- they just drink nearly every day': Experts warn we need a 3-day break each week so the body can recover
- Liver disease is the fifth leading cause of death in men
- Mike Shallcross is trying to have two consecutive dry days each week
- Has been a 25% rise in alcohol-related liver disease deaths in last decade
- Instead of one wine or a beer after work, many of us now have two or three
- Experts: 'These people just top up every day and never give liver a rest'
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| Mike Shallcross realised - to his horror - that his daily, social drinking was putting him at increased risk of alcohol-related liver disease. He is now trying to have two consecutive 'dry' days each |
Hello my name is Mike, and I'm the sort of guy who could die from liver disease.
I'm not an alcoholic: the seldom-seen-anymore friend fishing on Facebook to be congratulated on his dry anniversary.
I'm not the divorcé at your work who lurches back from lunch with a mouthful of Smints, and gets called into the boss's office the morning after the Christmas party.
Nor the guy on your bus this morning with an open can of electric soup, chemical BO and no particular place to go (why do these folks never have a lie-in?).
No, I'm none of those people.
But I am the sort of guy who could die from liver disease. And possibly so are you.
The reason? I just love a drink. I don't self-medicate or blot out, I drink to enhance life. I scoff at talk like 'I don't like the taste' or 'It's empty calories'.
I love that thirst-shattering beer at the end of the working day, the flavoursome explosion of a glass of red with a meal, the bite of a fine dark rum sipped while contemplating a knotty problem.
Alcohol isn't a crutch for me, it's a pogo stick.
I suppose some might take issue with my phrase 'a drink'.
A few years ago at an office drinks do I was, er, 'refreshing my glass' when a lippy young week intern remarked: 'Hoovering up are we Shallcross?'
Lest anyone think that gross impertinence is a career impediment at Men's Health, I should point out that he is now our Associate Style Editor.
But that phrase made me realise I could slip into a dangerous category identified by Andrew Langford, chief executive of the British Liver Trust, as he surveys the – ironically sobering – statistic of a 25 per cent rise in alcohol-related liver disease deaths in the last decade.
'At the moment liver disease is the 5th biggest killer in the UK.
If we don't do anything about it by 2025 it will almost certainly be one of the top two, it is a major epidemic.
'The majority of people who die of alcohol-related liver disease are not alcoholics. They drink every day or most days - not getting slaughtered, but just drinking that bit too much.
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| If you are going to drink, you must take two to three consecutive days off every weekto give your liver a chance to rejuvenate – regardless of how much you're drinking, say experts from the British Liver Trust |
'Instead of having a glass of wine or a beer after work they're having two or three. Just topping up every day and never giving their liver a rest.'
Does that make them alcoholics, heavy drinkers, chronic drinkers or just normal?
We can sit here and split hairs all day, but ultimately my opinion, your opinion, even the finger-wagging of your GP doesn't matter.
They are not categories your liver recognises. It doesn't care whether you necked those five pints with a crowd of mates to wet a baby's head, or whether you drank them alone to numb the pain of an argument.
'If you are going to drink, you must take two to three consecutive days off every week to give your liver a chance to rejuvenate – regardless of how much you're drinking.
The important word here is 'consecutive'
It's not about judgements, just biology.
And liver disease can develop slowly, but its endgame can be apocalyptic.
It's not a question of lying in hospital with yellow skin and a glorified tummy ache.
Besides its function of filtering out the toxins from drink and drugs, the organ is also vital for hormone balance, blood clotting, and protecting certain parts of the body from infection.
Remove its protection, and things will start going to shit very rapidly.
Believe me, you don't want to see what happens to brain function when the liver can no longer dispose of bilirubin, a by-product of dead blood cells.
There are other culprits when it comes to liver disease: obesity is a factor, as is the prevalence of viral hepatitis and, to some little extent, steroid abuse.
But booze is drawing most fire for the moment. 'In the last 35 years we've allowed alcohol to become a commodity,' says Mr Langford.
'In the 70s it would have been fairly unusual for my mum to have had alcohol in her shopping, whereas now a bottle of wine goes into the basket along with the milk, eggs and bread.'
You can see how it works. Not so many years ago, drinkers comprised discrete guilds.
Some people propped up the saloon bar, others drank wine or spirits at home, purchased by the single bottle.
Now we can enjoy back-to-back football in pubs that once shut on Sunday afternoons before heading home to tuck into that wine club case of mixed reds (a product perfectly balanced in the middle-class chasm between aspiration and fear – we talk eruditely about Italian grape varieties while worrying about how quickly that rack is emptying itself).
Our any time, any place, anywhere attitude to booze puts everyone at risk.
So what is our strategy. Assuming that complete abstinence is out, you could try a month off – a dry January for example.
Mr Langford welcomes this with some qualification. 'Anything that gets people to look at their drinking is a good idea,' he says.
'But you're wasting your time if you go back to old habits for the other 11 months.'
Langford has a simple prescription: 'If you are going to drink, you must take two to three consecutive days off every week to give your liver a chance to rejuvenate – regardless of how much you're drinking,' he says.
'The important word here is 'consecutive'. It needs at least 48 hours to start repairing itself.'
To this end the BLT has just brought out an app, Spruce, which helps you stick to your dry days.
The Imperial War Museum recently exhibited a rare example of a WW1 propaganda poster which made sense.
'Don't Take Alcoholic Drinks on Mondays', it exhorted, a gesture of solidarity with 'the great sacrifices freely made by our sailors and soldiers'.
I'm going to go one better, and stick to grapefruit juice on Mondays and Tuesdays, in solidarity with a truly long-suffering organ. After all, we've all been putting this guy through a lot. Care to join me?
Thanks to the British Liver Trust. Go to (www.loveyourliver.org.uk) the link for the SPRUCE app: www.spruceapp.co.uk
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2866930/Most-people-die-liver-disease-AREN-T-alcoholics-just-drink-nearly-day-Experts-warn-need-3-day-break-week-body-recover.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2866930/Most-people-die-liver-disease-AREN-T-alcoholics-just-drink-nearly-day-Experts-warn-need-3-day-break-week-body-recover.html
