Drinking and liver

I am reading a lot of posts here and people honestly admit their drinking. But what is drinking. Before January 2021 I would have a glass of red wine every day for a few years. Apparently, all my doctors even now say red wine in moderation is fine. Well, no. I was told fatty liver, had cholecystectomy in March 2021, have weird around liver and stomach pain now for 5 months. For 5 months , I haven't had a sip but my liver enzymes are up by 3 times. My diet is changed a lot since the surgery. Not overweight , lost about 7 pounds. Go figure out. What is going on with zero alcohol?

[hells456]

Liver disease can be caused by things other than alcohol. I haven't had more than a sip to toast at a wedding since I was 19 because I just don't like the taste or feel of alcohol, but I have cirrhosis. In my case it's autoimmune.

I hope your doctors are sending you for further tests to see what's going on. I had extra blood tests for immune markers (AMA, ANA, IgG, IgM, IgE) and scans to rule out anything structural as I'd had my gallbladder out too. Good luck with getting to the bottom of this.

[Hidden in reply to hells456]

Yeah... have done all those. Fibroscan is scheduled.

[AyrshireK]

Dependent on how large your glass of red wine was it's easy to have been drinking in excess of the so called guideline limit - I won't say safe guideline limit because for some even that so called guideline limit can be too much as it depends whether you have a predisposition for liver damage due to alcohol (not everyone who drinks in excess gets liver disease - some have this predisposition for damage which may be a genetic trait whilst others).

A bottle of red wine contains 9.8 units of alcohol. A large (250 ml) glass of 12% ABV red wine has about three units of alcohol. A medium (175 ml) glass has about two units x either by 7 days and you are either sitting at 21 units or 14 units per week.

If you have fatty liver then the last thing you should really be doing is giving it more toxins to deal with - in reality doctors shouldn't say you can have any alcohol in moderation, it's pretty dangerous advice. Almost like throwing petrol (even in moderation) onto a bonfire ......... not a great idea.

I can't answer your question as to why you still have the pains and such since your surgery - I take it you've been checked out for any remaining gall stones that may have slipped throught he net during your surgery. Its not uncommon for them to find their way into the bile duct and cause blockages, pain and rises in liver bloods.

Katie

[Hidden in reply to AyrshireK]

Thank you Katie. I had apparently only one large stone. After the surgery had MRI. Blockages were rulled out. Just a puzzle that is unfortunately I am going through...

[Ewife]

Really difficult questions to answer! I think its unclear because everyone is so different. My husband has cirrhosis although he never had problem drinking of any kind. He was also living on prescription anti-inflamatory medication. My husbands consultant said it could just be that he was more pre-disposed to the disease. This definately makes sense, as his Dad also has a terminal lung condition caused by scar tissue, again, this is idiopathic meaning no known cause. I think its the same story with how quickly the liver heals or compensates or whatever. Seems a very much individual thing for each human🤷‍♀️

[JohnTaylorAsia]

Hi .. was a pretty solid drinker for a good few years and got the fatty liver. But also diagnosed with Hemochromatosis (iron overload) which is genetic issue in European types. Had to stop drinking for a few months simply so that the doc could determine which issue was causing the liver enzymes to be bad.

Worth checking your iron/ferritin etc as this gives liver / stomach pain etc. Also .. small hernia can give a bit of pain and hard to pinpoint