18th August 2005, 2:05 PM
Darunia Wrote:Alcohol does the same kind of permanent damage, in that it scars, and eventually mutates, your liver, a process that is quite irreversible. The liver of a lifelong alcoholic and the lungs of a lifelong smoker are both not pretty things to behold.
I heard that the human liver is the only organ that, if cut in half, can actually regenerate itself... it this is true, then why can't it repair damage from alcohol?
It's true that the liver can regenerate more tissue for itself, but it's really no surprise that an unhealthy liver can't magically generate healthy cells again. If that were possible, we'd never grow old and we'd essentially live forever.