Rates of alcoholic liver disease have soared 30 percent in the last year at the University of Michigan’s health system, a rise doctors blame on higher amounts of alcohol intake during the pandemic. Anecdotal reports suggest that some patients increased drinking to a bottle of wine or five to six drinks daily from March 2020 to March 2021, an amount that raises the risk of severe liver disease.
Speaking with NPR, University of Michigan liver specialist Dr. Jessica Mellinger said, “In my conversations with my colleagues at other institutions, everybody is saying the same thing: ‘Yep, it’s astronomical. It’s just gone off the charts.’” Mellinger said the pandemic “supercharged” already rising rates of liver disease, which are now also showing up in younger populations.
