Feel fine after weekend drinking? Liver surgeon warns your liver may still face ‘weekly injury’

If you are drinking only two days a week, you may still be at the risk of liver-related problem, because you may be binge drinking.

Alcohol is widely known to cause harm to your liver. However, some people drink only on weekends, believing that limiting alcohol consumption to two days a week is a safer option.

So, drinking occasionally and abstaining throughout the working week may create the impression that you are not putting too much stress on your liver.

You may feel perfectly fine on Monday morning. However, hear from a doctor on why this belief that weekend drinking is relatively safer may actually be misleading.

Dr Swasthik KS, consultant in gastro and liver transplant surgery at KMC Hospital, Mangalore, told HT Lifestyle that five days of abstinence do not cancel out the effect of drinking only for two days in a week.

Sharing an advisory, he said, “Millions of Indians who drink only on weekends believe they are being responsible. Two days of drinking, five days of abstinence, surely that balances out. As a liver transplant surgeon, I can tell you with certainty: your liver disagrees.”

Why is weekend drinking equally harmful?

Over the weekend, you may end up consuming a large amount of alcohol within a short period, a pattern the surgeon described as particularly harmful. The surgeon called this binge drinking.

Describing what binge drinking does to your body, he explained, “The liver processes nearly all the alcohol you consume. When you flood it with large quantities over a short window, what we clinically call 'binge drinking', it cannot keep pace. The result is a toxic byproduct called acetaldehyde, which directly damages liver cells. A single heavy weekend session triggers measurable inflammation within hours."

Dr Swasthik further warned that this repetitive behaviour can cause recurring damage, terming it as ‘delivering weekly injury on a schedule.’

Weekend drinking still damages your liver. But the damage is silent. (Picture credit: Unsplash)

Why do you see no obvious symptoms?

As mentioned earlier, weekend drinkers may assume they are healthy because they do not experience any symptoms and feel perfectly fine. However, the surgeon cautioned that this can be deceptive. Since the liver has no pain receptors, early damage, such as fatty liver, inflammation or early fibrosis, may progress without causing pain or any noticeable symptoms.

Dr Swasthik told us what he sees in his clinic: "Most patients who walk into my clinic with advanced liver disease recall feeling perfectly well just months before. By the time fatigue, jaundice, or abdominal swelling appear, the damage is often irreversible," he added, reminding us that when symptoms show up, the condition has already progressed.

How many drinks are too many drinks?

Sometimes, what is casually dismissed as ‘just a few drinks’ may cross into dangerous binge-drinking territory. According to the surgeon, the threshold differs for women and men. Consuming three or more standard drinks in one sitting constitutes a binge for women, while four or more counts as a binge for men. Since sometimes people do not keep track of how much they are drinking, they cross the limit without even realising. Some may also treat the weekend as a free pass to drink more.

Can you heal liver?

Now, if you have been drinking on weekends, is it too late to protect your liver? It turns out there may still be time. “The liver is remarkably forgiving in its early stages. Stop the insult, and it can heal. But it will not send you a warning before it stops trying,” the surgeon cautioned.

Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.