Liver cirrhosis has been linked to alcohol consumption in every review of alcohol-attributable disease, and the underlying mechanisms have been described previously in detail [166-168]. Thus, we will restrict our present discussion to the differential relationship of alcohol with liver cirrhosis mortality versus morbidity. Specifically, evidence suggests that alcohol consumption is more strongly linked to cirrhosis mortality than to morbidity because drinking, especially heavy drinking, has been shown to worsen existing liver disease considerably and to have detrimental effects on the immune system, thus negatively affecting the course of existing liver disease and increasing the chance of death [38;166;169]. Our own meta-analyses confirmed clearly, that for both men and women the impact of alcohol was stronger on liver cirrhosis mortality compared to morbidity [170].
