Alcohol related death rates have doubled in the UK since 1994 (ONS 2009). But as our researchers are discovering, binge drinking is far from the only cause.
In the eight years that liver disease specialist Dr Nick Sheron has been at Southampton, he has seen cases of alcohol-related liver disease rocket – and medical experts across the UK concur with this observation. In 2001, the Chief Medical Officer reported an eightfold increase in deaths from liver cirrhosis in men aged 35-44. According to death certification data, more than 80 per cent of UK liver deaths are alcohol-related.
Since Nick started asking his patients lifestyle questions alongside his lab based research, some worrying trends have emerged: “We have found that only a minority of patients presenting with liver disease have obvious features of alcohol dependency, but by the time they reach us their livers are showing signs of end-stage cirrhosis.”
The vast majority of people with alcohol-related liver disease that Nick sees do not fit the model of stereotype drunk. Most have good jobs and families, but are heavy social drinkers. “It is a myth that binge drinkers are the group most at risk of liver disease,” explains Nick. “The drinker who consumes a lot of alcohol on a Friday or Saturday night, but very little for the rest of the week, is giving their liver a chance to recover. Those that are drinking more than they should every day of the week are the most at risk. It is sustained consumption that causes serious liver damage.”
A worrying trend brought about by lack of proper intervention is that many heavy social drinkers that eventually suffer liver problems have up to a 60 per cent mortality rate. “Most people stop drinking the moment they are told their liver is failing,” says Nick. “But the development of liver disease is a silent process and there are often no signs or symptoms. The default position has always been to wait until someone presents variceal haemorrhage or ascites and then to keep them alive.”