Did you know that around 30 million people in the United States alone suffer from liver disease to some degree? Liver disease can be mild, or it can become a life-threatening issue. There are many reasons why liver disease may happen, but it often has to do with alcohol.

But what is the difference between alcoholic liver disease and non-alcoholic liver disease? Don’t they follow the same path and cause the same symptoms? Not necessarily.

Keep reading and learn more about the differences between these two types of liver disease.

What You Need To Know About the Liver

You may know that excess alcohol consumption can damage a person’s liver over time, but you may not know by how much. Mild to moderate alcohol consumption is not very likely to cause liver disease. It is only when a person excessively consumes alcohol that the cells in the liver will start to suffer (although there are people who are genetically more susceptible to this disease than others).

But why is it your liver in particular, that would get affected from drinking too much alcohol? The reason for this is that the liver is much like a filter for the human body. Once you drink enough alcohol, your body will need to filter it through your body; otherwise, it could become a dangerous and toxic substance.

Your liver is the main filter, and its primary job is to break down alcohol along with a variety of other drugs and substances that could be potentially toxic to the human body. The liver is also responsible for aiding digestion. This is due to the fact that it releases bile into the intestinal tract, which makes it easier for the body to break down food and other substances.

A healthy liver should be able to do this without any problem. For example, if you drank a small glass of wine with dinner, your liver should be able to filter out this alcohol from your body effortlessly. But if you are constantly drinking hard liquor, on the other hand, your liver will take a serious punch.

The Details

Constantly exposing your liver to alcohol means that your liver will need to be working at top speed at all times. As you can imagine, this is not sustainable behavior. At a certain point, the cells in the liver, known as hepatic cells, will start to get damaged and will no longer be able to function as usual.

This will make it difficult for the liver to filter toxins from the body, and instead those toxins will build up within the body. As you can see, excess alcohol consumption and liver disease have a direct correlation. But what about non-alcoholic liver disease?

This condition is also known as fatty liver disease, and it may happen for a variety of reasons. Interestingly, it is not yet known what exactly causes this disease. Most believe that it has a connection to obesity and high blood sugar levels.

It also may have something to do with high fat levels in the blood. This particular type of liver disease is most common in elderly people, those with diabetes, and those who are overweight. While this condition can remain mild for a long time, it can become much worse if the affected person doesn’t lose weight and try to follow a healthy diet.

Now that you know the basics of how the liver works, you should know more about the early symptoms of liver disease.

Early Symptoms of Alcoholic Liver Disease

Often, people have liver disease without even knowing it. This is because the very early stages of liver disease often don’t produce any noticeable symptoms in most people. In the very early stages, the liver will still be mostly functional.

It is only when more and more liver cells start to become diseased that the symptoms start to become more noticeable. This is because as this happens, the liver will slowly become less and less capable of filtering toxins like alcohol from the body. The first symptom (which usually isn’t noticeable) is the accumulation of fat around the liver.

This is known as a fatty liver. If excessive alcohol consumption continues after that, the fatty liver will eventually start to become scarred. During the fatty liver stage, some people may experience symptoms while others may not.

If you do experience symptoms during this stage, you may experience things like fatigue, nausea, and swelling in the abdomen. Specifically, you may notice pain or discomfort around the upper right part of your body which is where your liver is. You might be wondering why your liver will become fatty if you drink too much alcohol.

What You Need to Know

This is because the liver is the organ that is responsible for filtering fats from the body and breaking them down so they don’t accumulate. As the liver becomes damaged due to alcohol consumption, it will no longer be very efficient at breaking down these fats, and instead, the fats will grow around the liver.

Most people who suffer from alcoholism will also suffer from fatty liver. Fortunately, this condition can be reversed before it gets too serious. This can be done by not drinking any alcohol for several weeks or months.

Slowly, the liver will regain its function and should be able to function in a healthy manner again. On the other hand, if a person continues to suffer from alcohol use disorder, the liver’s function will only get worse until it is no longer reversible. For that reason, it is very important to seek treatment before this condition gets any worse.

For people that have difficulty getting sober, professional help may be necessary. That way, the affected person will have plenty of support and all the resources necessary to get sober and stay that way. With enough support, the affected person can make sure that he or she does not end up suffering from severe liver disease later on.

But what does more advanced liver disease look like?

