can a 23 year old get cirrhosis of the liver if they have fatty liver disease and drink alcohol?
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I was diagnosed with a fatty liver as a result of a blood test a few years back and was prescribed Deforming and Lovaza what are these medicines used for? from that day on I have been taking only Lovaza and I refused to take Metformin since it says on the bottle “DO NOT DRINK ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES WHILE TAKING THIS MEDICATION” since I like to drink I ditched the Metformin and drank instead now my Triglycereds are 939 and I am not exactly sure if I still have fatty liver but I have been drinking these two years ever since that test. before I had fatty liver I used to eat greasy foods and junk food I would eat a bunch of Mayonniase with every meal but I didn’t really drink that much so I was thinking that my fatty liver was due to my food choices not the drinking.
I know I wont be able to give up drinking completely since I like the taste of alcohol plus my grandfather drinks alot of beer and vodka and he is 74 years old and he has been drinking for a very long time and has no health problems and also my birthday is in 9 more days and I know I wont be able to handle a birthday party without celebrating which includes drinking
I’m sorry I made a mistake I was prescribed Metformin not deforming
yes I am on supplements I take them about 2 times a day are they helping?
yes I am kind of overweight I weight about 254 pounds but this was a while ago I think I lost some weight but I am not exactly sure how much I weight now since I don’t weigh myself except when I go to the doctor and now I have decreased my drinking I only drink friday through sunday and during the week I might have 1 or 2 beers but nothing else am I improving my drinking habits?
I am taking supplements not drugs
and they are not prescribed my grandfather ordered them from me from a store
Hello- there- and I apologize for my trying to answer such a serious question- this way- as I live and work abroad… Well- can I ask what is your weight? As a matter of fact- drinking alcohol ”on top” of fatty liver may increase the risk for alcoholic steatosis- mixed affectation of the liver tissue by both fat and/ or overweight and alcohol… alcoholic hepatitis may degenerate into cirrhosis, yes… at what pace? it very much depends on the degree of the already existing liver architectonics disturbances… it’s a matter of time and alcohol abuse… thus refraining from alcohol abuse as much as possible may be helpful… and the other way round… you sound awfully young for not being able to stop drinking… your grandfather’s drinking sounds to me as a lousy excuse- excuse my rude frankness- but I am telling you the truth… by the way- alcohol may affect – as well- chronically – both the heart and the brain… making one unable to work,learn ,live a normal life…and- by the way- you are young enough to be my daughter… shhh… soo… what I can sincerely advise is: get to your Primary Care Physician- and talk about this topic- and existing options for to stop drinking regularly… supposing I didn’t misunderstand you… DO NOT NEGLECT… PLEASE… Be fair with yourself… you may otherwise regret it afterwards…I am a Primary Care Physician- but live in Israel… good luck and good health…
A fatty liver is cirrhosis and is due to “intrahepatic gallstones” that are hardened bile that are clogging your bile ducts. Your logic regarding your grandfather that drinks beer and vodka may seem like a logical reason for you to think it’s not a problem for you to drink because you are obviously saying, “Well if he can drink at be 74 years old and not have health problems, it must be O.K. for me to do the same.” 74 is very young, but in America you are right, he is reaching the average life span.
Being functional is NOT the definition of health that anyone should settle on. In your case, it sounds like you have a major liver problem and that will greatly affect your overall health.
The liver cleans 3 pints of blood per MINUTE in a healthy person and produces 1-1/2 quarts of bile, but only if it is working well. The liver is resilient, but ignoring it and abusing it will lead to lots of problems for you. A person can have as many as 20,000 intrahepatic gallstones in their liver before it quit working and that is about 60% of it’s functionality gone. A major function of bile is to SANITIZE the colon. The SEX HORMONES are made from cholesterol that is made in the liver. In fact, ALL the steroid hormones are made from cholesterol that is made in the liver.
When triglycerides are at 939, you are in trouble. What is happening is the fats you are eating are not being digested and broken down properly. Bile is made in the liver and then stored in the gallbladder. When you eat fat, the bile is sent from the gallbladder to the small intestine where it mixes with the fats and emulsifies them into a watery mixture. Then the LIPASE enzyme comes from the pancreas and breaks down the watery substance into fatty acids where it is sent to the blood stream by way of lymphatic ducts.
ALL FATS you eat are triglycerides. A triglyceride are the three categories of fatty acids, Saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids. These are held together by a glycerol molecule and this forms the 3 fatty acids & glycerol to make a Triglyceride. All fats have different ratios of each of the fatty acids making them be classified as a particular fatty acid, like a “saturated fat,” but no fat in nature has just one fatty acid category, so to say saturated fat is bad for you is ridiculous, bad science and being promoted by drug companies with an agenda. What does make a difference is when the food industry takes a fat and changes it creating saturated fats that are harmful, like trans fats. If you take a fat that is primarily saturated, you cannot make a trans fat from that fat, unlike soybean, canola, cottonseed, and corn oils where they can and are being made into trans fats.
If you eat bad fats, like soybean, canola, cottonseed, & corn oils, trans fats, fried foods, hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils, your liver will not make good bile. Drinking alcohol causes the same problem. So what happens is that your Triglycerides are not getting broken down as a result of bad bile or the lack of bile, leaving the fats to not be digested properly.
You have the information of what the drinking is doing to you, but because you like what it makes you feel like, you are looking for anything that will tell you it’s “Just not that bad.” You use your grandfather as a way to say, “See, he’s O.K., so I can be like him.”
Taking drugs will only give you “MAKE BELIEVE HEALTH” and a way for you to further justify your drinking. You are playing with FIRE my friend and all you have to do is look at the many famous people that have and are dying as a result of taking prescription drugs and alcohol as to what you are risking.
You have two choices here. The first one is to just admit that you are trying to commit suicide and drinking is the easiest way to do that for you and live with the consequences that will happen to you. The second choice is to realize that the excuses you are looking for to say “It’s O.K. to drink” is your way of hiding and running away from reality. Reality in your case is DEATH and the only way you are going to stop the deterioration is to face reality and make the decision to become healthy.
If you set a goal to become healthy and pursue that aggressively, you will find that the desire for alcohol will go away, but you need to set yourself on a course of becoming educated.
good luck to you
Hi Sara,
I too was diagnosed with fatty liver but mine is the non alcoholic type. I too used to drink like a fish in my 20′s but I quit when I was 30. I did miss it but don’t anymore. I may have cirrhosis. From what I’ve been reading (and there isn’t much about the subject) is that once you develop fatty liver, if you continue to drink or don’t change the lifestyle that causes the fatty liver, then it can develop into full blown cirrhosis which is what I’m facing right now. I have an enlarged liver and spleen and the doctor says the enlarged spleen leads him to think I have cirrhosis. He has referred me to another doctor.
I started out with metabolic syndrome about 3 years ago, my insulin levels were high so they put me on metformin which has helped a lot. It helped me to get pregnant when I couldn’t before because of polycystic ovarian syndrome which is caused by metabolic syndrome. If I hadn’t taken the metformin, I would most likely already have diabetes.
To answer your question, it is possible for someone your age to have cirrhosis. They are finding it in teens now. If you want to save your life, you should quit drinking. I know, easier said than done but using your grandfather as an example doesn’t help you. You are not him. I wish you the best of luck in fighting this disease. If it has been 2 years since your diagnosis, you may want to go back to the doctor see where your liver is now and take your metformin. If you have cirrhosis, the only cure is a liver transplant and if you don’t, all you have to do is stop the intake of alcohol which is so toxic to your liver.