One of the largest threats to the health of chronic heavy drinkers is the damage that long-time drinking can do to their liver, which can cause cirrhosis, also known as alcohol liver disease.
Normal liver function is essential to life. The liver performs more than 300 life-saving functions, without which the body's systems will simply shut down. In the United States, cirrhosis is the seventh leading cause of death among young and middle-age adults. Approximately 10,000 to 24,000 deaths from cirrhosis may be attributable to alcohol consumption each year.
Approximately 10 to 35 percent of heavy drinkers develop alcoholic hepatitis, and 10 to 20 percent develop cirrhosis.
Usually alcoholic cirrhosis develops after more than a decade of heavy drinking, but that is not always the case.
Due to genetic factors some heavy drinkers can develop cirrhosis much sooner. Some people have livers that are much more sensitive to alcohol.
Likewise, the amount of alcohol that can injure the liver varies greatly from person to person. In women, as few as two to three drinks per day have been linked with cirrhosis and in men, as few as three to four drinks per day. Alcohol attacks the liver by blocking the normal metabolism of protein, fats, and carbohydrates.