Bull Nakano speaks candidly about her drinking vice that led to hospitalization.
During the summer of 2020, former All Japan Women’s Champion Bull Nakano was hospitalized due to cirrhosis of the liver, which is a late stage of scarring caused by liver diseases such as chronic alcoholism. Nakano spoke with Oricon News and opened up about her consistent consumption of alcohol.
During her time as a full-time in-ring performer, she would often drink three 750ml bottles of Shōchū in one day. She shared that her hair began to fall out, her skin became flaky and it got to the point last year when her husband decided to take her to the hospital.
I was actually told a long time ago that I would have to be hospitalized for treatment. However, I could not stay in the hospital for a long time due to my work, so I stopped going to the hospital. Eventually, I started coughing up excrement and had to wear diapers at work.
My husband asked me to go to the hospital every day and made an appointment for me, but I said I didn’t want to go, so he had to trick me. I was hiding my swollen belly with ascites, but finally my husband found out. So we went to the hospital together and ended up being hospitalized.
Nakano continued and said there was not a day when she did not have a drink. She believes if she didn’t have cirrhosis of the liver, she would still be drinking and only quit when her health began to deteriorate.
I thought to myself, ‘If I continue like this, I will become an alcoholic.’ There was not a day that went by that I didn’t drink alcohol and I had no intention of quitting, so if I didn’t have cirrhosis of the liver, I would still be drinking. I quit drinking when my health deteriorated, but I still love to drink… (laughs). (laughs) Even if I had become an alcoholic, I probably wouldn’t have known it myself.
Per the Mayo Clinic official website, liver damage done by cirrhosis generally can’t be undone but if diagnosed early and treated, further damage can be limited.
