A new study from Keck Medicine of USC has found that heavy drinkers with either diabetes, high blood pressure or a high waist circumference are as much as 2.4 times more likely to develop advanced liver disease.  The findings were published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Diabetes, high blood pressure and a high waist circumference (35 inches for women; 40 inches for men), which is associated with obesity, belong to a cluster of five health conditions that influence an individual’s risk for heart attack and stroke known as cardiometabolic risk factors.

Cardiometabolic risk factors have been linked to the buildup of fat in the liver (also known as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease), which can lead to fibrosis, or scarring of the liver.

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