How to treat the liver

"Liver cleansing is a dangerous misconception"

Ekaterina Shutova, "Newspaper.Ru»

About how to remove fat from the liver, how to prevent the formation of cirrhosis and whether to be afraid of viral hepatitis, the science department of the Newspaper.Ru" was told by the candidate of biological Sciences Bella Lurie– a member of the European Association for the Study of the Liver, head of the hepatological center " <url>".

Liver in the spotlight

We are constantly being convinced that our liver is in danger and it needs to be "protected" daily. Stories endlessly show that improper nutrition, ecology, stress and our whole life are a deadly danger to the liver. The only salvation is to constantly take hepatoprotectors ("help the liver in the morning, afternoon and evening," etc.) and drink pills that supposedly "cleanse the liver of toxins and toxins." All this flow of information has nothing to do with scientific data and misleads the consumer for the sole purpose of acquiring and lifelong use of medicines without any serious grounds.

If the liver is healthy, it does not require any pills. And it does not need to be cleaned in any way. Liver cleansing is a myth designed for uninitiated consumers of dubious services who do not understand the meaning of the processes taking place in the liver. After all, the liver itself performs the function of cleansing the body of toxins entering it with food or formed as a result of metabolism. These toxic substances in the liver are neutralized by their chemical processing. The liver is not a sieve through which toxic substances pass and which needs to be cleaned. The liver is a chemical plant, so "cleaning the liver" is an absolute pseudoscience. The liver does not need pills if it is healthy.

How the liver is destroyed

But liver diseases exist, and they are really very dangerous and can threaten life if they are not treated in a timely manner. Liver diseases are always associated with the fact that factors that really destroy it act on it. Such factors are: hepatitis B and C viruses, alcohol, fatty degeneration and rare hereditary diseases.

With all these diseases, the liver loses its unique ability to self-repair (it can be partially cut off, and it will recover completely), and instead of the destroyed liver, another tissue (connective or fatty) grows, which does not perform the functions of the liver and differs significantly from it in its structure. The liver becomes dense, the blood flow is disrupted, which in the outcome of the disease ends with bleeding from the enlarged veins of the esophagus, stomach, and so on. The final stage of the disease is cirrhosis and primary liver cancer.

Therefore, any liver disease requires treatment, the purpose of which is primarily to remove the cause causing the destruction of the liver and prevent the formation of cirrhosis. This means that different liver diseases are treated differently. There is no one miracle pill for all liver diseases.

Of the main causes that destroy the liver, the main and most common worldwide are hepatitis B and C viruses. The number of people infected with hepatitis B and C reaches hundreds of millions. And the number of cases in the world is constantly increasing.

It is easy to get infected with hepatitis C and B viruses, for example, at a dentist, at a manicure, during operations, tattooing, etc. Any intervention that involves contact with blood can lead to infection with hepatitis B and C virus. Hepatitis B virus is transmitted sexually, as well as from mother to child during pregnancy, unlike hepatitis C virus. Viruses are not transmitted by household means. Given the ease of infection with viruses, we are all at risk.

How to defeat viral hepatitis C

Incredible achievements of medical science have allowed us to declare viral hepatitis C a curable disease! There are modern highly effective direct-acting antiviral drugs that are comfortable to use and do not have side effects that worsen the quality of life during treatment. However, these drugs require mandatory prescribing by a doctor and proper monitoring during treatment, since in addition to direct action on the virus, they can interfere with very important metabolic processes.

Recovery in the treatment of viral hepatitis C does not occur in 100% of cases. The result largely depends on how timely the patient turned to the doctor. This means that it is necessary to be regularly tested for the hepatitis C virus.

Why you need to get vaccinated against hepatitis B

As for hepatitis B, it is a more contagious and dangerous viral disease. Unlike hepatitis C, hepatitis B is an incurable but controlled disease. This means that the sole purpose of treating hepatitis B is to preserve a healthy liver, in which the virus will remain. However, this virus should not be active and is a threat to the formation of cirrhosis.

In some cases, antiviral drugs should be prescribed, which, although they cannot kill the virus completely, make it inactive and harmless.

A huge achievement is the availability of hepatitis B vaccination, which has been done all over the world for more than 30 years, and in Russia for about 20 years, to all newborns in the first day after birth. This vaccination protects against the virus for 5-8 years, and then a revaccination is required. Unfortunately, only small children are protected by the law, the rest must take care of their own health and regularly vaccinate themselves and their children.

"Changes come overnight"

All the changes that cause viruses in the liver with hepatitis B and C do not manifest themselves in any way. Because viruses are very small, and the liver is very large. And while the processes are going on, a person can feel good, look good. He may even have good tests. Changes come unexpectedly, suddenly, immediately. General well-being worsens, weakness appears, yellowness of the skin, itching, fluid may appear in the abdominal cavity. From this point on, unfortunately, nothing can be helped except supportive symptomatic therapy. That is why it is so important to be examined regularly and to consult a doctor in a timely manner. Viral hepatitis is not a disaster if you consult a doctor in a timely manner.

Another very important and common disease that has the character of an epidemic is fatty hepatosis. Now every fourth person in the world is affected by this disease. The disease lies in the fact that due to hormonal and metabolic disorders in the body, fat begins to be deposited in internal organs - in the liver, kidneys, heart and blood vessels, pancreas. The consequence of this is liver damage up to cirrhosis, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases and their complications - heart attack and stroke.

"The button that "removes" the person turns on"

Many people associate the cause of fatty hepatosis with an incorrect lifestyle – nutrition and physical activity. This is an important aspect of the pathological process, but not the only one. The main cause of the disease is metabolic syndrome. This is a complex of metabolic and hormonal changes in the body, which, as a rule, occur in connection with age-related changes. Although recently they have often been observed in quite young people.

Under the influence of external circumstances unknown to us or as a result of age-related, genetically programmed processes, "a conditional biochemical button is turned on." It triggers a number of pathological metabolic and hormonal processes that cause deadly diseases. Complications in the form of heart attack and stroke, diabetes mellitus, cirrhosis are a threat to life.

There is only one way to treat fatty hepatosis: by removing the cause – metabolic disorders. The cause of fatty hepatosis is treated by an endocrinologist. The meaning of treatment is that it is necessary to restore impaired metabolic parameters with special drugs. However, medications alone will not help. A mandatory part of treatment is proper nutrition (for life, not in the "diet" mode) and physical activity. It is physical activity that restores in the body those important processes that are disrupted.

How to remove fat from the liver

In order to remove fat from the liver, the efforts of two doctors are required – an endocrinologist who treats the cause of the disease, and a hepatologist who treats the consequence of the disease. It is possible to remove fat from the liver, as well as from other internal organs, only with appropriate medications.

It is important to understand that fatty hepatosis is internal obesity. Almost always, this disease is accompanied by external obesity, overweight. As a result of successful treatment, we get not only a healthy liver, but also a decrease in body weight. External changes of patients in the treatment of metabolic syndrome always attract attention, although they are not a direct task of treatment. The result of the treatment of fatty hepatosis is not only the restoration of normal liver function, but also the normalization of life-threatening processes. The real result of the treatment of metabolic syndrome is an increase in the duration and quality of life.

Any serious liver diseases can be treated or controlled and are not deadly if you contact specialists in a timely manner.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  04.04.2016