For many people, alcohol is part of social life, celebrations, or a way to relax.
But new research shows that years of heavy drinking can cause far more damage to the liver than many realize, and the results can be sudden, severe, and deadly.
A new study from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has uncovered important details about how long-term heavy alcohol use can lead to a dangerous condition called alcohol-associated hepatitis.
This disease is one of the most serious forms of alcohol-related liver damage and often develops after many years of drinking large amounts of alcohol.
The liver is one of the hardest-working organs in the body. It helps remove toxins from the blood, processes nutrients from food, supports digestion, and plays a key role in fighting infections.
When alcohol enters the body, the liver is responsible for breaking it down. Drinking small amounts occasionally may not cause lasting harm, but drinking heavily over many years puts enormous stress on liver cells.
Alcohol-associated hepatitis usually affects people who have been drinking heavily for a long time, often more than ten years. This level of drinking might include more than a six-pack of beer a day, a full bottle of wine daily, or several shots of hard liquor every day. Over time, alcohol causes inflammation in the liver, damages liver cells, and interferes with the liver’s ability to repair itself.
What makes alcohol-associated hepatitis especially dangerous is how quickly it can become life-threatening. About one in ten people with this condition die within a month of diagnosis, and about one in four die within six months.
Many patients are diagnosed only after severe symptoms appear, such as yellowing of the skin and eyes, abdominal pain, swelling, fever, and confusion.
To better understand what happens inside the body during this disease, scientists studied blood and tissue samples from 106 people. Among them were 57 patients with alcohol-associated hepatitis. The rest had other liver conditions, such as fatty liver disease or cirrhosis, or had no liver disease at all.
Using advanced laboratory tools, the researchers measured more than 1,500 different proteins in the blood. Proteins are essential molecules that help control nearly every process in the body, from immune defense to blood clotting and organ repair.
The researchers found clear differences in the blood of people with alcohol-associated hepatitis. About 100 specific proteins were strongly changed compared to people without the disease.
These proteins are involved in inflammation, immune response, blood clotting, and critical liver functions. The patterns matched what scientists had previously seen in damaged liver tissue, showing that the blood reflects what is happening inside the liver itself.
One key finding involved a molecule called HNF4A. This molecule helps control how liver genes work and keeps liver cells functioning normally. When HNF4A activity is disrupted, the liver struggles to carry out basic tasks. Problems with this molecule have also been linked to other serious conditions, including diabetes and pancreatic cancer.
The study showed that changes in blood proteins were closely connected to widespread damage in liver genes and liver proteins. This strong link helps explain why alcohol-associated hepatitis causes such severe and widespread harm throughout the body.
This research brings scientists closer to creating a blood test that could detect alcohol-associated hepatitis earlier. An early diagnosis could allow doctors to begin treatment sooner, before the damage becomes irreversible. Researchers are now exploring whether these protein changes could also help doctors track how patients respond to treatment over time.
At the moment, treatment options are limited. Doctors often use steroid drugs to reduce inflammation in the liver. While steroids can help some patients, they also weaken the immune system and raise the risk of dangerous infections. Better tools to monitor the disease and guide treatment decisions could greatly improve survival and quality of life.
The study was led by biochemist Jon Jacobs and published in the American Journal of Pathology. It adds important new insight into how alcohol damages the liver and why alcohol-associated hepatitis is so deadly.
As scientists continue this work, the findings may lead to better tests, safer treatments, and stronger warnings about the hidden dangers of long-term heavy drinking.
If you care about liver health, please read studies about simple habit that could give you a healthy liver, and common diabetes drug that may reverse liver inflammation.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about simple blood test that could detect your risk of fatty liver disease, and results showing this green diet may strongly lower non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
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