Obesity coupled with alcohol consumption = significant risk for developing liver disease

It is well known that there is no cure for liver disease.  Additionally, even the most drastic treatment option, a liver transplant, may not eradicate all of the effects of the disease.  The only options that most people have are to try to prevent the disease from initially developing or try to manage its symptoms once it occurs.  It has long been suggested that heavy alcohol consumption is linked to cirrhosis of the liver.  Two studies out of Britain, however, indicate that when such consumption is coupled with obesity, the risk of developing liver disease rises significantly.

The first study, conducted by researchers at Oxford University, examined a group of women over a period of approximately six years to determine whether an association existed between body mass index and cirrhosis.  They found that the overweight women had an increased risk of developing liver disease when compared with those at a healthy weight.  Moreover, there was a stronger association between the two when women consumed two and half or more drinks per day.  In the second study, researchers followed nine thousand Scottish men to determine the effects of a high BMI and alcohol consumption on liver disease.  After tracking them for roughly twenty-nine years, the researchers found that a high BMI and drinking excessively each independently impacted the onset of liver disease.  More importantly, however, possessing both factors further increased the risk of developing the condition.

The researchers suggest that these findings may incite the medical community to make additional recommendations about alcohol consumption based upon obesity.  For instance, if the prevailing medical advice is for those in optimal health to have one to two drinks per day, it may be changed to one to two drinks per week if a person is within a specific BMI range.  Additionally, medical professionals should encourage their patients to reduce overall drinking and their weight to prevent liver disease from ever developing.  Liver disease is on the rise, as is the number of obese people – which is probably why we are seeing a rise in the number of Social Security Disability claims that are based on liver disease. Both conditions can adversely affect a person’s quality of life and even result in his/her inability to work.  While liver disease is a recognized disability in the event of a job loss, it is a difficult disease to live with and all measures should be taken to prevent its development. Hopefully, in the future there will be more effective tests to diagnose fatty liver disease, however, according to this study, maintaining a healthy weight and decreasing alcohol consumption may be the most effective actions that we can currently take.