50 Days to Love Your Liver

I’ve never gone in for New Year’s resolutions.  Why wait for New Year’s Day to start something new?  Carpe Diem!

But the media are often flooded with ideas for self-improvement this time of the year.  And just because I don’t make resolutions at New Years doesn’t mean that I should ignore a good idea.

This brings me to one of the great occupational hazards of being a sommelier.  Oh, yes, there are occupational hazards.  Some are transitory, like headaches from bad wines.  (I never get a headache from good wine, no matter how much I drink.  Quality doesn’t hurt.)  We battle stained teeth or, even worse, acid eating away at our teeth.  And many of us know some unfortunate soul for whom becoming a sommelier was the gateway to alcoholism.

But the most serious occupational hazard is liver damage.  What to do about that?  A year ago, I wrote about MilkThistle and it does seem to work based on my own extensive (but unscientific) personal research. 

But since liver damage is often a slow, long-term process, who really knows whether Milk Thistle really works?  What does?

Enter the British Liver Trust.  They’ve started a campaign, “Love Your Liver”.  Aside from offering free mobile clinics up and down the UK to get your liver tested, they’re also advocating

TAKE 2-3 DAYS IN A ROW OFF ALCOHOL – This will keep your total intake down and gives your liver time to recover. Providing your liver has no lasting damage, it can repair itself very quickly [and] can take as little as 24 hrs to go back to normal. Why not try the Love Your Liver Challenge?

Why not, indeed?  Yes, it's abstinence but it's not total abstinence.  So take a day off.   Sommelier or not, a little moderation and TLC for your liver is a good idea, any day of the year.

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