Why does alcohol consumption cause liver disease? All kinds of alcohol have different levels of alcohol. Only 10% of alcohol is excreted from the gastrointestinal tract after entering the body, while 90% is metabolized in the liver. The main component of alcohol is ethanol, which is oxidized to acetaldehyde after entering the liver cells. Both ethanol and acetaldehyde have toxic effects that directly stimulate and damage liver cells, and can cause fatty degeneration and even necrosis of liver cells. The main risk factors for alcoholic liver disease are related to the amount of alcohol consumed, years of alcohol consumption, gender, genetics, nutrition, and hepatitis B and C virus infection. How much alcohol is consumed and for how long can it cause liver disease? Most studies now believe that 48% of people who consume more than 40 grams of alcohol per day for more than 5 consecutive years will develop varying degrees of alcoholic liver disease; the risk of alcoholic liver disease increases 5-fold when 80-100 grams of alcohol are consumed daily; 25-fold when more than 160 grams are consumed daily; and 33% of alcoholics will develop alcoholic hepatitis and 14% will develop alcoholic cirrhosis if they continue to drink for 8 years and consume an average of 227 grams of alcohol per day. 14% develop alcoholic cirrhosis. The risk of drinking large amounts of alcohol at a time is greater than drinking small amounts in small portions, and the risk of liver disease is higher when drinking at an early age. Forty grams of alcohol is equivalent to about 100 ml of brandy, 120 ml of whiskey, 250 ml of yellow wine, 1,000 ml of beer, 56 ml of white wine, and 130 ml of 38 degree white wine. Women are more sensitive to alcohol than men. Women are smaller and have higher body fat content, and their blood alcohol concentration is higher than men’s when drinking the same amount of alcohol, while women have lower ethanol dehydrogenase in their stomachs than men, so they are more likely to develop alcoholic liver disease than men. Women are prone to change from alcoholic hepatitis to cirrhosis even after they stop drinking. Poor nutrition and protein deficiency can aggravate the toxicity of alcohol to the liver, so eating a moderate fat and high protein diet can reduce the toxicity of alcohol to the liver to a certain extent. However, dietary modifications are useless when excessive alcohol consumption exceeds the threshold of alcoholism. When chronic alcoholism occurs, patients will slowly find that their memory is not as good as before and their judgment is impaired; when they quit drinking, some patients will have hallucinations, hallucinations, mania and other mental abnormalities; their sex drive will be reduced, and in serious cases, infertility will even result; some people will develop diabetes; their appetite will decrease, and acute and chronic celiac disease, chronic pancreatitis and chronic cholecystitis will occur from time to time. Some patients also suffer from arteriosclerosis, myocarditis, and coronary heart disease; more damage is done to the liver, with fatty liver occurring in about 75%, alcoholic hepatitis in 40%, and cirrhosis in 8% to 29%. Once the cirrhosis stage is developed, the disease is irreversible. Fatty liver is the early stage of alcoholic liver disease. Mild fatty liver is mostly asymptomatic, while moderate and severe fatty liver can present manifestations similar to chronic hepatitis, such as lethargy, epigastric discomfort, feeling of distension and fullness in both ribs, loss of appetite, etc. A few patients have low fever, diarrhea, numbness in the limbs, hand tremor, reduced sexual function, and sexual dysfunction in men. What should I do if I have alcoholic liver disease? The first step in the treatment of patients with alcoholic liver disease is lifelong abstinence from alcohol, including alcoholic beverages such as beer, fruit wines, and medicinal wines. Abandon harmful lifestyles, eat a reasonable diet, exercise in moderation, and treat the liver with reasonable protection. Patients with severe digestive symptoms must ensure nutrient supplementation by consuming high-calorie foods and multivitamins. At the same time, appropriate supplementation of compound amino acids and compound salvia preparations can maintain positive nitrogen balance, increase blood flow into the liver, promote liver tissue repair and anti-infection. Silymarin is a purely natural drug with high purity of the active ingredient silymarin, which can reduce the lipid peroxidation reaction caused by toxic substances in alcoholism, and also has the effect of stopping and removing fat deposition and infiltration in the liver with less side effects.