Have I shortened my life? Alcohol.

[tetleymel]

throughout my late teens and twenties I drank to excess most nights. I regularly passed out and ended up in a police cell twice after passing out in cabs and nobody could wake me up.

Nowadays (late thirties) I drink a couple of bottles of wine a week, although will binge every now and then.

I now have an inflamed liver.

Have I shortened my life, our can I overcome this by steering clear of alcohol?

By the way, I'm being treated for mental health problems. I was abused as a child. I'm not making excuses, just giving some background info.

I forgot to mention that I now no longer drink (ok, it's only been a week). I abstained no problem when I was pregnant and breastfeeding, so about three years in total.

Your liver regenerates to some extent. When I was a teenager, I had glandular fever which led to liver damage, mine was inflamed, hard and tender. i avoided alcohol and high protein for three years and my liver function returned to normal. I also think that pregnancy is a pretty good detox, so that will have helped....you can do quite a bit or your liver, like taking milkthistle drops and eating a lot of beetroot.

I'm not being sarky or smart, but if you know you have an inflamed liver, you've been talking to a medical health professional - why haven't you asked them that question?

Are you afraid of the answer, and hoping that you hear some success stories here?

I had a smaller medical problem recently, and did the same (didn't post here but googled stuff). But realised that I needed to go to the doctor and get antibiotics (which I've just finished, and the problem is gone).

Your issue is so serious you need to talk to the doctor - you never know, it could be good news - or if it's bad news at least you will know, and will know what the next step is.

(I have heard that livers are very, very resilient - if they are treated right - so go find out what you can do to help yours)

I hope it works out for you.

I think the story is that if you remove the cause of the problem and don't yet have liver cirrhosis - from what you say, in your case it's excessive drinking - then you can let your liver heal. So because you now know you have this problem - and, perhaps with help as it can be very hard to stop drinking alcoho, esp if you ahve MH problems tool - you can do something about it. If you have developed cirrhosis already (you will have to discuss this with your doctor), you can still halt its progress by not drinking. In a sense you've been lucky as you've had a warning now, and you know what you have to do to stop it getting worse.

There is no point really in looking back and fretting about how oyu might have done things differently. You are where you are, and you have to deal with the situation you are in now.

Have you seen the BLT (British Liver Trust) website - it has some useful information, also a support forum. There are people on there with various liver disorders, many of them have alcohol induced disease (and it seems varying success with giving up the drink), but you may find it helpful to discuss your situation there.

I have autoimmune liver disease, never did have a problem with excessive drinking so i haven't had a problem in stopping (I've jsut got some wonky antibodies), but I do know it can be hard to stop if you've got into the habit. You also need to ahve a frank conversation with your GP about all this. 2 bottles a week and occasional binges is still far more than the recommended amount, and IS dangerous if you already have signs of liver disease.

To answer your OP, you ahven't necessarily reduced your life expectancy BUT you do need to remove the cause of the damage, and in your case that means stopping all alcohol asap. All the best. I know it's a very scary situation to be in.

BTW there is a support thread on MN for people trying to stop drinking. You might find that helpful - sorry, I'm not sure where it is though. Hopefully someone else is around who can help you with that.

Sorry, me again - I've not had lunch so can't think straight, and hands shaking. Your GP can hopefully point you in the right direction re local help in stopping drinking. That's really why i suggesteda frank chat - but also to get up to date info on your own situation. Depending on what blood tests show, they might want ot get other tests - scans, biopsy for example. Just ask the doc!!

Milk thistle is suppose to be really good at helping you liver to recover.

milkthistlebenefits.org.uk/

Yes, but milk thistle won't work if you don't remove the cause of the original problemo .....

Never said it would.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/relationships/1666739-The-Brave-Babes-Battle-Bus-Kicking-The-Wine-Witch-Into-Touch
in relationships .

Never said you said it would, Aqua ....

Oh tetley bless you. It's so hard isn't it? Please look to the future and not back.

I'm taking b complex in liquid form. You use a dropper and place it under the tongue for 30 seconds. This is a more direct route as the formula is absorbed through the salivary glands. Some people, especially drinkers, are unable to absorb b12 in the digestive tract due to lack of intrinsic factor. Ive been taking it for a long while now and what a difference i've noticed, mainly in mood and energy levels as well as an improvement of my sore tongue.

Look at other nutrients you might be deficient in and make sure you're diet is good, or take supplements. make sure you're properly hydrated.

I guess what I'm saying is that please look after yourself as best you can even if you continue to drink. Oh gawd, it's difficult to type this without sounding like a school ma'am. When my drinking was at it's worst, I wasn't looking after myself at all particularly well. I was under tremendous pressure at the time and I wish someone had given me some advice to try and keep me as healthy as I could be in the circumstances.

Have a look at the brave babes thread. It will be very supportive. Good luck