Dr Swasthik KS warns weekend alcohol binge damages liver

Medical experts dispute the popular belief that drinking only on weekends is safe. Dr Swasthik KS, a gastro‑enterology and transplant surgeon at KMC Hospital in Mangalore, explains that five days of abstinence does not neutralise the harmful effects of two days of heavy alcohol consumption. Binge drinking overwhelms the liver’s metabolic capacity, producing toxic acetaldehyde that triggers rapid inflammation and destroys hepatocytes. Because the liver lacks pain receptors, damage can progress silently; patients often feel fine until symptoms such as fatigue, jaundice or abdominal swelling appear, by which time injury may be irreversible.

Dr Swasthik stresses that even a single excessive weekend session can cause acute inflammation within hours, and repeated weekly binge episodes constitute “systematic weekly liver injury.” He advises that safe drinking limits are lower than many assume—three drinks for women and four for men per occasion—and that the myth of a “weekend‑only” safe dose has no medical basis.