John, an insurance agent, came to see a doctor with a sad look on his face. He revealed that he has always been called a "drinker" by his friends. Unexpectedly, he recently had a "old cat burning his beard" at a company dinner party. After drinking a few glasses of strong alcoholic drinks, he suffered severe stomach pain and vomiting. His upper abdominal area even hurt to the point of convulsions. He needed to go to hospital immediately. Seek care in the emergency room. Although the stomach pain was relieved after diagnosis and treatment, this was the first time I experienced severe vomiting and discomfort after drinking, so I consulted a doctor and planned to undergo a detailed physical examination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The doctor arranged for John to undergo a gastroscopy first, and it was found that his stomach wall was eroded, which may have been caused by excessive drinking for a long time. Knowing that John drinks alcohol almost every night, the doctor is worried about damage to his liver function. He suggests that in addition to blood tests, he should also undergo a liver ultrasound and a liver fibrosis scan. The former can determine whether there are structural abnormalities in the liver, such as water sacs, Masses, etc.; the latter helps to evaluate liver fat content and fibrosis degree. The results showed that his liver fat ratio was relatively high and he was a fatty liver patient. Fortunately, hepatic fibrosis had not yet occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John believes that only obese people will suffer from fatty liver. In fact, fatty liver can be divided into two categories: alcoholic and non-alcoholic. People with drinking habits tend to suffer from fatty liver in the former. In addition, he is obviously used to taking hangover medicine as a "base" before drinking. Why does it still hurt his liver? In fact, hangover medicines can only temporarily relieve the symptoms of hangover discomfort and have no effect on breaking down alcohol at all. To truly relieve hangover, you need to rely on the liver to secrete a hangover-resistant liver enzyme, which can effectively further decompose alcohol's harmful metabolite acetaldehyde.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is conceivable that excessive drinking will increase the burden on the liver, hinder its important functions such as filtering harmful substances in the blood, lead to liver diseases such as alcoholic fatty liver, and even induce acute pancreatitis. The doctor advised John to reduce alcohol consumption to avoid further irritation of the stomach wall and worsening of fatty liver disease; he should also control his diet and exercise regularly to maintain moderate blood sugar and blood lipid levels; he should also undergo regular follow-up visits and physical examinations to monitor the health of his liver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Yongbai Su, Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners<\/p>\n\n\n\n