Alcohol Driving Increase in Young Adult Liver Disease
Friday, July 20, 2018 at 5:58AM FRIDAY, July 20, 2018 -- The Great Recession continues to take a grim toll: Since 2009, a growing number of Americans have died from liver disease and liver cancer.
The increase among 25- to 34-year-olds is especially troubling because the deaths are due to cirrhosis, a disease caused by excessive drinking, the authors of a new study said. The researchers suspect the economic downturn in 2008 prompted people to comfort themselves with alcohol.
"These are deaths of despair," said lead researcher Dr. Elliot Tapper, an assistant professor of gastroenterology at the University of Michigan.
It's similar to overdose deaths from the opioid epidemic. In both cases, people are trying to relieve the emotional pain they feel, Tapper said.
He cautioned, however, that because this is an observational study, it cannot prove cause and effect.
Cirrhosis scars the liver and causes damage that can lead to deadly conditions such as liver cancer and liver failure.
The most common causes of cirrhosis are drinking too much over many years, hepatitis C or a build-up of excess fat in the liver, known as fatty liver disease, the study authors noted.
While young people are dying from alcohol-related cirrhosis, older people are dying from liver cancer and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, Tapper explained.
The conditions affecting older people are most likely due to the obesity epidemic, he suggested. In many cases, liver disease can be prevented by living a healthy lifestyle.
If cirrhosis is caught early, the liver will repair itself, Tapper said, and losing weight can reverse fatty liver disease.
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