EDITORIAL

Alcohol consumption in developing countries is increasing significantly and progressively it has be-come a major risk factor for chronic liver disease worldwide. As a matter of fact, it has been conside-red one of the major etiologies of liver diseases.1 Al-coholic persons are thought to be prone to various infections, such as hepatitis C, in which the severity of damage is related with ethanol consumption.2 Ac-cording to epidemiological data, alcohol related liver deaths is one of the leading causes of mortality in western and latinoamerican countries.3 Recently, research on alcohol effects has been growing increasingly from several points of view, mainly in terms of health benefits and risks. For a long time, alcohol intake was conceived as represen