During the pandemic, hospitals see an increase in alcohol-related liver disease

Just a few months after the pandemic, Kelly White, a 52-year-old mother of three, realized she was very nauseous and unable to handle alcohol.

White in Chicago was fired when the country was blocked and found her staying home without doing anything.She was suffering from alcohol in the past I found comfort in drinking, And began to triple her alcohol intake, often starting early in the morning and drinking all day long.

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But she said it all felt very normal to her.

“They were drinking wine when they were drinking vodka while watching the news,” she said. “I felt that alcohol was very acceptable all day long. It didn’t matter.”

That changed one day last July when she felt so sick that she had to go to the hospital. There, doctors discovered that she had liver inflammation from drinking alcohol (called alcoholic hepatitis) and cirrhosis, a permanent scar on the liver.

White is not an outlier.Number of Americans being treated Severe liver disease Experts told NBC News that they had increased from alcohol during the pandemic.

“What we saw on Covid-19 was the dramatic increase in hospitalizations. Alcohol-related liver diseaseDr. Brian Lee, an assistant professor of clinical medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine and a liver transplant expert, said.

“For things like blockades and beings Feel stressed at home, People started drinking more, they were unaware that they were drinking harmful amounts, “he said. And they “come to the hospital with a life-threatening liver disease.”

According to Lee, USC hospitalizations for alcohol-related liver disease have increased by 30% since March 2020. This includes those who previously had no control over alcohol problems and those who had no history of alcohol problems. Lee Seung-yuop said he was worried.

According to Lee, the typical patient is a young woman under the age of 35, who has no history of alcohol problems. Women are unbalanced in the effects of pandemics and may drink more drinks, especially if they are suffering from a pandemic. Increased burden of childcare..

Relation

“They may have been drinking a glass or two of wine the night before the pandemic,” he said. “Now they are probably drinking half or a full bottle of wine and then come to the hospital with terminal liver disease, and they didn’t even know.”

Experts say it will take about two years to collect national data on increased hospitalizations for alcohol-related liver disease, but the new data confirm Lee’s observations at the USC.

Recent studies published in the journal Alcohol and alcoholism Hospital referrals to the Liver Care Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for alcohol-related liver damage were found to have increased by almost 50% over the last few months of 2020 compared to the same period last year.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University examined the records of nearly 500 patients referred to a care center specializing in the treatment of liver damage. In 2020, they found that 46% of patients referred to a liver care center were due to alcohol-related liver disease, compared to 31% in the previous year.

Dr. Victor Chen, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins, co-author of the study, said alcohol-related liver disease “has such significant consequences,” including intestinal bleeding and later liver cancer.

Dr. Raymond Chung, director of the Center for Hepatology and Liver at Massachusetts General Hospital, said the number of inpatients increased by about 40 percent. Alcoholic hepatitis During a pandemic compared to a few years ago.

Like Lee, Chung noticed a significant increase in the number of hospitalized patients under the age of 40. The hospitalization rate was double that of the previous year at his facility, with the youngest patient in his late twenties.

“This is collateral damage to Covid-19,” said Chung. “Covid-19 caused isolation, depression, unemployment, despair and despair.”

“Natural progression”

Johns Hopkins Chen said he wasn’t surprised by the increased incidence of alcohol-related liver problems, and not only did Americans buy more alcohol, but more.

1 Research According to a survey by the American Psychological Association, one in four Americans report heavy drinking due to pandemic stress.another ResearchWas also conducted during the pandemic, and it was found that the number of days women drank heavily increased by 41%. Defined as 4 or more drinks Within a few hours.

With few treatment options available, the mortality rate for severe alcoholic hepatitis can be as high as 40 percent, Chen said. For those who fail initial treatment, the risk of death can increase to 70%.

Liver damage from alcohol can appear relatively quickly in people who take large doses.

If alcohol consumption is high enough, heavy drinking for several months can cause permanent liver damage, Chung said.

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There is no strict cut-off for drinking to avoid liver disease, but he said that the guidelines considered heavy drinking are at least 14 glasses per week for men and at least 7 glasses per week for women.

Signs of liver damage include abdominal pain, yellowing of the skin, nausea and vomiting.

For many Americans, the pandemic is no longer in their minds. The blockade has been lifted for a long time And life is back to normal. However, for Lee, the number of patients with alcohol-related liver disease is still increasing, which is a new and worrisome trend.

“We’ve seen a dramatic decline in Covid-19, but the proliferation of alcohol-related liver disease continues,” he said. “What does that mean for the future?”

White has a permanent scar on his liver, but he hasn’t taken a sip of alcohol since he was hospitalized last summer and will celebrate the year on July 20th.

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