The Advanced Symptoms of Liver Disease

After fatty liver disease, the affected person will eventually enter the alcoholic hepatitis stage. It is during this stage that most people start to exhibit more serious symptoms. Also, the symptoms may take on a more outward appearance.

For example, some people may develop jaundice. This is when the skin and the whites of the eyes start to turn a sickly shade of yellow. This usually starts in a mild fashion at first but will eventually get worse.

Besides that, the pain and discomfort around the liver will become much more prominent as the liver starts to become unhealthier. The affected person may also experience other symptoms like fatigue, nausea, vomiting, weight loss, and so on. In some cases, the affected person may not feel like eating at all, and the person may even develop a fever.

If alcoholic hepatitis is only very mild, these symptoms may not be too noticeable. However, if excessive consumption of alcohol continues, the condition will only get worse. This condition can still be reversed, like fatty liver disease, as long as the affected person stops consuming alcohol for a long period of time.

If not, then alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver will occur. This is when the cells in the liver will start to become scarred. Once this happens, those cells will no longer be able to function as usual.

Cirrhosis

Scar tissue will also start to build up in and around the liver. Once the liver becomes scarred, it will be impossible to reverse the damage. The more scar tissue builds up on the liver; the more serious the condition will become.

The symptoms of liver cirrhosis are not that much different than the symptoms of alcoholic hepatitis. However, the symptoms may become more severe over time. One new symptom involves ascites.

This involves a buildup of fluid around the abdomen. In some cases, this condition alone can be quite painful due to the pressure of the excess fluid inside the abdominal cavity. Besides that, liver cancer will become much more likely at this stage and may start to cause symptoms of its own.

Besides that, varices along the gastrointestinal tract may start to develop. Esophageal varices are particularly common among those who suffer from alcoholism. They involve swollen and vulnerable blood vessels in the esophagus, also known as the throat.

In some cases, these blood vessels can burst and cause life-threatening bleeding. There is also the risk of hepatic encephalopathy. This is when brain damage occurs due to the fact that the liver is no longer able to filter toxins out of the body, so those toxins build up in the brain.

While alcoholic cirrhosis can be treated, it cannot be reversed. If it is not reversed, the scarring of the liver will continue to get worse and worse until the liver is not able to function at all. At that point, liver failure will be impossible to avoid, and this is often fatal.

Understanding Non-alcoholic Liver Disease

You might be wondering how non-alcoholic liver disease compares with alcoholic liver disease. While we explored it briefly already, there is more you should know. As you have already read, experts are not yet sure what exactly causes non-alcoholic liver disease.

While obesity and diabetes seem to have a strong connection to its development, it may also be the case that some people are genetically predisposed to develop this condition. This type of liver disease, of course, is not due to the excessive consumption of alcohol but instead more likely due to the presence of excess fat.

Non-alcoholic liver disease usually presents itself as fatty liver disease for a long time. If a person remains overweight and does not follow a healthy diet, it is possible that the disease will continue to get worse. It is even possible for the liver to reach the stage of cirrhosis.

The symptoms of this condition are very similar to those of alcoholic liver disease. Keep in mind that the non-alcoholic variant can be reversed as long as the person loses weight, follows a healthy diet, and so on. Non-alcoholic liver cirrhosis is not very common as the condition usually doesn’t have the chance to process that far.

The Details

It also may not occur with everyone who has this condition. If the liver does start to become scarred, then the symptoms of the disease will start to become much more prominent. The symptoms will include a buildup of fluid around the abdomen, fatigue, loss of appetite, and even confusion.

Confusion may result due to the buildup of toxins in the body and brain. This symptom may present itself as slurred speech, fatigue, and a loss of balance. Sometimes, this symptom is confused with drunkenness.

Once liver cirrhosis progresses far enough, the liver will stop working and liver failure will set in. As mentioned before, this can be life-threatening. A person with non-alcoholic liver disease can prevent this from happening if they seek treatment early on such as by following a good diet and an overall healthy lifestyle.

All About Liver Disease

Alcoholic and non-alcoholic liver disease are both very serious conditions that can become life-threatening if left untreated. Alcohol consumption is one of the most common causes of this disease, but fortunately, the consequences can be avoided if the affected person stops drinking. Of course, this is easier said than done.

For that reason, it is important to seek professional help if you or someone you know is having a hard time staying sober. Contact us here to know more about it.