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- From: doyle+@pitt.edu (Howard R Doyle)
- Newsgroups: sci.med
- Subject: Re: Degree Of Risk For Liver Cirrhosis
- Keywords: Desire Comprehension of Liver Cirrhosis
- Message-ID: <3747@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP>
- Date: 25 Jul 92 14:06:20 GMT
- References: <18657@drutx.ATT.COM>
- Sender: news+@pitt.edu
- Distribution: sci
- Organization: Pittsburgh Transplant Institute
- Lines: 38
-
- In article <18657@drutx.ATT.COM> matz@drutx.ATT.COM (MatzAD) writes:
- >I have recently become more and more appreciative of good wine.
- >
- >While I consider myself to be in excellent health at the present,
- >and I exercise very vigorously on a daily basis ( I have not
- >noticed any change in my ability to run steep mountain trails, etc.)
- >I am concerned that I may be doing my liver some serious harm by
- >drinking a bottle of wine in an evening 4 or 5 times a week.
- >
- >Could someone please inform me regarding the degree of damage I
- >am incurring to my liver - especially over the long term ?
- >
- >When an average person gets Cirrhosis of the Liver, how much
- >alcohol have they consumed, and over what length of time ?
-
-
- There is really no good answer to your question. Studies of levels of
- alcohol consumption over time indicate that there is no threshold level
- of ethanol intake at which risk of liver disease occurs abruptly, but that
- the relationship between risk and level of consumption is a smooth function.
-
- So having said this, and keeping in mind that these are only general
- guidelines, the incidence of serious liver disease begins to rise with an
- average daily consumption of more than 40 to 60 g of ethanol for a man, and
- perhaps as little as 20 g for a woman. These amounts must be consumed for
- a long period of time (many years).
-
- So if a bottle of wine has 750 cc and the ethanol content is 10% (am I
- close? I'm not a wine person), then you are ingesting 75 cc of ethanol
- 4 to 5 times a week. And 75 cc of ethanol must weigh roughly 75 g, so
- theoretically you are drinking enough to pickle your liver over the long
- run.
-
- Then again, Winston Churchill died of old age...
-
- ----------------
- Howard Doyle
- doyle+@pitt.edu
-