Take care of your liver

It's so important to take care of your liver.

Dramatized quite well in this documentary:

 
I’m sorry for your loss.

I don’t know if we’ll ever have definitive research but I plan to remain a moderate drinker until I can’t or don’t care for it anymore.

https://vinepair.com/booze-news/study-moderate-alcohol-consumption-prolong-life/

In a 2019 study of 8,000 people:
“The results showed moderate and occasional drinkers had lower death rates than abstainers. Moderate and occasional women alcohol consumers were less likely to die prematurely than lifetime abstainers, and current abstainers had the highest death rates of all the participants.”
 
Markola said:
I’m sorry for your loss.

I don’t know if we’ll ever have definitive research but I plan to remain a moderate drinker until I can’t or don’t care for it anymore.

https://vinepair.com/booze-news/study-moderate-alcohol-consumption-prolong-life/

In a 2019 study of 8,000 people:
“The results showed moderate and occasional drinkers had lower death rates than abstainers. Moderate and occasional women alcohol consumers were less likely to die prematurely than lifetime abstainers, and current abstainers had the highest death rates of all the participants.”
Click to expand...

Yeah, there are quite a few additional studies that back this up. Here's one: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28671111/

The key is to consume alcohol in moderation. Drinking two bottles of wine each night with dinner is probably not a great idea. Drinking a couple glasses of wine with dinner, or having an occasional cocktail, is probably fine, for most people. Of course, some people cannot tolerate alcohol or should not consume it at all for other reasons. I enjoy a couple glass of wine with dinner, and plan to continue. I do check my liver enzyme results each year when I have my bloodwork done, and they have been fine, no issues.
 
I figure the headache I get, with more than 1.5 glasses of wine or equivalent amount of other beverage, is my liver telling my brain "OK, she's had enough for now."
 
High amounts of fructose (the sugar in fruit) can cause non-alcohol fatty liver disease. So a high carb diet with lots of sugar (which is 50% glucose, 50% fructose) or HFCS (55% glucose 45% fructose) will do that to you. The liver is the only place fructose (and alcohol) is metabolized in the body.
See this video (ignore the silly title; this guy mostly talks about LCHF/keto diets). Beer bellies are typically a combo of visceral fat, which is not good at all, and subcutaneous fat:
 
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Amethyst said:
I figure the headache I get, with more than 1.5 glasses of wine or equivalent amount of other beverage, is my liver telling my brain "OK, she's had enough for now."
Click to expand...

Yes, I have to be careful about this. I may not get an immediate headache but I'll wake up in the middle of the night with one and possibly with bizarre dreams to go with it. I figure it's my body reminding me to exercise moderation.
 
Had co-w*rker who used to make some god awful moonshine in his basement. The end was messy.
 
I quit drinking a year ago. It made weight loss much easier and I sleep much better. I lost 33lbs and now have a weight in the normal range for my height. My back is also happy that the weight is gone.
 
Literally the only time I ever got drunk was when I was 17 and out to dinner with my otherwise strict parents and family! The drinking age was 18 but I was tall :)

Dad, unusual for him, kept buying drinks for everyone, and nobody noticed I was keeping up. Around 3 a.m., I woke after nightmares, feeling as if the room was 100 degrees and something heavy was sitting on my chest, keeping me from breathing. It was terrifying, and I knew right away it was from the alcohol. Never have over-imbibed since.

athena53 said:
Yes, I have to be careful about this. I may not get an immediate headache but I'll wake up in the middle of the night with one and possibly with bizarre dreams to go with it. I figure it's my body reminding me to exercise moderation.
Click to expand...
 
dadu007 said:
High amounts of fructose (the sugar in fruit) can cause non-alcohol fatty liver disease.
Click to expand...

Yeah, and HFCS does not actually exist anywhere in nature. They manufacture it by using enzymes to break the chemical bonds in corn syrup and rearranging them. So, it's a man-made compound that is different than anything we evolved to eat. It's no wonder the liver has problems trying to metabolize it. I try to avoid HFCS, but if you eat any processed foods at all, it's difficult to avoid, as it's in a LOT of packaged foods. It's cheap to manufacture, so they use it widely. Nasty stuff.
 
