Well, it isn’t like you would have guessed that being severely overweight was good for you anyway. But still it hardly seems fair that drinking alcohol is worse for overweight people than for thinner ones. Nevertheless, it is, at least on the liver.
In one study, scientists at the University of Oxford examined the medical records of 1.2 million middle-aged British women. They followed them for an average of about six years and found that overweight or obese women faced a higher risk of cirrhosis and the risk increased if they also reported drinking an average of a third to half a drink a day.
But among those who reported drinking an average of 2.5 drinks a day, the rate was 2.7 in 1,000 among those with healthy weight and five in 1,000 among those who were obese. That’s double!
The damage from cirrhosis is not reversible, and it is a life-threatening disease. Symptoms may include loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and tenderness, fever and jaundice. Anyone with alcohol-induced liver disease will improve their health and life expectancy if they stop drinking. For patients who do not stop drinking, the outlook is poor; they are likely to suffer a variety of life-threatening health problems caused by alcohol-related liver damage.
The American Liver Foundation has more information about alcohol-induced liver problems.
http://www.liverfoundation.org/education/info/alcohol/
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