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Experts say pandemic-related unemployment and loneliness may be driving alcohol use.
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Rates of alcoholic liver disease increased with increasing sales and alcohol consumption.
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Over time, alcoholic liver disease can cause cirrhosis, which can be deadly.
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In the 11 months since the pandemic began, alcohol consumption rates and alcohol sales have steadily increased.
Doctors have warned that it is a concern, and some say that we are already seeing the consequences, as alcoholic liver disease is increasingly affecting people under the age of 40.
While the trend “has been alarming for years,” said Dr. Raymond Chung, a Harvard University hepatologist, to Eli Cahan, the Los Angeles Times and the California Healthline, the pandemic has exacerbated the problem. “What we are seeing now is truly dramatic.”
Dr Haripriya Maddur, a hepatologist at Northwestern Medicine, also treats young people with health problems related to alcohol-related liver disease, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Read More: 6 dangerous things that can happen to your body when you drink too much
Maddur said young people are facing unique difficulties, like trying to start a family or finding a job in a difficult economy.
“They have mouths to feed and bills to pay, but they have no job,” she told the Los Angeles Times, “so they resort to drinking as the last coping mechanism left.”
The Harmful Effects of Alcohol Abuse
Excessive alcohol consumption is considered excessive alcohol consumption, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Excessive alcohol consumption is defined as five or more drinks for men in one night, or 15 drinks or more over the week. For women, there are four or more drinks on one occasion, or eight or more drinks in a week.
The short-term health effects of alcohol abuse include the potential for alcohol intoxication or spontaneous abortion among pregnant women. But if you continue to drink excessively over time, it can cause hypertension, mental health problems or alcoholism.
If excessive alcohol consumption continues over the years, it can cause fatty liver, inflammation of the liver or cirrhosis, which causes scarring of the liver. Once cirrhosis progresses, it is more difficult for the liver to function, which can be fatal, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Some experts fear that alcohol consumption will continue long after the pandemic is over
Alcohol sales increased during the pandemic. Alcohol use increased 14% in the spring of 2020, compared to the same period in 2019, according to a study.
Another study by researchers at RAND found that alcohol consumption increased almost 30% more during the pandemic, compared to a few months earlier.
Experts fear that we are just watching the start of alarming levels of alcohol use and fear that the pandemic will have long-term consequences.
“I think we’re just at the height of this,” Maddur told the Los Angeles Times. “Quarantine is one thing, but the economic slowdown is not going to go away anytime soon.”
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