Professor Frank Murray, liver specialist at Beaumont Hospital and President of at Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, warns of younger ‘gender balance’ among deaths due to alcohol.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, Murray explained there has been an increase in women being admitted to hospital and dying from liver failure in recent times.
"Previously alcohol related deaths were mainly older men drinking reasonably heavy in pubs on a regular basis. But in recent times we’ve seen a huge increase of women being admitted to hospital and dying from liver failure, commonly in their 40s, less common in their 30s..."
Murray felt this is as a result of changes in drinking patterns. In both Ireland and the UK the majority of alcohol is now consumed at home.
"What happens is people buy wine and in some cases people drink half a bottle a night several times during the week and a bottle each day at the weekends. That’s enough to cause liver failure."
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"People don’t identify any symptoms. It’s not like they’re running short of breath or energy. There’s nothing that they’ll recognise as being specific. Many people who drink heavily feel terrible all the time. But they feel terrible all the time because of the alcohol and not the liver disease component."
It is for this reason Murray describes it as a complex and high mortality illness.
"There are two components to liver illness; cirrhosis and an inflammatory component, the latter of which will fade away. But unfortunately when people get admitted with these components, about half of them die. That’s frequently their first presentation."
"Most people underestimate how much alcohol they consume. Very good data from the Health Research Board identifies that people underestimate how much they consume on average by 61%."
He added: "There’s a huge amount of underestimation on how much people are drinking, and therefore underestimation of the risk."
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