Medical advances means deaths from most illnesses are falling, but as people drink more alcohol from a younger age, booze is claiming more and more lives. Katie Baldwin reports.
GIVING up drinking in January has become a tradition for thousands of people.
But abstaining for the month is not enough to reverse the damage done by drinking too much the rest of the year round.
That’s the warning from liver specialist Dr Mark Aldersley – and he should know.
As a consultant hepatologist working at St James’s Hospital in Leeds, as well as Spire Leeds Hospital, he sees first hand the huge impact of booze.
That now includes people in their twenties and thirties not only being admitted to hospital, but dying from drinking too much.
In the past, the majority of deaths were among middle-aged alcoholics.
Now the fatalities may be much younger.
Dr Aldersley said he had seen people in Leeds in their twenties dying after developing alcoholic hepatitis.
This comes from drinking large amounts of alcohol every day – but it may develop after just a few months of binge drinking.
But alcohol-related liver disease, the fifth biggest killer in the UK, doesn’t only affect those who are dependent on drink.
“We see quite a lot of people who are not alcoholics, they are not drinking in the morning, they don’t have problems for not having an alcoholic drink, but they are drinking too much,” Dr Aldersley said.
“We see people who don’t realise that for a long time, they have been drinking a lot of alcohol.
“The problem with liver disease is that it doesn’t have any symptoms.
“Some of them are getting cirrhosis by the time they are in their late 20s or 30s, which takes a lot of effort.”
Cirrhosis is scarring of the liver as a result of damage, commonly caused by alcohol though being obese also contributes.
“When the liver is damaged it starts to become inflamed, and then with further alcohol scarring develops. When it is severely scarred cirrhosis occurs,” he said.
The condition gradually causes liver failure, which can mean a liver transplant or death.
Dr Aldersley added: “Once people have cirrhosis, if it’s down to alcohol and if people are completely abstinent, their liver will recover to a degree.
“It can recover in 12 to 18 months and people can live for many years but a proportion of them will die, even if they give up, 15 per cent will die within two years.”
Some of those deaths may be among people from all backgrounds who don’t perceive themselves to have a drink problem.
“The issue is that more people are drinking at home than in pubs,” he explained.
“Among the relatively affluent middle class-type people, they might open a bottle of wine a night – and that’s the people who are developing chronic liver disease.
“We see people like that frequently and some of them die.”
Medics across the city say everyone needs to be thinking about how much they are drinking, all year round.
“Giving up for one month is not enough to undo the long term damage caused by regular drinking.
“Year round action is what’s needed. This involves having at least two alcohol free days a week, and ensuring moderate consumption on other days.”
Over a month, the liver will regenerate but not fully. Those without major damage would see their liver return to normal with a few months off drinking, while those with severe damage can still benefit if they stop drinking totally.
“No one wants to make people’s lives a misery by telling them to stop drinking and many people can enjoy drinking moderately,” he added.
“But people who have liver damage should abstain and others should try to limit intake to stay within the recommended number of units.”
With the numbers of hospital admissions in Leeds continuing to rise, health bosses across the city say tackling the problem is key.
Heads at the new clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), which will from April plan and fund healthcare, say it is one of their top priorities.
As GPs, they see the effects of it on their patients.
Dr Andy Harris, clinical chief officer for NHS Leeds South and East CCG, said: “We want to ensure that future generations grow up with positive lifestyle messages and our GPs have therefore made it a priority to develop strategies for addressing this area of growing concern.
“We are committed to helping tackle the wider determinants of ill-health – that is, the things that drive people to have unhealthy lives - by closely in partnership with a wide range of public sector organisations as part the city’s Health and Wellbeing Board.”
Gipton GP Dr Jason Broch, chairman of NHS Leeds North CCG, added: “In our area, we are committed to helping people to stay healthier for longer by helping them reduce the amount they drink to within recommended limits. We’ll do this by working with communities to improve understanding of what safe drinking limits are and how they can cut down, as well as providing appropriate services for people who need more intensive support.”
And Headingley family doctor Dr Gordon Sinclair, chairman of NHS Leeds West CCG, said: “Alcohol-related illness is a significant issue in our area and we know that in some parts of our patch it is a greater problem than in others. This is influenced by wider social factors such as poverty, unemployment and education as well as mental health problems.
“Effective intervention must both address these contributing factors and target the problems arising from alcohol misuse.”
Log on to: www.corkersleeds.co.uk to hear an online series about the effects of drinking.
‘Because I worked I didn’t think I had a problem’
Michelle now realises that even before she developed a serious alcohol problem, her life centred around drinking.
“My social life revolved around drinking,” she said.
“I spent years working in an office where there was very much a drinking culture.
“But because I went to work, I didn’t think I was a problem drinker. It’s only now when I look back that I can see it was a problem.”
To Michelle, who asked to remain anonymous, at that time it was just part of her life.
“I would come home and have a bottle of wine,” said the mum-of-two.
“I didn’t think anything of it. But I was a borderline problem drinker even then.
“For us it was normal. It was people who held down a job and went to work.”
However when her relationship broke down, her drinking escalated.
“Drink was going to cause me a problem, one way or another,” the 41-year-old said.
“I was in an abusive relationship and I started drinking to cope. Slowly but surely it creeps in.
She spent around three years with a serious drink problem.
“I would drink to bring me round in the morning,” she said.
“When you are drinking, you are not functioning as a normal person.”
Michelle, from north Leeds, realised it was too big a problem for her to tackle alone and she underwent a 13-week detox programme at St Anne’s Community Services in Leeds.
“My drinking was bigger than me and I needed their help,” she said.
Since then she has completely abstained and now is a mentor at Leeds Addiction Unit, helping others overcome their problems.
“You can be a positive role model,” she said.
Her health was unaffected, but things could have been very different.
“I really was very lucky. The amount of alcohol I was consuming could’ve damaged my health,” she added.
She supports calls for everyone to consider how much they are drinking.
“Have a week off alcohol and if you find that difficult, that’s telling you you need to cut back.
“It may not have health implications now, but it might in five or 10 years. What are you storing up for the future?”
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