Your liver is tough. It can withstand years of damage by repairing itself and protecting the rest of your body. However, the liver is unable to signal real distress until it is in the end stages of liver failure, so that by the time you feel any symptoms of liver problems, the damage may be done.
What are the symptoms of alcoholic liver damage?
If you have alcoholic liver damage you may have some vague symptoms such as:
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feeling some pain in the liver (place your right hand over the lower right hand side of your ribs
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and it will cover the area of your liver)
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having a general feeling of poor health and fatigue
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loss of appetite
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a sick, nauseous feeling, especially in the mornings and often accompanied by diarrhoea.
If you have any of the following specific symptoms, it is likely that your liver is already quite badly damaged with alcoholic hepatitis or cirrhosis and you should talk to your doctor at once.
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yellow eyes or, in more severe cases, yellow skin (jaundice)
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vomiting blood (haematemesis)
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dark black, tarry, stools (melena)
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significant weight loss
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periods of confusion or poor memory (hepatic encephalopathy)
If your doctor suspects you may have liver damage, he or she will look out for the following signs:
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tender, firm, or possibly enlarged liver (hepatomegaly)
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red and mottled palms (palpar erythema)
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partly white fingernails (clubbing)
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enlargement of the male breasts, which may be tender (gynaecomastia)
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swollen abdomen (ascites)
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thinning hair (alopecia)
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weakness and wasting of the muscles (atrophy)
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drink-related problems affecting your family relationships
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drink-related problems affecting your work or career
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drink-related financial problems
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drinking that leads to trouble with authorities and/or the police.
These are tell-tale signs that your drinking is out of hand and that you need some help.