May you liver long OD-ed on alcohol on New Years? Heavy drinking is not just about hangovers but fatty liver and alcoholic hepatitis too

The heavy drinking synonymous with Christmas and New Year's Eve can put a serious strain on the liver, say experts. Excessive alcohol consumption is known to cause either short or longterm liver damage.      Alcohol is a essentially a poison, and if drunk in excess over the long-term, it can lead to either a fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis or cirrhosis.      Over a number of years, most heavy drinkers tend to develop a fatty liver. In this condition, fat globules form within liver cells.      If alcohol consumption continues, hepatitis or inflammation of the liver develops. And with continued drinking, cirrhosis or scarring of tissue follows, making liver damage irreversible.  SYMPTOMS TO LOOK OUT FOR  The liver becomes enlarged, causing discomfort in the right upper abdomen. After about 10 years, symptoms of nausea, vomiting, pain under the right ribs, weight loss, fever, yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice) and a swollen abdomen appear.      The alarming bit is that cirrhosis may often cause no symptoms for a number of years or only mild ones, including poor appetite and weight loss, nausea and muscle wasting.      In some cases, severe cirrhosis may lead to varicose veins in the gullet that bleed into the digestive tract. Liver failure ensues, with coma and death.  HOW TO TREAT IT  Stop drinking completely and forever, is what doctors will tell you. If not, the disease may be fatal. If drinking stops, you may get a few extra years of life.      Fatty liver often disappears after three to six months of abstinence from alcohol.      About half of the people with cirrhosis die from liver failure within five years.      More than one in 10 with cirrhosis go on to develop liver cancer.      People who do not have any other serious health problems and have stopped drinking may be candidates for a liver transplant.      Swelling of the abdomen can be treated with diuretic drugs. Nausea can be relieved by antiemetic drugs.      — Daily Mirror