Drink for Your Health? New Research Contradicts Common Beliefs About Alcohol and the Liver

A new study shows that while too much alcohol can damage your liver, moderate consumption can actually decrease the presence of fatty liver disease.The study was conducted among Japanese men, and found that the frequency of moderate alcohol consumption was associated with a lower risk of fatty liver disease.

However, the researchers did find some evidence that there was an increase of liver disease with higher volumes of alcohol consumed per day.

Moderate drinkers also had lower levels of obesity than non-drinkers. Obesity, as doctors and scientists have long known, is also positively associated with fatty liver disease.

The new findings add to a growing number of studies that show moderate drinking can be related to a number of health benefits – or at the very least, it doesn’t seem to impact health negatively.

The results also indicate that it is unlikely that the risk of fatty liver can be reduced by the discontinuation or reduction of alcohol consumption alone, according to researchers. T

hey suggest that, rather than focusing on alcohol consumption, lifestyle modifications aimed at fighting obesity and metabolic abnormalities should be the most important recommendations for the management of fatty liver disease.