- Entertainment
- Style
- Lifestyle
- Food & Drinks
- Tech & Auto
- Culture
AI generated summary, newsroom reviewed
YOU KNOW YOU HAVE A CORKER OF a book on your hands when the opening sequence involves the near-death experience of a teenage girl. Brought into the ER with severe health issues, her diagnosis is dire, even if the cause isn’t immediately apparent. Most doctors have given up hope. At this point arrives the saviour. Through a sequence of scientific steps, he diagnoses and successfully treats her, without a penny spent by her working-class parents.
As opposed to the Prince Charming of Disney fairytales, the hero here is the renowned “liver doctor” and senior consultant in Hepatology at Rajagiri Hospital, Kochi, Dr Cyriac Abby Philips, known as much for his commitment to science as his expertise.
In his new book, The Liver Doctor: Stories of Love, Loss and Regeneration, published by HarperCollins India, he shares insights into some of his most complicated cases after years on the job. So we hit him up for advice on 11 things every man must know about keeping his liver—and, by extension, himself—healthy.
You may not want to hear this, but it’s the plain truth. Alcohol is a DNA-damaging carcinogen. If you can stop, stop. You’re doing yourself and your family the biggest favour. For years, the J-shaped statistical curve told us a daily drink was good for the heart. That interpretation was wrong. When researchers stripped it down to basics, they conclusively showed that modest drinkers also exercised more and ate better. Hence, there was no supposed benefit. In fact, a study conducted in 2023 showed that any one-year gain in life expectancy from light drinking was wiped out by a two- to fourfold rise in mouth and food-pipe cancers.
While it’s easy for most people to dismiss five drinks in two hours as a ‘wild night’, scientifically, this amount qualifies as binge drinking for a man. Take the case of the patient mentioned in my book, a businessman who frequently entertained clients. He thought it was an occupational hazard but the stats showed the truth—he died of acute-on-chronic liver failure while still in his thirties.
The US National Institutes of Health lists several multi-ingredient supplements as causes of severe liver injury. Many patients of mine have succumbed to liver disease brought on by branded weight-loss and bodybuilding products. No version of a ‘natural fat-burner’ is safe. In fact, the promise of rapid muscle gain, rapid weight loss or rapid increase in masculinity should immediately trigger warning bells.
My research has shown that these so-called safe herbal pills contain up to 1,00,000 times the safe drinking-water limit of arsenic, as well as an alcohol content of 26 percent. Is it any surprise, then, that these ‘detox’ drugs can lead to severe liver injury? In my book, I share the case of a middle-aged man who needed an emergency transplant after just two weeks of herbal therapy for anxiety.
Can’t do without your three cups of tea, and feel green tea is the healthier alternative? Go ahead, by all means. But stay away from green tea supplements which contain concentrated natural plant catechins called EGCG extracts above 704 mg/day. This level can trigger fatal hepatitis in genetically susceptible men, which is why the European Food Safety Authority has restricted their use. Turn instead to three cups of unsweetened black coffee and reduce your risk of liver cancer.
You thought alcohol was the only enemy? Think again. Years of high blood sugar can lead to the same inflammation, scarring and cirrhosis as prolonged heavy alcohol consumption. If you have diabetes, control it as if your life depends on it. Because your liver does.
Men under fifty are increasingly dealing with low testosterone, often associated with poor sleep, increased abdominal fat, untreated diabetes and tobacco or alcohol use. Before you reach for replacement therapy or ‘boosters’, fix the cause. Strength training twice a week, seven hours of sleep, and a 5–10 percent reduction in waist circumference will do more for most men’s hormones than any supplement on a shelf.
The numbers I quote in my book are concrete and evidence-based. You should aim for at least 8,000 steps a day, 150 minutes of moderate cardio, and two strength-training sessions a week. An extra 2,500 steps a day can further reduce the progression of fatty liver disease by 44 percent. Twenty minutes of daily activity reduces all-cause mortality by 35 percent. None of this requires a gym. A brisk walk after dinner is a prescription.
Seven hours of sleep a night is absolutely necessary for your wellbeing. Daytime naps longer than an hour can have adverse effects. Further, blue light at midnight, alcohol ‘to help me sleep’ and weekend sleep debt are silently eroding the cardiovascular and metabolic health of an entire generation of working men. I nearly died in a road crash on Diwali night in 2022 because I was chronically sleep-deprived and had been overworked for years. I write this as someone who learned the hard way.
Some basic measures should be considered par for the course. Vaccinate against Hepatitis B. Get tested at least once for Hepatitis C, which is now curable in 8–12 weeks. After turning forty, add an annual blood pressure check, lipid panel and fasting glucose test, followed by a one-time colonoscopy after age fifty (earlier if there is a family history). Skip the detox teas, the liver-cleanse YouTube videos and the advice of the alternative practitioner promising to ‘boost’ your health. Real medicine is not glamorous, but it works. Above all, pay attention to the signs your body gives you. Listen to your wife when she says you look tired. Listen to your children when they ask why you aren’t playing with them. Listen to your liver—it is the most forgiving organ in your body, but it has its limits. That is the prescription
To read more stories from Esquire India's July 2026 issue, pick up a copy of the magazine from your nearest newspaper stand or bookstore. Or click here to subscribe to the magazine.