Q: My husband was admitted to the hospital due to chronic liver disease and GI bleeding last month. He has undergone various tests, ultrasounds and first of all, endoscopic therapy. This was due to excessive intake of alcohol. He is still on medication. But after 20 days of discharge, he started taking a little quantity of beer again. What will be the adverse effects of beer for a cirrhosis patient?

A:From your query it is evident that your husband has established alcohol related liver damage, i.e., cirrhosis. The management in his case is to make sure that whatever healthy liver tissue is present in his liver should be given a chance to recover to offer him an improved prognosis. Continuing to drink beer is not a good idea, as unfortunately those who have alcohol dependency do not stop after just one drink as evidence would suggest, and that can be harmful. But on the other side of the coin, if the liver is already damaged, an odd drink will not influence the prognosis, but may in fact improve the depressive state of mind they may be in! This is a pure generalisation with personal and published knowledge and each person will have to be assessed and advised as appropriate.