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Alcoholic Liver Disease

A 42-year-old man presents with low-grade fever, anorexia, dark urine, light-colored stools, and right upper quadrant aching discomfort of 2 weeks' duration. He indicates that he has consumed a pint of whiskey daily for the past 10 years and denies use of illicit drugs or exposure to hepatitis. His physical examination reveals sclera icterus, cutaneous jaundice, proximal muscle wasting, asterixis, a palpable liver and spleen, and peripheral edema. Laboratory studies include an aspartate aminotransferase (AST) of 102 IU, a normal alanine aminotransferase (ALT), an elevated alkaline phosphatase, bilirubin of 6.5 mg/dL, and prothrombin time of 19 seconds (control of 12 seconds). On the basis of his history of chronic alcohol consumption, fever, hepatosplenomegaly, cholestasis and an AST/ALT ratio of greater than 2 to 1, you make a presumptive diagnosis of acute alcoholic hepatitis. His Maddrey discriminant function score is 39. What is the best approach to his treatment?

Serious Illness & Addiction

A serious disease like cancer can pose an additional risk for someone in recovery, no matter how long they�ve been clean.

Binge Drinking Puts the Brain, and Life Itself, at Risk

Nearly half of students at four-year colleges do it regularly (and, it's not sex).

Rather, it's binge drinking -- downing five or more alcoholic drinks at a sitting.

"People have a hard time identifying alcohol as a drug," said Jenny Hwang, associate dean of students and director of the counseling center at Stony Brook University on Long Island, N.Y. In fact, she said, heavy drinking is glamorized as a rite of passage in college years.

Alcoholism: How is it affecting your teen(s)?

How Families Operate

The family operates as an emotional system with no heroes, villains, good people, bad people, and healthy or unhealthy members.� Family problems result from a problem within the family system and not from the behavior of any one person.� What each person does effects every other person and a chain reaction is set off.� Problems do not exist separately in individuals themselves but in the chain reactions.� These chain reactions become repetitious and predictable.� If one can get distance, one can study them, observe how they get set off, how they get reinforced, who picks up what cues, and the part each plays in the chain reactions.�

The many faces of alcoholism

It's a common misconception that an alcoholic is a belligerent guy who can't hold a job, or a woman who starts the day with a Bloody Mary before taking the kids to school.

What we sometimes fail to realize is that alcoholism may also affect a colleague in the next office, your child's favorite teacher or the neighborhood teen who's always on the honor roll.

Alcohol exacts damage on the body

The negative effects alcohol has on the human body are consistently predictable regardless of use pattern. There is no cell in the body that is resistant to alcohol.

Alcohol on screen drives viewers to drink: study

Watching films and ads in which alcohol features prominently drives people to immediately reach for the bottle themselves, Dutch researchers said on Wednesday.

Struggling With Alcohol? Better Quit Smoking, Too

Overcoming alcoholism is tough enough. That's one reason many alcoholics who smoke continue to light up even while they're in recovery from alcohol dependency.

Holiday Survival Guide

It's easy to overindulge at this time of year. It seems like everywhere you turn, you're faced with high-fat, high-calorie, sugar-laden temptations, whether it's the communal candy bowl at the office or Aunt Betty's triple-chocolate cupcakes.

The keys to preventing heartburn, indigestion, and weight gain are moderation and smart snacking. Instead of abstaining from food all day in anticipation of a heavy dinner, have meals or snacks, including breakfast, every three to four hours. Keep healthy snacks, such as fresh fruit or low-fat yogurt, at home and at work, and reach for them when you're staring down a slice of carrot cake. To help prevent overeating, try having a healthy snack 30 minutes before a party.

'Happiness' Hormone & Alcoholism In Women

Researchers at the Universities of Bonn and Sweden's Karolinska Institute have found that a particular gene variant might make women more vulnerable to alcoholism.
According to their study, a gene in the endorphin metabolism is altered in a typical fashion more often in women alcoholics than in healthy women.