Young adults are dying from alcohol-induced liver disease

Liver disease is killing people as young as 20 years of age in Northern Ireland as the rise in teenage drinking is starting to take its toll.

A doctor from the Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital has said that frequent binge drinking by youngsters is leading to serious health problems.

Dr Neil McDougall is a liver specialist and has witnessed a significant change in the average age of his patients in the last five years. End stage liver disease usually only affects alcoholics over the age of 50; however, in the last few years there have been two or three young adults dying from the fatal disease.

Those who have died started drinking very young. Dr McDougall said: “The sad thing is that those people were telling us before they died that they started drinking around the age of 12.”

Health statistics have shown that the number of deaths from alcohol-related disease has doubled in just ten years. Binge drinking is also affecting many more women than previously known. Women between the ages of 15 and 24 are drinking more than ever before, and the growing trend is showing no signs of stopping.

Not long ago all cases of patients with severe alcohol disease at the Royal Victoria Hospital were men. The hospital is now seeing many women with cirrhosis of the liver.

Liver cirrhosis is an irreversible condition that occurs when alcohol damages the liver and leaves permanent scar tissue, which stops the liver functioning properly. Over time the scar tissue builds up and the result is liver failure. The only solution is a liver transplant.