Heavy beer drinking for 7 years, only mild elevated ast/alt levels...cancer soon?

Question

I have drank beer heavily for 7 years now...really heavy past 4-5 with around 12 pk of light beer a day. Sad thing is I know it has been bad. I'm not looking for sympathy. I never get drunk, nor a hangover. I eat right, take milk thistle, multivitamins, fish oil, b1 supplements. I had 2 ct scans, first came back mild fatty liver, 2nd came back normal. Liver enzymes back in 01-2008 were elevated around 80/60. If I stop as I recently obtained antabuse...will I be ok? Or am I doomed to liver cancer?

Answer 1

The liver has a very good capacity to regenerate.

Stop drinking so much (or at all) and it should improve over time.

Answer 2

My guess is that you are not "doomed", but I can't promise you'll be okay either.  Sometimes, liver cancer is sneaky.  BUT, you should be proud of yourself for realizing that drinking a 12 pack a day is a great way to destroy your body.  I wish you the best of luck and hope you are in a program (AA) as well.  You should talk to your doc... the withdrawl from ETOH is horrible and life threatening.  You should be monitored during the process.  Please be careful... your life depends on it!  Good Luck

Answer 3

You do not state your age. Youth has some benefits when trying to recover from abusing your body but even if you are older you can still get much better.  You have probably not been drinking long enough or hard enough to develop cirrhosis because people with severe cirrhosis will often have low (near normal) liver enzyme numbers because the damage is so severe that they have no liver tissue that is not scarred left to break down and create elevated liver enzymes.

If you do not have hepatitis B or C and you do quit drinking your liver will probably recover completely or almost completely. Recovery should take six months to a year of no alcohol along with an excellent diet and some exercise but as long as you do not have some other physical problem you will do fine if you do quit drinking.

Try not to stay on the antabuse for very long because this drug is also hard on your liver and will raise your liver enzymes by itself. My guess is that once you stop the alcohol for a month and you avoid your past bad habits that you will lose your desire to be drink and be drunk and then you will feel so much better that you won't need the antabuse. Surround yourself with friends who do not drink every night and who respect your desire to quit drinking. Get some new hobbies and spend your time doing things that don't revolve around drinking and sitting in front of the tube or in the bar. Treat yourself with some of the money you save from not buying beer every night. Exercise several times a week and this will both speed up your recovery and make you feel better.  

Also - don't beat yourself up so much. You are not doomed. Just make the necessary changes and move on with your life.

Good luck

Answer 4

You liver works hard to distribute all your consumption of alcohol.  Kind of like a car that is ran and ran for years with little oil/tune ups.  Cancer may not be what you will get,, maybe cirrhosis?  

Be glad your scans came back good, that is a blessing.  The lab work can get better looking if you start taking better care of the liver you were given at birth to take you through life.