Alcohol consumption has been identified as an important risk factor for risk of disease, disability and mortality. In fact, in a comparative risk assessment conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO), the detrimental impact of alcohol use on the global burden of disease and injury was second only to unprotected sex and childhood underweight .
In fact, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), every year, in the US alone, 140 thousand people die from alcohol.
Recently, the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) and The Lancet magazine (one of the most prestigious medical journals like the BMJ) have presented the work they carried out in order to analyze and improve the liver health of the population ; in addition to a decalogue for doctors and politicians.
what the study says
This work comments that liver diseases have become a major health threat across Europe and, although the course of European hepatology is changing thanks to the cure of viral hepatitis C and the control of chronic viral hepatitis B, unfortunately, the increasingly widespread unhealthy use of alcohol, obesity and liver diseases undiagnosed or untreated they are being a problem.
One of the biggest problems with liver disease is that it is often asymptomatic and continued liver injury may lead to few overt symptoms and signs until end-stage liver disease develops.
Chronic liver disease has a substantial impact on young and middle-aged people in their prime working years, with the peak age of death occurring in their 40s and 50s. This contrasts with mortality from smoking- and obesity-related diseases, such as lung cancer or type 2 diabetes, whose deaths typically occur between the ages of 60 and 70.
Consequently, WHO data show that liver disease now ranks second place after ischemic heart disease as the main cause of years of working life lost in Europe. In fact, on average, two-thirds of all potential years of life lost due to liver disease mortality are years of working life.
The progression from having a healthy liver to progressive fibrosis, cirrhosis, liver failure and related complications and, in some cases, Liver cancer it is produced in response to multiple risk factors and disease mechanisms and, among those risk factors, is alcohol.
Europe and alcohol
Europe has the highest levels of alcohol consumption per person, the highest prevalence of binge drinking, and the lowest rates of alcohol abstention in the world.
According to the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) model, alcohol was responsible for about 580,000 deaths in 2019 in the WHO European Region. Others have estimated that alcohol causes about 40% of the 287,000 premature liver-related deaths in Europe each year, although the real figure is probably higher.
What recommendations do they offer?
There are many recommendations offered by European organizations in order to reduce the burden caused by alcohol in liver diseases. Between them:
- Do not consume more than five units of alcohol (which would be like half a bottle of wine) per day and 10 units of alcohol per week. Despite this, the Liver British Trust recommends limiting your consumption to 14 units of alcohol per week. Although these latest recommendations are more lax, the units of alcohol are more conservative since, according to the foundation, 750 ml of wine would be 10 units, while for other calculations, 10 units are equivalent to a liter of wine.
- Do not consume alcohol for two or three consecutive days so that the liver can recover.
It is important to comment that the units of alcohol do not depend on the volume of an alcoholic drink, but on the amount of pure alcohol that is being ingested. For example, consuming 10 units of alcohol based on low-grade beer will not be the same as drinking a whiskey.
Despite this, every foundation recommends that optimal alcohol intake is zero since there is no amount that is safe for health.
Alcohol and market price
They suggest greater regulation of prices and give Russia as an example that, in the 1980s, alcohol control policies led to a sharp drop in mortality with 1.2 million lives saved in the 5 years since the beginning of politics. In fact, the most recent policies at the population level, that is, the increase in taxes and a minimum sale price of alcohol, have resulted in a reduction in the all-cause mortality of 39% in men and 36% in women.
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