included:

• 106 had an alcohol-related liver disease (ALD).
• 80 had cirrhosis or progressive fibrosis.
• 71% of those with ALD were daily drinkers.
• Those with ALD started drinking at the average age of 15.
• ALD patients had significantly more drinking days after age 20.

Compared with patients who had cirrhosis or fibrosis, those with other forms of liver disease drank sparingly, with only 10 of those in the study moderate drinkers on four or more days a week. The lighter drinkers had less serious forms of liver disease.

The liver performs dozens of critical functions. When the liver becomes diseased or damaged, it can affect your health in many ways and eventually lead to death.

This U.K. study suggests that binge drinking alcohol may be less harmful to the liver than daily, long-term drinking; however, although binge drinking may be safer than constant drinking, minimal alcohol is likely the safest route to health.

Other studies have linked daily alcohol consumption to the development of alcohol-related liver disease. Data from The Dionysos Study indicated that the risk threshold for developing cirrhosis and non-cirrhosis liver disease is 30 grams (a little more than 1 ounce) of alcohol per day. The risk increases with a larger daily intake, the study found.

Another research study found that although the average volume of alcohol consumed is a factor in developing liver disease and many other chronic diseases, a daily pattern of drinking is an additional influencing factor.

The consensus seems to be, if you drink alcohol daily, you could be putting yourself at risk for developing alcohol-related liver disease, regardless of the amount of alcohol you consume. You may want to consider skipping a few days each week.