By Niamh Ordner, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — Serious liver disease is becoming more common among Americans who drink heavily, according to a new study from Keck Medicine of USC.

It’s not that more people are partying with alcohol. And it’s not that the drinkers are having more drinks. It’s that more of the people who drink regularly are becoming sick.

Over the last two decades, the share of heavy drinkers who have advanced liver scarring jumped from 1.8% to 4.3%. For women, more than 1.5 drinks per night, on average, is considered heavy drinking. For men, it’s 2 drinks.

“The fact that the risk not only increased but that it more than doubled — almost tripled — is really astonishing,” said Dr. Brian P. Lee, a liver transplant specialist at Keck Medicine of USC and lead author on the study.

It was published in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology on Wednesday. Lee said he thinks patients might dramatically change their thinking and behavior if they had this information.

The increase in illness was seen especially in women, older people and those with conditions like obesity or diabetes.

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Three USC researchers analyzed national health data from more than 44,000 adults surveyed between 1999 and 2020 in a well-known national heath study known as NHANES. Of those, 2,474 were heavy drinkers according to the definition of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism — 20 grams of alcohol per day for women and 30 grams for men, roughly the equivalent of 1.5 and 2 drinks.

They found a more than twofold increase over the two decades in significant liver fibrosis, a condition where healthy liver tissue is replaced by stiff, fibrous tissue — like a sponge hardening into leather. If left unchecked, this can eventually lead to liver failure or cancer.

By comparison, non-heavy drinkers saw a much smaller increase, from 0.8% to 1.4% over the same period.

This rise in liver damage is especially troubling because many people don’t realize anything is wrong until the disease is advanced. “Liver disease is silent,” Lee said. “Most people won’t, even if they have [advanced liver scarring], have any symptoms at all.”

Drinking patterns did not change much over the study period. But the health profiles of heavy drinkers did. Rates of metabolic syndrome — a cluster of conditions including obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure — increased from 26% of people, to nearly 38%. Demographics shifted too: heavy drinkers became more likely to be women, people over the age of 45, and those living in poverty.

“We’re showing with this study that the picture of the American drinker is changing dramatically,” Lee said. “You have more women who are drinking heavily, more ethnic minorities who are drinking heavily, and these are groups that are known to have a higher sensitivity to alcohol in causing liver damage.”

Other factors may also be at play, said Dr. Sammy Saab, medical director of the Pfleger Liver Institute at UCLA, who was not involved in the study. People could be consuming different types of drinks, or at different times. “Have we moved away from beer, wine, to hard cocktails? Have we moved away from drinking with food, where the food absorbs some of the alcohol you consume, versus drinking without food where alcohol is better absorbed?” Saab asked.

Then there are cultural changes, he said. “In the old days, if you drank, you’d still have to drive home, but now we’ve got Uber, we have Lyft,” he said, which may remove some deterrents to heavy drinking.

The current definition of heavy drinking in the U.S. may actually be too lenient, Lee said, especially compared to evolving global standards. Canada, for example, now advises no more than two drinks per week to minimize health risks.

“In the U.S. right now, we consider heavy drinking to be eight drinks or more per week for women and 15 or more for men — but that’s quite high,” he said. “We’ve shown in prior studies that you can develop liver disease at lower quantities than the U.S. threshold.”

The study’s findings highlight the need to rethink long-held assumptions about alcohol-related liver disease, and Lee hopes it can be used to develop more effective screening methods for early detection.

The paper raises a lot of good questions, Saab said, serving as a call to action for researchers and clinicians to better understand this increase in alcohol-associated liver disease — and how to stop it.

©2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By JOSH BOAK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesay that he’ll impose a 25% tariff on goods from India, plus an additional import tax because of India’s purchasing of Russian oil.

Trump said on his Truth Social platform that India “is our friend” but its “Tariffs are far too high” on U.S. goods.

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The Republican president added that India buys military equipment and oil from Russia, which he said has enabled the war in Ukraine. As a result, he intends to charge an additional “penalty” starting on Friday as part of the launch of his administration’s revised tariffs on multiple countries.

The announcement comes after a slew of negotiated trade frameworks with the European Union, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia — all of which Trump said would open markets for American goods while enabling the U.S. to raise tax rates on imports. The president views tariff revenues as a way to help offset the budget deficit increases tied to his recent income tax cuts and generate more domestic factory jobs.

While Trump has effectively wielded tariffs as a cudgel to reset the terms of trade, the economic impact is uncertain as most economists expect a slowdown in U.S. growth and greater inflationary pressures as the costs of the taxes are passed along to domestic businesses and consumers.

The Census Bureau reported that the U.S. ran a $45.8 trade imbalance in goods with India last year, meaning it imported more than it exported.

At a population exceeding 1.4 billion people, India is the world’s largest country and a possible geopolitical counterbalance to China. India and Russia have close relations, and New Delhi has not supported Western sanctions on Moscow over its war in Ukraine.

When Trump in February met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the U.S. president said that India would start buying American oil and natural gas.

