How long does it take your liver to recover after you stop drinking?
Your liver does most of the work of breaking down alcohol, and it’s also remarkably good at repairing itself. How quickly it recovers depends on how much and how long you drank, and how much damage there is.
Fatty liver: weeks
Almost everyone who drinks heavily builds up fat in the liver. It’s the earliest stage of alcohol-related liver disease, it usually has no symptoms, and it’s reversible. Liver fat starts to fall within a few weeks of stopping.
Liver blood tests: about two months
Drinking raises liver enzymes such as GGT, which a GP checks in a liver blood test. Without alcohol, GGT roughly halves every two to four weeks, so it’s usually back in the normal range within about two months. If yours is still raised after six to eight weeks without drinking, your GP may look for other causes.
Alcoholic hepatitis: months
Alcoholic hepatitis is inflammation of the liver. Mild cases usually get better if you stop drinking for good, over months. Severe alcoholic hepatitis is a serious illness that needs hospital care.
Cirrhosis: stopping still matters
Cirrhosis is scarring of the liver, and it isn’t reversible. But stopping drinking is the single most important thing you can do: it stops the damage getting worse and greatly improves the outlook.
Hi Sobriety’s Health tab includes liver milestones at six weeks and two months, alongside the rest of the timeline of what happens when you stop drinking. Sources: NHS: “Alcohol-related liver disease”; British Liver Trust: “Alcohol and liver disease”; Niemelä, Clinical Biochemistry 2007.
Questions people ask
Can your liver heal after years of drinking?
Often, yes. The liver is very good at repairing itself, and fatty liver is usually reversible. Cirrhosis, where the liver is scarred, isn’t reversible, but stopping drinking stops it getting worse and improves the outlook.
How long does fatty liver take to go away?
Liver fat starts to fall within a few weeks of stopping. Some NHS services say around two weeks without alcohol can return a fatty liver to normal; the NHS says it can take longer, so check with your GP.
How long until liver blood tests are normal after stopping drinking?
GGT, one of the main liver enzymes raised by drinking, roughly halves every two to four weeks without alcohol, so for most people it’s back to normal within about two months.
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