Liver Cirrhosis
October 7, 2008
What is liver cirrhosis ? this happens to people who drink a lot of alcohol bought it is not confined to people who drink alcohol alone. You can get cirrhosis of the liver just by eating fatty foods but the worst damage will be caused by drinking excess alcohol.
It is also known as alcoholic liver disease or its medical name is hepatitis, when you have liver damage lots of things occur you may find yourself lacking in energy and feeling tired all the time.
When liver cells become damaged scar tissue is formed within the liver and prevents blood from flowing freely to your heart. Another problem which occurs with liver cirrhosis is you will have a weakened immune system.
Your liver plays a important part in removing toxins and bacteria from your body however if your liver is damaged due to excess alcohol abuse than it will not be able to filter out bacteria and viruses as effectively as it would do if it wasn’t damaged.
Depending on how advanced your particular problem is will decide ultimately whether you will survive or not, there are some symptoms that you may become aware of but not necessarily associate them with a diseased liver.
You might start to feel generally unwell this is probably due to the large amount of toxins that will be contained with your in your bloodstream, if you go to your doctor and have a liver blood function tests or LFT as it is called, when you go to see him to discuss your results he will tell you about the levels of albumin and bilirubin, he will tell you whether these levels are higher than they should be or not, when these are quite high then this means that, you do have the initial beginnings of cirrhosis but do bear in mind it does depend on how high they actually are.
If you want to reverse your cirrhosis then the best thing you can do is cut down on your alcohol consumption and make sure that you don’t drink again, you must take this as a warning that something is very wrong within your body.
Depending on how bad your cirrhosis is and to instigate further investigation, you may be referred to a specialist/physician who will be able to advise you in more detail about your particular problem and how bad it may be.
You will probably due to discuss your levels of albumin and bilirubin and where he thinks the initial stages of your hepatic liver disease are. In order to get a better idea of how bad your liver may be you may be referred to have a ultrasound scan of your liver, much the same as pregnant women have when they are having babies.
This is done to see if there is any enlargement of the liver, that is all it will show it will not tell you if your liver is functioning properly or not, once you actually get the results back and there is nothing showing.
Then the only other thing that you can have is a liver biopsy where you have a needle inserted into your side, and a small liver tissue sample is taken away for analysis this will give a far more accurate picture of the state of how bad the cirrhosis is and what stage it is actually at.
In order to get things back on track you may be offered medication in order to stop the initial malfunction of your liver you would be advised to stop drinking, eat less fatty foods in your diet this will help your liver from working too hard and aid digestion, your doctor will probably suggest that you switch to a high protein diet and eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. And drink a lot of water this will help to flush the toxins out of your body and help your liver to recover.
There are some natural aids to help with detoxifying your liver one of the more well-known ones is something called milk thistle, this is something that you could try, but it is better to discuss it with your doctor or a healthcare professional who will be able to able to advise you whether or not it is something that will help you or not.
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