tealily

Reading all the news today about the increase in liver disease in the U.S.

More ammunition to help us stop drinking and stay stopped.

From The Washington Post:

"Deaths from liver disease have increased sharply in recent years in the United States, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal. Cirrhosis-related deaths increased by 65 percent from 1999 to 2016, and deaths from liver cancer doubled, the study said. The rise in death rates was driven predominantly by alcohol-induced disease, the report said.

"Over the past decade, people ages 25 to 34 had the highest increase in cirrhosis deaths — an average of 10.5 percent per year — of the demographic groups examined, researchers reported.

"The study suggests that a new generation of Americans is being afflicted "by alcohol misuse and its complications,” said lead author Elliot Tapper, a liver specialist at the University of Michigan.

"Tapper said people are at risk of life-threatening cirrhosis if they drink several drinks a night or have multiple nights of binge drinking — more than four or five drinks per sitting — per week. Women tend to be less tolerant of alcohol and their livers more sensitive to damage."

From NPR:

"The analysis revealed that deaths from liver-related illnesses have increased dramatically, and mortality in young people rose the fastest. Although these illnesses can be caused by several things including obesity and hepatitis C infection, the rise among young Americans was caused by alcohol consumption. The number of 25- to 34-year-olds who died annually from alcohol-related liver disease nearly tripled between 1999 and 2016, from 259 in 1999 to 767 in 2016, an average annual increase of around 10 percent.

" "What's happening with young people is dismaying to say the least," says Tapper.

"The rise in alcohol-related deaths overlaps with rising rates of binge drinking from 2002 to 2012 observed across much of the U.S."

August252015

Read the NPR piece his morning. I was definitely in the category of under forty and nearly fatal liver disease. This piece was important to share with the restaurant industry recovery group I lead because so many young people are at enormous risk.

rascalwhiteoak

I saw the NPR story earlier. My own drinking career is definitely reflected in that range of years.

ElizaD

I remember years of no alcohol advertising on television and then suddenly it's every other commercial and usually geared towards young people. I wonder if that has caused an uptick in alcohol consumption.

MindfulMan

Wondering why the uptick in binge drinking.

I blame the soulless encroachment of Corporate America....

ScottFromWI

I don’t blame anyone but myself for my binge drinking. You could have bombarded me with anti drinking commercials 24x7 and it would not have made a lick of difference. Blaming society or the media for our own problems is a convenient cop-out these days, but I don’t buy it.

MindfulMan

At the individual level that is absolutely true...but what is causing this in society as a whole? It's happened in the UK as well. The rate of binge drinking has increased dramatically.

Why?

sonic0311

I do think we live in a much more cruel, much more competitive world these days, and with the dreadful and much publicized increase in opioid abuse, as well as other drugs, it's probably not all that surprising that booze is being abused so much. I know that it wasn't long ago that my liver was not looking so good, and thankfully putting nearly 2 years of sobriety under my belt has brought it back to normal readings, for which I'm very grateful.

tomsteve

corporate america never held anyone down and forced alcohol down their throat.

seems to me finding solutions is better than passing blame.

Truthseeker11

My friend is a nurse and she says a lot of young men come into the hospital with liver failure and they had no idea. It’s very sad and scary. I feel I’ve dodged that bullet for so long yet I know a man who died at 47 from liver failure who had been sober for many years but he started back on the beer and his doctors warned him it would kill him. His liver was 3x normal size when he died.

Forward12

It's mainly from the alcohol companies going after women strongly in the past years, and it's reflective from the large spike in alcohol use and abuse among women.
All the "mommy wine" crap and what not.

16YearsDrunk

A lack of education possibly. Alcohol is marketed cheaply at young people, students especially. Starting early adulthood getting wasted on a regular basis sets up the path to alcohol problems.

When I started University the staff would often talk about events happening at local bars, and promote "have a good time" and "alcohol". You see it a lot on movies too. When the educated people you look up to for knowledge are promoting drinking as sociable and enjoyable society has a problem.