Should I be planning to live past 50 anyway?

May 17, 2009 12:17 PM

Am I headed towards liver cirrhosis at "normal" alcoholic speed?

I'm a male in my early 30's, and I drink daily, with a history of alcoholism in my father's side of the family. Long story short I had a traumatic event ~10 years or so ago and subsequently lost most of my ability to sleep. Therapy didn't help (years of it) and I don't like taking normal medications.

So, to sleep, I drink. I usually eat late in the day anyway given my long work hours, so I usually have one strong mixed drink, but a large one - probably the equivalent of 2-3 regular mixed drinks. I don't really try to drink to be drunk so much as to get the brain to turn off and be sleepy enough that I'll actually sleep.

The habit's pretty regular, and when I don't drink, I sleep very poorly or little at all. Approximately once every year or so I'll take a quarter (3 months) and go on the wagon, pretty much just to see if I can, and I get little and poor sleep and my work performance plummets in those periods.

I know I should get rid of the habit, but let's assume that's not going to happen in the next 5 years. My question is - am I causing long-term damage at the same rate that the average alcoholic does? (Am I an average alcoholic? So far its not affected my work or personal life in any even minor ways that come to mind - I have no SO or dependents.) I almost never get falling-down stupid drunk (once last year, the prior time probably 2 years before that), but my consumption is very regular.

I'm not looking for ideas or encouragement to quit so much as a real idea of the potential health issues I'm setting myself up for, and how much I really need to fear them and react accordingly. I know - YANMD, but I'm still interested in resources you might be able to point me towards or anecdotes from your own life.

posted by anonymous to health & fitness (11 comments total)

Officially in the medical community, the acceptable limit of drinking is 14 drinks per week for a male -- and obviously, spread out. I would endorse going to a physician to get assistance with the sleep issue (and ambien is NOT the answer, this is a lot more complicated than that). But as you said, you aren't looking for advice to do that so I'll try to provide some other helpful information.

Probably the risk to an average person of ~2-3 drinks per day is not all that much -- increased risk of gastritis, reflux, etc., but it's not a huge risk to your overall health. And again, on a population level, no it shouldn't be disastrous to your liver. Whether you are particularly predisposed to liver damage (or particularly resilient, conversely) you can't really know.

I WOULD, however, try to minimize liver risks by considering other issues. If you take any medications that can affect liver, be more careful. And I would be cautious about using Tylenol. Tylenol in most people is fine in the recommended dosage, and occasionally with alcohol it is not a big deal. However, combining tylenol and alcohol on a daily basis WOULD be risky, so I would encourage you to be cautious about that.
posted by davidnc at 12:24 PM on May 17 [1 favorite]

Hmm, coffee might not help you sleep, but it might protect your liver.

Can Coffee Offset Liver Damage from Alcohol?
posted by bmosher at 12:38 PM on May 17

Cirrhosis has a genetic component, so that would be one reason why it's hard to say - you could drink less and develop cirrhosis, or drink more and never develop it. Obviously, you're drinking habit isn't healthy at all, in the sense that you're simply self-medicating and relying on alcohol to perform normal daily functions (i.e. sleeping.) You can't function well without it, by your own admission. You're dependent. These are hallmarks of severe alcoholism, and it's hard to imagine that it won't have some negative effect sooner or later. Whether it'll be cirrhosis or not, it's impossible to say.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 12:46 PM on May 17

The thing to remember about physiology and disease is that it's impossible to know where you are on the distribution in terms of probability and risk. So, sorry - can't answer your question about potential for health problems.

I will offer you this: a very good friend of mine had similar issues with not being able to sleep without a stiff drink, with a similar family history. She ended up finding melatonin to be an excellent solution to the insomnia, and that enabled her to quit drinking permanently. Melatonin is a hormone that's manufactured by your pineal gland, and some people are born with deficiencies (most people have declining levels as they age). Melatonin regulates your sleep-wake cycle, and if you're deficient, it can cause insomnia. You might try experimenting with it next time you take a sobriety break - it's available over the counter and has little, if any, known side effects at normal therapeutic dosages.
posted by acridrabbit at 2:17 PM on May 17 [1 favorite]

Been there, done that. No, you probably won't develop cirrhosis of the liver (unless you're drinking til blackout every night of the week), but alcohol is not your buddy when it comes to aiding sleep. Just the opposite, as a matter of fact. Try an OTC Benadryl type drug for a sleeping aid. Wal*Mart has them for ~4 bucks/100 - 'Equate Allergy Tablets (Diphenhydramine HCl 25 mg Antihistamine) - same formulation as their sleeping pills @half the price (or so). It's not a good idea to eat just before retiring, either.
posted by torquemaniac at 2:30 PM on May 17 [1 favorite]

[I]f you look at a drink as 10 grams of alcohol -- a single shot of whiskey, a single beer, one glass of wine -- two drinks or three drinks [per day] is not going to give alcoholic hepatitis.
posted by applemeat at 3:29 PM on May 17

^ Should have added quotation marks.
posted by applemeat at 3:30 PM on May 17

Hey! I drink every day too!
I hate that sweaty sleeping-without-drinking too, and the dreams are confusing.
Just switch from liquor to ale. IANAD.
posted by battleshipkropotkin at 3:55 PM on May 17

I'm still kickin..

I wouldn't worry unless you find yourself drinking until blackout, and the amount you consume increasing as your tolerance to its effects increases. It sounds like you have the same couplefew drinks every night (which is pretty common) and aren't hung over the next day, so no, you probably won't drop dead of liver failure by 50. Assuming, of course, that you don't gradually increase your intake on the way there.
posted by cj_ at 6:05 PM on May 17

What you should be concerned about most immediately is that fact that alcohol has a destructive affect on sleep architecture....drinking is immediately sedative, but knocks out restorative sleep stages that actually make you feel rested.
posted by availablelight at 7:58 PM on May 17 [2 favorites]

I'm a doctor. I even might be your doctor. Alcohol's effects on the liver mostly come from binge drinking. Having 12 beers on Saturday night is much worse than drinking 2 beers per day.


I wouldn't worry unless you find yourself drinking until blackout...

Alcohol can have devastating effects at amounts far below that which would cause blackout.


alcohol has a destructive affect on sleep architecture....drinking is immediately sedative, but knocks out restorative sleep...

This is true.
posted by neuron at 9:38 PM on May 17