Trump discussed his policies on trade and tariffs with reporters accompanying him Tuesday on the flight home following a five-day visit to Scotland. He declined to comment then when asked about reports that India was bracing for a U.S. tariff rate of at least 25%, saying, “We’re going to see.”

Trump also said the outlines of a trade agreement with India had not yet been finalized.

By Kimberly Palmer, NerdWallet

On Reddit, a user recently asked how to recover from a money mistake.

They had taken out a high-interest loan for a car and made good on the payments, but regretted the extra cost the interest added over time.

They asked if they should now use their savings to pay off the remainder of the loan in a lump sum and put the whole experience behind them.

While some Reddit users suggested continuing with the payments, many agreed that paying off the loan would be a smart move. Learn the lesson, don’t dwell on the regret and move on to better experiences, they said.

Recovering from a big money mistake — whether it’s a regrettable purchase, accumulating significant debt or blowing through savings — is a common challenge.

We asked financial experts for their own take on how to recover. Here’s what they said:

Avoid fixating on the error

While it’s tempting to obsess over a money mistake, there’s little benefit to doing so, says Brenton D. Harrison, certified financial planner and host of the podcast, “New Money, New Problems.”

Instead, he says, focus on what you’re going to do differently in the future.

Harrison experienced his own money regret when he almost purchased a rental property in Nashville with his wife over a decade ago. They ultimately decided not to purchase the property. Now they feel like they missed an opportunity because property values have risen significantly.

Today, he actively avoids driving near that property because doing so would stir up those feelings of regret. “It’s not productive for me,” he says.

Similarly, he urges anyone who regrets a pricey purchase to hide the item away in their closet or otherwise put it out of sight so they don’t have to constantly think about the mistake.

While you can’t hide a car, you could pay off the loan and stop being reminded of the past interest payments.

If you can, undo the mistake

If you bought something you’re now having doubts about, try to return it, says Mykail James, a Washington, D.C.-based financial educator.

“Most things are returnable. Just send it back, and don’t be embarrassed about returning things,” she says. “They have a return policy for a reason.”

Even if it’s a purchase like a concert ticket, you might be able to sell it.

“You can always figure out a way to reverse it, and if there’s no way to reverse it, then be happy with what you got and do better next time,” James suggests.

In the Reddit user’s case, it might be possible to sell the car for more than is left on the loan.

Create a recovery plan

Some mistakes, like accruing high-interest car debt, may require a focused recovery plan.

“Create a repayment schedule and timeline that’s realistic for your budget,” Harrison says.

You might opt for the debt snowball method, where you pay off the smallest debt first to build momentum, or the debt avalanche method, where you tackle the debt with the highest interest rate first.

There’s no right or wrong choice; the best method is the one that works for you.

Harrison cautions that it’s still important to be mindful of other money goals while focusing on debt repayment.

“One of the most common mistakes I come across is that people get really motivated to pay back debt and they put more money toward it than they should,” he says.

Then, when another emergency comes up, they lack the savings to handle it. Harrison suggests paying down the debt in a way that allows you to leave room in the budget for emergencies.

Recovery may take patience, he adds. “Go in with realistic expectations,” he says. If it took years to destroy your credit, then it could also take years to improve it.

Make a different choice next time

After making a money mistake, it’s worth thinking about how you’ll do it differently next time, Harrison says. Consider the thought process you went through before making the mistake. Did you act on impulse? Was a desire to “keep up with the Joneses” your motivation?

“If there’s a lesson to be learned, make changes so you don’t lead yourself astray in the future,” he says.

Otherwise just acknowledge that sometimes you can do everything right and still end up making a mistake.

“Dust yourself off and move on. There’s no point in focusing on the past,” he says.

Reddit is an online forum where users share their thoughts in “threads” on various topics. The popular site includes plenty of discussion on financial subjects like money mistakes and successes, so we sifted through Reddit forums to get a pulse check. People post anonymously, so we cannot confirm their individual experiences or circumstances.

Kimberly Palmer writes for NerdWallet. Email: kpalmer@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @kimberlypalmer.

The article Asked on Reddit: How Do I Recover From a Big Money Mistake? originally appeared on NerdWallet.

By PAUL WISEMAN, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy expanded at a surprising 3% annual pace from April through June, bouncing back at least temporarily from a first-quarter drop that reflected disruptions from President Donald Trump’s trade wars.

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America gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — rebounded after falling at a 0.5% clip from January through March, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. The first-quarter drop was mainly caused by a surge in imports — which are subtracted from GDP — as businesses scrambled to bring in foreign goods ahead of Trump’s tariffs.

The bounceback was expected but the size of it wasn’t: Economists had forecast 2% growth from April through June.

From April through June, a drop in imports — the biggest since the COVID-19 outbreak — added more than 5 percentage points to growth. Consumer spending registered lackluster growth of 1.4%, though it was an improvement over the first quarter’s 0.5%.

Private investment fell at a 15.6% annual pace, biggest drop since COVID-19 slammed the economy. A drop in inventories — as businesses worked down goods they’d stockpiled in the first quarter — shaved 3.2 percentage points off second-quarter growth.