Gut Microbiota-Related Clinical Events and Therapeutic Interventions in Alcohol-Associated Liver Disease

Abstract

Alcohol use remains a major cause of socioeconomic burden, morbidity, and mortality globally and is linked to more than 60 acute and chronic diseases. Alcohol use is also a leading risk factor for premature death and disability among people in their most productive years. Over the last decade, the prevalence of high-risk drinking, defined by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) as more than four drinks per day or 14 in a week for men, and more than three drinks a day or seven per week for women as well as AUD, has increased globally. Even though global trends showed an overall increase, it was also observed that alcohol use declined in western and, more recently, Eastern European countries. Nonetheless, alcohol consumption increased substantially in several Asian countries such as India, Vietnam, China, and sub-Saharan Africa, where consumption is nearly equal to the global average. In this regard, the leading cause of alcohol-attributable deaths was cirrhosis in countries with a low human development index. Alcohol-associated cirrhosis was also the commonest cause of death in people aged 40–59 years (GBD 2016 Alcohol Collaborators 2018; Shield et al. 2020).