CHENNAI: A middle-aged, globetrotting, software consultant had recently taken to drinking in a big way. His excuse: he was travelling more often and alcohol was available on the flight. Soon enough, he had morphed from occasional drinker to frequent tippler.

During one foreign trip, he experimented with a local drink there. When he returned to Chennai, he felt heaviness in stomach and it grew bulky.

"Last January the pain started above the abdomen. I did not consult a doctor for the first few days as I am a frequent flier," recalled Stanley (name changed).

After vomiting bouts and a fainting spell, he was admitted to a super speciality hospital where the doctors put him on a ventilator. "I was on ventilator for 10 days and then sent home. But when the condition recurred I was diagnosed with damaged gall bladder and necrosis on the surface of the pancreas."

Post-surgery he was in bed for four months and on a rigid diet. "Now I have completely stopped taking alcohol. I eat all kinds of food now, but avoid junk." Stanley said his job had led to an overdose of junk food, lack of sleep and travel. "It [drinking] started when the clients would call for a session. My job is to meet clients and provide time bound solutions that involve million dollar investments. That put me under pressure."

Heavy drinking affects gastro-intestinal system severely, next only to the nervous system, doctors say.

The common problems are acute and severe inflammation of oesophagus and stomach, accompanied by vomiting and bleeding, acute pancreatitis or chronic irreversible pancreatic destruction. Pancreatitis is among the final signs and symptoms of alcoholism, says gastroenterologist R. Surendran. In Stanley's case, it was acute pancreatitis where only the surface had been destroyed but some patients undergo repeated surgeries as removing the dead tissues in the pancreas does not help, he says. "Ten to 20 years of alcohol will definitely damage (the body). Eighty per cent of pancreatitis could be due to alcohol." At the gastro-intestinal bleed centre in Government Stanley Hospital in Royapuram, of which Dr. Surendran is the head, at least 70 per cent of those who report with incidences of bleeding in the gastro-intestinal tract have a history of alcoholism. ]

"The stomach gets ulcerated and in due course the liver gets damaged. The body has the mechanism to protect itself but regular abuse can damage the system," says Dr. Surendran. Though acute conditions are correctable to some extent it could also lead to death, he says.

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