In some bars patronized by regular heavy drinkers, the talk occasionally turns from sports scores and politics to the odds of dying from cirrhosis of the liver.

Researchers say heavy drinkers have vastly higher chances of killing themselves, either through chronic liver disease or sudden death, than moderate drinkers or teetotalers.

"The odds are well in favor of the alcoholic," said Dr. David H. Van Thiel, professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and a leading researcher into cirrhosis. "Most heavy drinkers will develop a fatty liver, but that's absolutely not terminal. Most damage to the liver from drinking is reversible."