• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Permanent liver damage from university drinking habits?

K

KingstonU

Golden Member
I did some pretty heavy drinking during my university years (age 18-22), I could easily finish a 12 pack of beer or a large pitcher to myself in an evening, a couple times a week. My eating habits were also pretty bad, involving a lot of cheap all-you-can-eat assortments of pizza, wings, and lots of other bad stuff in excess quantities.

It was all part of having an active social life, which I don’t regret, but now I’m wondering if I likely did any permanent damage, particularly with respect to the alcohol and my liver. I know I certainly didn’t feel very healthy during most of that period.

But now that I have cut all that out since finishing university, and live a much healthier lifestyle, and drinking is limited to like 2 beers or glasses of wine a couple of times a month, and assuming I continue that for the next 30+ years, is it possible that I can reverse the damage, or am I still going to feel repercussions of my university habits when I reach my 50’s or 60’s?

Thanks,
 
Have you even had a panel done to see if you have any damage?

I used to drink a ton, beyond 24 in a day at times and at least 12 a day...I am getting ready to 40 and all my annual blood tests come back great.
 
I doubt you have anything to worry about. Heavy drinking can certainly lead to significant problems, but a liver is resilient, especially when you are that young. However, long term drinking can cause problems. I drank for years, but have stopped because of diabetes... but, I've got several friends like me that has ended up with cirrhosis... which is not good. So, its good that you'd dialed it back and are being more conservative with your drinking. If it really worries you, get a panel done.
 
OP thats not that heavy of drinking......

I was worse during those ages, now I'm almost 30, been checked out with full panels 3 times and nothing out of the ordinary
 
Well, beer?

If you had gone to college in other country (we don't want to call names here), you'd go with one liter of vodka per day as minimum for 4 years.

And yes, liver damage always occurs in this types of drinking habits.
 
Zargon said:
OP thats not that heavy of drinking......

I was worse during those ages, now I'm almost 30, been checked out with full panels 3 times and nothing out of the ordinary
Click to expand...

yeah that really isnt that much... i'm assuming you are a guy (to the OP).

hell i'm 30 and i still have that occasional oh crap did i just have 10 drinks night and i'm probably in much better than average health (haven't gotten anything checked on my liver in a couple years, but it was perfect then)
 
hans007 said:
yeah that really isnt that much... i'm assuming you are a guy (to the OP).

hell i'm 30 and i still have that occasional oh crap did i just have 10 drinks night and i'm probably in much better than average health (haven't gotten anything checked on my liver in a couple years, but it was perfect then)
Click to expand...

How did this become a brag-about-your-liver-fibrosis thread? What the OP drank is sufficiently damaging to the liver. Granted, the liver is relatively resilient, but the effects have and continue to affect liver function. Everyone who wants to mention that they drink/drank more is just admitting their level of liver pathology.
 
To say that 12 beers over the course of a few hours isn't heavy drinking is simply incorrect. It is. Whether or not that's enough to cause liver damage in the OP's specific case is currently unknown, but it could definitely cause health problems in some individuals.

Basically, if you're having more than a drink or two per night, per sitting, you're extending beyond what's been shown to have health benefits and potentially into the realm of pathology. And no, I'm not innocent either, I just don't delude myself into thinking that my drinking habits aren't harmful.
 
Last edited:
It takes six, seven, eight years of hard drinking to cumulatively damage the liver, unless you have some kind of metabolic/genetic predisposition to it. The liver is extremely resilient and robust. It can take a lot of shortish term abuse. Its the longer-term abuse that does it.
 
VinylxScratches said:
I've read something that even if you damage 50% of your liver, it still functions the same.
Click to expand...

That's not true whatsoever. You can survive with half of a liver (literally) if you lose part during a trauma. In that case, if there's proper basal lamina to regrow from, the liver will re-grow. However, if you damage the liver via fibrosis or scarring, you begin to lose significant function early on. Scarring means toxins can't be processed, means hepatocytes can't secrete necessary compounds, etc. It takes a lot less than scarring 50% of the liver to get on the liver transplant list.
 
tcsenter said:
It takes six, seven, eight years of hard drinking to cumulatively damage the liver, unless you have some kind of metabolic/genetic predisposition to it. The liver is extremely resilient and robust. It can take a lot of shortish term abuse. Its the longer-term abuse that does it.
Click to expand...

Depends on how hard you drink. If you drink hard booze every night, it doesn't take long at all. On top of that, it predisposes you to problems outside of the liver - arteriosclerosis, bone wasting, nutritional deficiencies. You can die from malnutrition while drinking heavily for less than a year.
 
if you start living healthy and quit doing things to damage your liver, you'll be just fine. your liver can regenerate itself. over time, it can get rid of unhealthy tissue and replace it with new, healthy tissue. the liver is one of the only body parts that can do this, even if it has about 1/4 of it's original tissue.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top