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If you indulged too much during the holiday months, now is the time to test your liver function to gauge how alcohol has impacted it and how you can improve your health.
What You’ll Learn:
- Facts about increased alcohol consumption during the holidays.
- Why people drink more during the holiday season.
- How excessive drinking impacts the liver.
- What you can do to test liver health.
- What liver testing will tell you.
If the holiday season went by in a blur there could be a reason. Alcohol consumption increases significantly during this time, reaching a peak around Christmas. Even people who rarely drink end up indulging more during the holidays, and they are more likely to binge drink.
There are a few indicators that point to the fact that drinking increases during the holidays. In addition to higher alcohol sales, there are also more alcohol-related car accidents. New Year’s Day is almost always the deadliest day of the year on the road due to drunk driving after the New Year’s Eve celebrations.
But the holiday over indulgence isn’t just dangerous for driving. It can also do a lot of damage to your liver.
Why We Over Indulge on Alcohol During the Holiday Season
Alcohol consumption goes way up during the holidays. It happens for a number of reasons, with the top ones being:
Increase in Social Activities That Involve Alcohol
The holiday season is full of gatherings and parties where alcohol is flowing freely. Many people actually feel social pressure to drink more than they normally would because of the festivities. If you’ve been trying to cut back on your drinking, this time of year is going to make it extra difficult simply because more people are partaking.
Increased Stress
It may seem like there’s a lot of merriment during the holidays, but there’s also a lot of stress. Between the financial strain of gift giving, more things to work into a busy schedule and pressure to be jolly at all times, many people get stressed out. And when they do they turn to alcohol to help with the anxiety.
Emphasis on Alcohol Consumption as Part of the Celebration
In the U.S. we often equate celebrations with alcohol consumption. New Year’s Eve is the most obvious example. Toasting with champagne is a time-honored tradition when people ring in the New Year.
What Excessive Alcohol Consumption Does to Your Liver During the Holidays
If you’re one of the many people that drank excessively during the holidays your liver might be feeling the effects. Alcohol is processed by the liver. As it breaks down, harmful byproducts are generated that damage liver cells.
The damage first causes a condition known as fatty liver. It’s called this because fat builds up in the liver. It can happen with just one episode of binge drinking. If the drinking continues it can lead to inflammation in the liver (hepatitis). In this state liver cells are destroyed. Repeatedly putting your liver through this cycle can cause scarring called cirrhosis or even liver cancer.
The first two stages of fatty liver and inflammation can occur during bouts of holiday drinking. The good news is your liver can recover.
How to Determine the Extent of Liver Damage
With each alcoholic beverage that your liver processes, damage is done. The question is, how much damage happened during the holiday season?
You can gauge it with an at-home liver test. Choose Your Health has a liver testing kit that checks seven biomarkers that are connected to liver health and how the liver is functioning. The test will provide feedback on:
- AST - enzyme that indicates liver damage
- ALT - enzyme that is released when there is liver damage
- AST:ALT Ratio - can point to the cause of liver damage
- GGT - indicates oxidative stress and aid in detecting liver disease
- Average Blood Sugars - measures risk for pre-diabetes
- Inflammation - can indicate liver disease and liver fibrosis
- Visceral Fat - this is fat that is in internal organs such as the liver
All of these biomarkers together can give you a clearer understanding of where your liver health stands and if it has been stressed out by the holiday drinking.
If you find that there are indicators of liver damage, the first thing you should do is abstain from drinking to help your liver detox. The liver is pretty amazing in that it’s able to regenerate to heal the damage from fatty liver. You can aid the process by steering clear of other toxins, focusing on eating a healthy diet and drinking plenty of water.
After a month of abstaining and helping your liver recover, it’s a good time to test liver function again to see how much improvement has been made.
If you decided to take control of your drinking after over-indulging during the holidays, Choose Your Horizon can be an invaluable partner. We offer online naltrexone prescriptions that are convenient, cost-effective and safe along with other resources that help you curb alcohol cravings.
Get started with the online Alcohol Use Assessment. In minutes you’ll know if naltrexone is recommended for your situation.
