Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: Stevensaeedi on 04/10/2016 14:21:57

Title: Alcohol Consumption and Liver Function - Research Question
Post by: Stevensaeedi on 04/10/2016 14:21:57
Hey guys,

tl;dr: I’m looking for scientists/doctors/med students or anyone in the physiology field to help me with my university science fair project. I am investigating whether or not “excessive alcohol consumption can be damaging to the liver”, and need you guys to email me some ‘answers’ to this ‘question’. My email is: stevensaeedi(at)gmail.com

My name is Steven, I am a first year biomedical sciences student. I am currently doing a project on the human liver.

I am investigating the notion that “excessive alcohol consumption can be damaging to the liver”. It’s fairly simple, nothing too complicated.

I thought a good place to start would be to ask experts in this field. At this level I’m not looking for hepatologist or renowned physiologists, I’m simply looking for doctors (of any kind), med students, scientists or basically anyone in anyway related to physiology.

I’m looking for someone to contact me via emails. Basically I’m just looking for 100 words (less is fine, more is great) to ‘answer’ my hypothesis. Something along these lines would be more than helpful: “Hey Steve, yes indeed alcohol is damaging to the liver, even in moderate. Here is what alcohol does to the liver…….” or “Hey Steve, no alcohol is not damaging to the liver because the liver can repair itself. but alcohol does damage the ………”.

I am also investigating these questions : “Does infrequent alcohol consumption do damage to your liver? What is the difference to daily alcohol consumption? What is the effect of different alcoholic drinks? Does your age play a factor in this?”.

If you could in anyway help me out I would be very appreciative. As I said before, I am investing whether or not excessive alcohol consumption is damaging to the liver. We are not allowed to do any experiments ourselves, we are basically only meant to do targeted reading to answer our hypothesises.

I hope I’m not asking for too much.

Please message me if you need something clarified.

Also, I realise some people are uncomfortable with giving out information to strangers on the internet, so feel free to use an alias, I Just ask you to write your job title and/or university/hospital, e.g.: John M.D, University of California.

My email is: stevensaeedi(at)gmail.com. If you end up emailing me can you also comment that you did, I’d like to thank you in comment, it’s the least I can do.

PS: Just to keep things clear, I am not asking you to my homework for me. The project is due in 3 weeks time. I am going to be doing a lot of research but before beginning I wanted to have some direction, and to show my lecturer that I have taken the initiative to contact other experts. Also I’m happy to take some suggestions, like other forums to try or other people to contact. Do you guys think if I found some contact emails of actual hepatologist they would have the time to answer my emails? Or if I emailed physiologists or physiology lecturers in other universities they would email me back? I don’t want to bother people and I know how busy they are.

Thanks heaps.
Title: Re: Alcohol Consumption and Liver Function - Research Question
Post by: exothermic on 04/10/2016 14:31:59
A simple question with a simple answer:  Yes.... unequivocally.

There is a plethora of peer-reviewed research available to verify this.
Title: Re: Alcohol Consumption and Liver Function - Research Question
Post by: exothermic on 04/10/2016 17:43:20
Yes.... unequivocally.

There is a plethora of peer-reviewed research available to verify this.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=acute+alcoholic+hepatitis+cirrhosis
Title: Re: Alcohol Consumption and Liver Function - Research Question
Post by: mrsmith2211 on 05/10/2016 00:03:51
My father in law an alcoholic died at 86 of bladder cancer, probably in the 1 liter of scotch a day, no liver problems, my mother in law wine a few glasses 2 or 3 times a year at family gatherings had cirrhosis of the liver,she is still ok at 93, but just goes to show it may be a genetic predisposition rather than an  absolute of environment.
Title: Re: Alcohol Consumption and Liver Function - Research Question
Post by: evan_au on 05/10/2016 11:59:30
Why do you need help here?
My recollection of first year university students was that many of them were keen on personally proving the link between alcohol consumption and liver disease...

It's just that the results may not be in until after the due date on your assignment...

The US Centers for Disease Control normally has good information on many health subjects, at a variety of levels:
https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/

While alcoholic liver disease has been known for a long time, I heard that non-alcoholic fatty liver has become far more common in the past 20 years. Attributed to excessive carbohydrates in the diet and not enough exercise, apparently.