When I was younger I often went to friends’ homes after school and was there when their parents arrived home from work. Their usual routine was to walk through the door, kick off their shoes and pour themselves a drink. They’d usually have a couple before dinner, then another one or two afterwards. I didn’t see it as alcohol abuse – after all, everyone did it, that was life in the suburbs – and I didn’t think they needed alcohol detox. What I didn’t know at the time was what the alcohol was doing to their live, and how that one factor alone would eventually affect their health and their quality of life.

Does the term ‘alcohol abuse’ actually apply to someone who never gets drunk? Does someone who never seems to drink to excess need alcohol detox? And can your health really be so badly affected when you drink so little? If you listen to your liver, the answer is a resounding yes.

Imagine the body building up toxins, poisons, germs, and bacteria day after day, year after year, without ever having the chance to properly detoxify. And all the while it’s becoming less and less able to produce the immune agents that control infection. What kind of shape do you think you’d be in? You’d be sorely in need of alcohol detox, and further detox actions to get rid of the other poisons.

That is the effect of alcohol on the liver.

When the problems start you feel a little more tired, a little weak, and you develop edema (fluid retention) and spider veins. Sometimes you don’t even recognize the symptoms as dysfunction, you think you’re just getting older, or working too hard.

But, in truth, you’re already long overdue for alcohol detox. And you should stop drinking. If you don’t, the situation will worsen and you’ll develop a condition that is often irreversible - cirrhosis of the liver. Scar tissue replaces the normal, healthy tissue of the liver, blocks the flow of blood, and prevents the liver from working as it should.

And the symptoms get worse, and a few more are added: easy bruising and bleeding, yellowed skin and eyes, gallstones, mental fogginess, and diabetes.

It only takes two to four drinks a day for 10 years to develop cirrhosis, but the quality of life starts to deteriorate long before that. And you may never actually have been drunk once in your life.

If you or someone you care about drinks ‘lightly’ or ‘socially’, don’t think it’s safe. The alcohol is gradually wearing the body down and by the time it’s discovered, it may be too late. Get into alcohol detox now, and quit drinking.