Back decades ago, alcohol-related liver diseases mostly appeared in Western countries, where 80 to 90% of cirrhosis was caused by alcohol consumption.
However, in recent years, with the continuous growth of the mainland's economic level, the national alcohol consumption is getting larger and larger, so the number of patients with alcoholic liver disease in the mainland has also increased year by year, and it has become the third largest type of liver disease after viral hepatitis and fatty liver disease.
The so-called alcoholic liver disease does not specifically refer to a certain kind of liver lesion, but a series of liver lesions caused by alcohol damage.
In the initial stages, patients may simply develop fatty liver disease, and then gradually develop hepatitis, liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, and even hepatocellular carcinoma.
Nearly two-thirds of all alcoholics develop varying degrees of alcoholic liver disease.
What is more worrying is that because the liver itself has a strong compensatory capacity, in the early stages of liver disease, patients have no obvious symptoms, or even can not have any abnormalities.
However, with the continuous progression of liver disease, patients will also have different symptoms in the later stages, such as the following are common liver disease symptoms:
1. Digestive abnormalities: In addition to metabolism and detoxification, the liver is also responsible for the production of bile. The role of bile is to absorb lipids and fat-soluble vitamins.
At the same time, the liver itself also has the function of synthesizing nutrients and storing liver sugar. Therefore, when the liver is severely damaged, patients can develop different degrees of digestive and absorption disorders.
Clinically, the most common manifestations are poor appetite, bloating after meals, nausea and anorexia, vomiting and diarrhea, etc.;
2. Endocrine abnormalities: this condition mostly occurs in patients with chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis, and it should be known that the liver is the largest detoxification and metabolism site of the human body;
After completing the work, certain hormones in the body also enter the liver to catabolize, such as estrogen is one of them.
Once the liver lesions occur, it will affect the metabolism of hormones, and patients may have multiple endocrine abnormalities such as spider nevi, liver palm, liver disease face, etc.;
3. Signs of jaundice: The toxin "bilirubin" produced inside the human body is actually one of the pigments of bile, which will complete biotransformation in the liver.
However, when liver cells are severely damaged, the substance cannot be properly absorbed, metabolized, and excreted.
They accumulate in the body and begin to swim with the blood circulation, which will develop hyperbilirubinemia, followed by signs of jaundice.
The most typical manifestation of jaundice is that the patient will have symptoms such as facial yellowing, yellowing of the sclera and mucous membranes, and abnormal color of bowel and urine;
4. Pain in the liver area: The liver itself does not have peripheral nerve distribution, so the liver does not produce pain. However, there is also a large amount of tissue distribution around the liver, and there is also a layer of envelope covering on the surface of the liver.
When the liver is enlarged due to inflammation congestion, or there is tissue fluid exudation, necrotic liver cells cause irritation to the liver envelope, resulting in excessive extension of the liver envelope, the patient will have symptoms of right epiloid rib pain, which is mainly manifested as blunt pain, tingling, traction pain, and tenderness in the right upper quadrant.
All in all, alcoholic liver disease is almost abnormal in its early stages. However, the absence of symptoms in liver disease does not mean that it is not harmful. If alcoholic fatty liver disease is allowed to develop, the future of patients will be cirrhosis or even cancerous.
Therefore, for long-term alcoholics, they should improve their vigilance against liver disease, and once they have the above symptoms, they should seek medical examination in time. Even if you are asymptomatic, you should see a regular doctor for liver health screening and get rid of alcohol control as soon as possible.