The liver has amazing regenerative abilities, but scarring is just too much for it to handle, why is that?
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The liver can heal itself from scars. It’s only after long-term and extensive damage that the scars become too big to break down.
More specificly it’s about so-called Ito cells. These cells have a few specific jobs in the liver, the biggest one is that they store Vitamin A but they also help the immune defence.
When they become damaged and inflamed they produce collage (what scar tissue is made from). Normally the liver breaks down that scar tissue and regenerates, but if the process goes on for too long Ito cells will also produce proteins that tell the body to stop breaking up scar tissue.
So if you’re alcoholic for a few years? You’re probably fine. The body is probably not too damaged to repair itself. 10? 15? 20 years? You might have developed cirrhosis (ie, permanent scarring of the liver) and from that point on all you can do is not make it worse.
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