what is name of disease?

Question

there is a gland or vave in us that is related to our liver which will rupture do to heavy drinking. i few people i know have died from this and it is where you just bleed and surgery really can't help.i have a friend that is drinking like a death row inmate constantly and won't stop. i would like to explain this to him but do not know the name of it. a friend last year died because this valve ruptered while she was on the phone with her sister and by time someone got to her which took 10 minutes she was alredy lost alot of blood

Answer 1

There are 2 conditiions that I can think of that is one way or the other related to the liver especially for heary drinkers. The first one has already been mentioned by the answers before mine and that is variceal bleeding. Varices develop in people who drink hearily and have cirrhosis. In cirrhosis, the liver becomes fibrotic (literally turns into scar tissue) due to damage caused by alcohol. With fibrosis, blood flow from the whole body that has to pass through the liver gets sluggish or even impeded (like being in a traffic jam). Due to this sluggish and impeded flow of blood, pressure builds up. This pressure build up is what causes varices. Varices can occur in the esophagus, stomach and even the colon and rectum. When it bleeds it is hard to stop.

The second condition is called pancreatitis which is also common in heavy drinkers. The pancreas is an organ that is near the liver and is an organ that produces enzymes particularly digestive enzymes as well as insulin, etc. With pancreatitis, the pancreatic digestive enzymes cause inflammation of the pancreas and sometimes even digest or necrosis your own pancreas. This condition can also be fatal if not reated immediately.

Answer 2

I'm not sure it's what you're looking for, but there is a condition related to the liver in long-term drinkers called esophageal varices. Basically because the liver ends up shrunken and hard, blood can't be pumped through it as easily and the blood backs up like a clogged drain. As this gets worse, the veins along the esophagus become swollen just like varicose veins in your leg. When one of these esophageal varices ruptures, there is very little that can be done.

Answer 3

Someone in my family died of an esophageal hemorrhage due to excessive drinking. He bled out in about 5 minutes. But that was his esophagus.
Aside from hemorrhaging, excessive drinking leads to liver toxicity and cirrhosis, liver atrophy, and cholestasis. Also, if you destroy your liver, your whole body will pretty much fail and you will die.
Your friend needs help - more than help with his liver. I would talk about that, AA, rehab, and I would stage an intervention if need be. Alcoholism is a serious disease and can lead to way more problems than a failed liver.

Answer 4

I'm not sure what the disease is, but it sounds like your friend needs to get checked into rehab - quickly.

By the time you start having liver problems, you are pretty much screwed anyway. Unfortunately, you can't tell anything to an addict (alcohol or otherwise). Even if you tell him about that disease, he's going to take the same attitude that every addict takes 'it won't happen to me'.

Best to tell him that as a friend, you are concerned about his health - not to mention all of the other problems that heavy drinking brings around. He's lucky to have someone like you who cares about him, but you may have to break out some 'tough love' and let him know that if he's not going to try to change, that you aren't going to stick around to watch him kill himself.