Previous drinking worried about liver
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34 year old female and I am interested in understanding the accuracy of liver function tests for assessing alcoholic liver disease. During my college years and several years after, I drank alcohol heavily (mostly social on the weekend with some days of no drinking on weekdays). This was for about 9 years. Then I had my first child and got my act together drastically reducing my alcoholic drinks per week. I didn't drink any alcohol for 9 months during two pregnancies. And now I have maybe 4-6 drinks per week. While I drink only moderately now, I am concerned I have already severely damaged my liver from previous habits. My question is if I have gotten liver function blood work every year for the past 10 years with an annual physical, would that rule out liver issues? Doctor didn't say much and just said she'd do bloodwork. But I've heard bloodwork can be normal with liver disease.
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ralph42857 bleigh22
Edited
Hi. I have seen this question a few times on other forums. If you have had tests every year and they are all clear then I would say its highly unlikely you have serious damage. There are numerous horrific stories on Google, I can sense you are anxious about this, maybe leave Google alone.
I am a guy and I drank for 20 years most weekends, eventually got ill after a bender and went to the doctors after Google telling me I was dying. All my blood tests were fine, even a very low GGT. Still worried I had and Ultrasound. Google told me bloods and ultrasound can still miss serious damage. Still worried I went to the London Clinic has more bloods and a Fibroscan and a consultation with a Liver doctor. There was a tiny amount of fat above normal, but no scarring at all. I stopped drinking for about 3 years but now I have a couple of bottles of wine over the weekend, now my anxiety has gone.
If you are really worried then get a Fibroscan, but I very doubt you have serious damage. Dont foget the Liver can heal from alot of damage. Richard Burton got Cirrhosis in his 50s, but he was on 3 bottles of Vodka a day !
Luka2 bleigh22
Edited
I'd say don't worry. If your liver function tests are normal and have been for years, it would be extremely unlikely you have liver disease. After a few drinks everyones liver function tests will be raised, but will go back to normal after several days, unless there is a chronic issue like viral hepatitis or cirrhosis. But cirrhosis due to alcohol normally takes years and years of chronic alcohol abuse to develop. There are a few, unlucky ones who get it earlier as they have the genes for this and are more sensitive, but this is not the norm. The fact that you drank mainly on weekends and had 'rest' periods for your liver is in your favour as it gave your liver time to recuperate and expel the poison before the next 'assignment'.
The liver is quite a tough beast and can handle alot of crap that comes its way. Paracetamol is also extremely toxic to the liver which is something alot of people don't realise. You should never take it with alcohol (or the day after heavy drinking) as this is double trouble. A daily high fat diet is also bad for the liver and can lead to 'fatty liver' and later on cirrhosis. So unless you have abused yourself alot in other ways or have caught hepatitis or genetically have a particularly sensitive liver, you should be fine.