After heavy drinking, the pancreas, liver, and stomach are the primary organs that hurt due to inflammation (pancreatitis, alcoholic hepatitis, gastritis) or irritation, causing symptoms like severe upper abdominal pain, nausea, and burning sensations, with pain sometimes radiating to the back, signaling serious damage that needs medical attention.
Each time your liver filters alcohol, some of the liver cells die. The liver can develop new cells, but prolonged alcohol misuse (drinking too much) over many years can reduce its ability to regenerate. This can result in serious and permanent damage to your liver.
Although most people know that kidney pain and alcohol often go together, not everyone's aware of the consequences long-term alcohol abuse can cause on these crucial organs. Alcoholic kidney disease (AKD) is a serious and chronic condition that occurs from prolonged and excessive alcohol consumption.
Alcohol is known to increase inflammation throughout the body, which can lead to pain in the bones and joints.
Alcohol-Related Liver Disease: Symptoms
The main symptom for steatosis is upper-right abdominal pains near the liver. Once the liver damage progresses further into acute hepatitis, typical symptoms include fever, abdominal pains, nausea and vomiting, and jaundice.
Some of the common symptoms someone with alcoholic gastritis may experience include:
Three key early warning signs of kidney problems are changes in urination (more or less frequent, especially at night), foamy or bloody urine, and persistent swelling, particularly around the eyes, feet, or ankles, indicating fluid retention. Other common signs include persistent fatigue, nausea, itching, and loss of appetite, as toxins build up when kidneys aren't filtering effectively.
What Are the First Signs of Kidney Damage From Alcohol?
Nausea and vomiting, muscle cramps, loss of appetite, swelling via feet and ankles, dry, itchy skin, shortness of breath, trouble sleeping, urinating either too much or too little. However, these are usually in the later stages, but they can also happen in other disorders.
Chronic pancreatitis symptoms may include:
Excessive drinking can inflame the pancreas, leading to pain under the ribs or right rib pain after drinking alcohol. This condition often manifests as: Stomach pain. Pain radiating to the back or chest.
These data indi- cate that pancreatic functional changes caused by alcoholic pancreatitis progress even after cessation of alcohol use: however, the progression is slower and less severe when alcohol intake is stopped.
If you are in the early stages of liver damage—stage 1 (fatty liver) or stage 2 (early alcoholic hepatitis) —it can be reversed by quitting alcohol. The liver is the only organ that can self-heal itself.
Blood tests
A low level of serum albumin suggests your liver is not functioning properly. A blood test may also look for signs of abnormal blood clotting, which can indicate significant liver damage.
Gastritis is the medical name for inflammation of the stomach lining. It can be caused by drinking alcohol – whether acutely by just one session of heavy drinking, or chronically, over a longer period. If you have gastritis, you could: Feel uncomfortably full after eating.
People with serious liver damage have usually been drinking for 20 or more years.
Acute (short-term) inflammation causes symptoms such as redness, swelling, warmth, and pain at the site of infection or injury. 13 Chronic (long-term) inflammation associated with long-term alcohol use slowly destroys the body's tissues, causing a range of bodywide symptoms that may seem vague or unexplainable.
Patients with alcohol-related fatty liver disease, for example, usually do not have any symptoms. Symptoms for alcohol-related hepatitis and cirrhosis may include: Skin and/or whites of eyes turn yellow (jaundice) Loss of appetite (anorexia)
Kidney function tests are urine (pee) and/or blood tests that evaluate how well your kidneys work. Your kidneys support your overall health by getting rid of waste and balancing body fluids and electrolytes. Most kidney function tests measure how well your glomeruli (glo-MARE-yoo-lye) work.
The first signs of kidney damage from alcohol include fatigue, swelling (hands/feet/face), changes in urination (more/less frequent, foamy, bloody), persistent nausea/vomiting, loss of appetite, metallic taste, itchy skin, and dull lower back pain, as the kidneys struggle to filter waste and regulate fluids, leading to toxin buildup and fluid imbalances.
You feel kidney pain near the middle of your back, just under your ribcage, on each side of your spine where your kidneys are. Your kidneys are part of the urinary tract, the organs that make and remove urine from the body. (pee). You may feel kidney pain on one or both sides of your back.
Gastritis doesn't always cause symptoms. When it does, the symptoms of gastritis may include: Gnawing or burning ache or pain, called indigestion, in your upper belly. This feeling may become either worse or better after eating.
Burning stomach pain.
This is the most common ulcer symptom – and it's not subtle. “It's usually a gnawing or burning pain in the upper abdomen,” says Dr. Sanowski-Bell. “You'll often feel it between meals or at night.
Does alcoholic gastritis go away? Alcoholic gastritis does not go away. It is important to treat gastritis to avoid serious complications like gastrointestinal tract bleeding, which can be a medical emergency.