I got sick last June and went to the doctor. Chills, fatigue/weakness, night sweats. Did blood work and had a lot of things messed up - AST at 190 and ALT at 173. According to my test info, normal AST is 14-54. Normal ALT is 11-51.

Doctor questioned how much I drank - told him about 2 beers a week. Problem could have been due to side effects of terbinafine, an anti fungal medication mixed combined with over exertion, dehydration, and overexposure to sunlight.

So I quit the meds, drank plenty of water, stopped vigorous exercise, and stayed out of the sun for 2 weeks.

Then had another blood test late June - AST at 40, ALT at 61.

Then another test in August with AST at 24, ALT at 19.

I’ll have another test in August this year.
 
RAE said:
Yeah, and HFCS does not actually exist anywhere in nature. They manufacture it by using enzymes to break the chemical bonds in corn syrup and rearranging them. So, it's a man-made compound that is different than anything we evolved to eat. It's no wonder the liver has problems trying to metabolize it. I try to avoid HFCS, but if you eat any processed foods at all, it's difficult to avoid, as it's in a LOT of packaged foods. It's cheap to manufacture, so they use it widely. Nasty stuff.
Click to expand...
Lustig’s work shows that table sugar, sucrose, is just as bad as HFCS. HFCS is 55% fructose, 45% glucose, whereas sucrose is 50/50, so they aren’t that different. They are metabolized the same way. Both easily overwhelm the liver with a large sudden dose. The human body has trouble metabolizing large quantities of fructose regardless of the source.
 
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Ronstar said:
I got sick last June and went to the doctor. Chills, fatigue/weakness, night sweats. Did blood work and had a lot of things messed up - AST at 190 and ALT at 173. According to my test info, normal AST is 14-54. Normal ALT is 11-51.

Doctor questioned how much I drank - told him about 2 beers a week. Problem could have been due to side effects of terbinafine, an anti fungal medication mixed combined with over exertion, dehydration, and overexposure to sunlight.

So I quit the meds, drank plenty of water, stopped vigorous exercise, and stayed out of the sun for 2 weeks.

Then had another blood test late June - AST at 40, ALT at 61.

Then another test in August with AST at 24, ALT at 19.

I’ll have another test in August this year.
Click to expand...
Wow! Glad things normalized!
 
audreyh1 said:
Wow! Glad things normalized!
Click to expand...



Thanks. Foot doc prescribed Terbinafine Jan 2020. I had to take a blood test beforehand to see if my liver could handle it. That blood test was ok. Started the meds and took another blood test late feb. all was well. I had a similar but lesser illness mid March before the big one mid June. Script was done mid June. Haven’t had any problems since.
 
Amethyst said:
I figure the headache I get, with more than 1.5 glasses of wine or equivalent amount of other beverage, is my liver telling my brain "OK, she's had enough for now."
Click to expand...


As we say, "My 'Check Liver' light has come on."
 
braumeister said:
Sure, I told him about it and he immediately relaxed and said that was undoubtedly the cause. No problem.
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Yes, muscle stress is known to cause spikes in AST and ALT levels. Which are NOT, BTW, true "LFTs" (liver function tests)
 
Great saying. I used to be a little ashamed to admit my capacity is so low, because many women's idea of socializing seems to revolve around drinking wine during the day. But now I come right out and say it with a smile.

doneat54 said:
As we say, "My 'Check Liver' light has come on."
Click to expand...
 
Even decaf coffee! But that study looked like it had several confounders including a wealthier cohort drinking the good stuff.
 
We drink no more than one glass of wine a day with food, and not every day, and not even a full serving at that. So we have no worries about our wine consumption. We even think it’s probably quite beneficial. The Greeks and the Romans (and I think also the Phoenicians before them) spread grapes for wine and olive cultivation all around the Mediterranean, as they considered them so very important and wanted colonies to produce more. I think they were on to something!
 
I had a slightly high AST and was referred to a Gastro doc. He said fatty liver is common, take Vitamin E, avoid sugar drinks and alcohol, and watch the weight. Last test was in normal range.
 
audreyh1 said:
The Greeks and the Romans (and I think also the Phoenicians before them) spread grapes for wine and olive cultivation all around the Mediterranean, as they considered them so very important and wanted colonies to produce more. I think they were on to something!
Click to expand...

When your water comes from lead-lined aqueducts, drinking pretty much anything else is a good idea! :LOL:
 
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