Lessen Alcohol's Damaging Effects on Your Liver

If you're among the more than half of American adults who regularly enjoy a drink, or a few, there's important information about your liver. Yes, alcohol can damage it over time, but a new study sheds light on how diet and exercise can reduce that risk and positively affect your liver's health — even if you're a heavy or binge drinker.

Researchers analyzed data from over 60,000 adults who participated in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Participants' health outcomes were tracked via the National Death Index, and their drinking habits, diets and physical activity levels were carefully assessed.

Lifestyle choices can dramatically alter your liver's fate, even if you're not perfect.

Drinking was classified as light, medium or heavy, based on national guidelines; and researchers examined how dietary quality (measured by the Healthy Eating Index) and physical activity influenced the risk of dying from alcohol-related liver disease. The idea was to better understand how lifestyle choices might lessen, or worsen, the damaging effects of alcohol on the liver.

“We found that adherence to high levels of physical activity and/or diet quality was associated with a lower risk of liver-related death across all drinking patterns, including 36 percent and 69 percent liver mortality risk reduction from physical activity and 86 percent and 84 percent liver mortality risk reduction from healthier eating among heavy and binge drinkers, respectively,” lead researcher, Naga P. Chalasani, the David W. Crabb Professor of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and Adjunct Professor of Anatomy, Cell Biology & Physiology at the University of Indiana School of Medicine, explained.

More specifically, here's what they found:

• Alcohol intake of any amount, even a single drink, was associated with an increased risk of early mortality.
• A healthy diet and regular physical activity reduced the risk of liver-related deaths across all drinking categories — even among heavy and binge drinkers.
• Women were especially vulnerable, facing higher liver-related death risks than men. However, they also reaped greater protective benefits from healthy eating and exercise.
• A plant-forward diet rich in vegetables, fruits, grains, seafood, plant-based proteins and healthy fats — while avoiding empty calories from alcohol, added sugars and solid fats — correlated strongly with less liver damage.
• The liver health risks were greater among people from economically-disadvantaged neighborhoods and more likely to be exposed to unhealthy diets, high-risk alcohol use and with fewer options for physical activity,

A healthy diet and regular physical activity reduced the risk of liver-related deaths across all drinking categories — even among heavy and binge drinkers.

The study is a key piece of the liver-health puzzle. It is the first such study to consider both diet and physical activity's impact on alcohol-related liver mortality in a large, multi-ethnic U.S. sample.

So, what might this mean for you? If you're not ready or able to stop drinking entirely, there's still a lot you can do to protect your liver:

• Eat smarter. Build meals around plants, not processed foods. Choose healthy fats like olive oil and avocado. Cut back on sugars.
• Get moving. Even moderate physical activity like brisk walking can make a difference. Aim for at least 150 minutes of exercise a week.
• Cut down where you can. If you drink heavily or binge drink (more than 4-5 drinks in a sitting), reducing your intake can still decrease your risk.
• Be especially mindful if you're a woman. The study showed women are more susceptible to alcohol's liver damage, but also benefit more from a healthy lifestyle.
• Seek support. If cutting back is difficult, consider talking with a healthcare provider or seek out support groups or counseling.

This study doesn't give a free pass to drinking alcohol, but it does offer hope: lifestyle choices can dramatically alter your liver's fate, even if you're not perfect. Making healthier food choices and incorporating physical activity into your life may not cancel out alcohol's risks completely, but they can substantially lower the danger.

The upshot? Small steps, fewer sips, longer life.

The study is published in the Journal of Hepatology.