When you consume alcohol, it is absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract through the bloodstream, that gets completely directed to the liver. This is known as first pass metabolism. Now in the liver, alcohol is broken down, and this is done by enzymes – aldehyde dehydrogenase, and alcohol dehydrogenase.
So, these are two enzymes that break down alcohol. However, there’s only a limited capacity that these enzymes actually have. So, what happens is – if you drink too much alcohol, these enzymes get overloaded, and cannot function to break down alcohol and remove it from your body. So, there’s a buildup of alcohol in your system, and this is why usually alcoholics or people who binge drink, their livers can be quite damaged from this. There’s an overload of alcohol, the enzymes cannot manage all the alcohol that is being delivered to the liver, which leads to potential cells dying at the liver and onset of disease, and symptoms.
But the liver is very good at managing with a limited capacity. So, even if I think it’s about 30% of the liver’s functioning, you might not see any symptoms yet. But, once you cross over that threshold – it might be too late. So, this is why it’s really important to make sure that you’re not exceeding your limits when taking alcohol.
