[LukeL]

My Dad was what you would call a functional alcoholic up until he was around 57 when he lost his job. He ended up dying 5 years later from cirrhosis. From his mid 50s until he was diagnosed with cirrhosis he had multiple close calls with hypokalemia and I believe he went into V-Tach (torsades de pointes) on at least one occasion. Despite having abnormal liver function for decades and jaundice for many years he never could stop drinking for more than one month.

Also liver failure is one of the worst ways to go, you develop ascites (water in the abdominal cavity) severe itching from increased billirubin levels which can get so bad that you scratch down to the subcutaneous level. You also can develop wernicke-korsakoff syndrome from poor diet along with psychosis from increased ammonia levels. Not to mention that your genitals shrink and your breasts enlarge due to low testosterone levels.

[Mr. K]

"severe itching from increased billirubin levels"

That's interesting. What kinds of things cause increased bilirubin?

I was once diagnosed with too low or two high - I cant remember which (is that important? :) )

But the itching was crazy... What finally stopped it was that I stopped eating bread. I don't know if it's the wheat or the chemicals in it... I can tolerate wheat with tomato sauce (it seems) but I try to avoid it completely, which has made a HUGE improvement in my health (lost a lot of weight, feel better)

But this is the first time I've ever heard anyone ever link bilirubin and itching