Saturday, August 6, 2011

Indian Gooseberry Treats Liver Enlargement

The liver is known as the master organ of the body. No other organ of the body does such varied functions as the liver. The liver is a pretty robust organ and able to regenerate the lost part to a great extent. If the liver is damaged and unable to function properly it leads to other problems and most of the organs in the body are affected. These problems can be seemingly simple ones like constipation, chronic gastritis, morning sickness, etc or it could be serious disorders like be jaundice, hepatitis, cirrhosis and Hepatomegaly, all of which are potentially serious and even fatal.

A fully grown adult liver is about the size of a football. Some times due to some causes the liver becomes enlarged and it is known as Hepato-megaly. Liver enlargement could be caused by many factors such as alcoholism, hepatitis, cancer, Amoebiasis, etc. The symptoms are mild in the beginning and hard to detect unless investigation like Sonography or CAT scan is done.

ALCOHOLIC HEPATITIS

Liver enlargement needs prompt medical attention. The cause of the hepatic enlargement should be identified and treatment should be started accordingly. Hepatitis is caused by a virus and can be categorized into acute and chronic. If the Hepatitis continues for more than six months it is termed as Chronic Hepatitis. Chronic Hepatitis is caused by treatment failures of Acute Hepatitis. The symptoms of chronic hepatitis are mild in comparison to acute hepatitis. Certain medications also have a adverse action on the liver, especially anti-fungal like Ketoconazole, anti TB medicines like Rifampicin and Pyrazinamide.

The symptoms of Alcoholic Hepatomegaly includes water in abdomen, bleeding from veins in the esophagus, an enlarged spleen, high blood pressure in the liver, changes in mental function, coma and kidney failure. The first step is complete absistence from alcohol. Treatment includes change in diet to reduce the workload on the liver. Medication and intensive hospital care will be needed to manage the complication associated with liver damage.

Indian Gooseberry is one of the most precious gifts of nature to mankind. Indian Gooseberry is loaded with Vitamin C and many trace elements. It is one of the best Hepatic tonics and is especially effective in Liver Enlargements. It has found acceptance in all forms of herbal treatment as a liver rejuvenator. Ayurveda the Indian pharmacopeia, Unani the Arabic pharmacopeia, and ancient Chinese texts extols the benefits of Indian Gooseberry. Indian Gooseberry is also a very good Anti-oxidants taking care of free radicals and preventing them from causing any cell damage.

Indian Gooseberry Treats Liver Enlargement

ALCOHOLIC HEPATITIS

Friday, August 5, 2011

Understanding Cirrhosis Of Liver

Liver is an important organ of the body. It performs several important functions in maintaining good health. These include production of proteins, detoxification of body, and storage of vitamin A. In addition to this, liver regulates supply of glucose and lipids to be used by the body. For the proper functioning, the liver cells and blood must work closely with each other. But in cirrhosis, the relationship between liver cells and blood is lost and it is unable to add or remove substances from the blood. In cirrhosis, the healthy liver cells are replaced by scar tissue and obstruct the normal flow of blood in the liver. As a result, blood starts accumulating in the portal veins producing the condition called portal hypertension where blood travels in other veins which bypass the liver to organs that performs the function. The relation between liver and canaliculi carrying bile also gets disturbed and liver is unable to perform the function of removing toxic substances from the body. It is this mechanism which leads to the symptoms of cirrhosis of liver.

There can be many causes of cirrhosis of liver.

ALCOHOLIC HEPATITIS

• The most common cause can be chronic intake of alcohol in large quantities. It causes the death of healthy liver cells and they result in scarring around your veins of liver.
Hepatitis that is the inflammation of liver due to viral infection can also cause serious damage to your liver cells and cause cirrhosis. Hepatitis B, hepatitis C and Hepatitis D are all culprits.
• Many genetic diseases can be involved in your liver cirrhosis. Diseases such as glycogen storage disease, hemochromatism, Wilsons disease, galactosemia and cystic fibrosis causes abnormal accumulation of toxic substances resulting in damage to liver cells.
• A condition called non-alcoholic fatty liver also causes cirrhosis of liver. It occurs due to certain diseases like CAD, obesity, type II diabetes and protein malnutrition disease.
• Other conditions which are known to cause liver cirrhosis are biliary cirrhosis, autoimmune cirrhosis, cardiac cirrhosis, long term bacterial or parasitic infection and many drugs.

At the initial stage of your cirrhosis of liver, you might not get any signs and symptoms. But with your progression of disease, you can experience weakness or tiredness, appetite loss, weight loss, paleness of skin with nausea, loss of libido. Sometimes you start getting symptoms when the complications of cirrhosis start taking toll. You can get itching due to deposition of breakdown of bile products. Due to liver enlargement, abdominal pain can become a normal routine. Sometimes, fluid retention leads to weight gain and swelling in abdomen, ankles and legs with breathing problems. Due to cirrhosis of liver, the toxins are not eliminated from body and affect your brain resulting in symptoms like delusions, hallucinations, confusion of mind, sleepiness and sometimes even comatose. As the stage progresses, you start getting bruises with slight injury or touch and gum bleeding. Liver congestion can also result in blood in your feces and vomiting. In the further stage, around 7 percent of patients get liver cancer.

By reading about cirrhosis of liver, if you are suspecting of having same symptoms, then don't waste more time and at least take some steps to delay the complications.

Understanding Cirrhosis Of Liver

ALCOHOLIC HEPATITIS

What Is Alcohol-Induced Hepatitis?

Alcohol-induced hepatitis occurs when the liver becomes inflamed due to alcohol consumption. Alcohol-induced hepatitis, which may also be called alcoholic hepatitis, should not be confused with cirrhosis of the liver because they're not exactly the same thing. But alcoholic hepatitis is considered to be an early stage of alcoholic liver disease.

hepatitis

Not all heavy drinkers get alcohol-induced hepatitis. On the other hand, sometimes people who drink moderately are afflicted.

HEPATITIS

It's possible to recover from alcoholic hepatitis if you stop drinking. But once you have it, continued use of alcohol greatly increases your risk for cirrhosis and then liver failure. Once your liver fails, your only chance for survival is a liver transplant.

Researchers haven't been able to determine exactly why alcohol consumption can lead to hepatitis, but they've isolated some possibilities. They know that when you drink alcohol, certain toxic substances are produced in your liver. These substances trigger irritation, which results in inflammation. This irritation destroys liver cells, causing healthy tissue to replaced by scar tissue. This scarring process is the very definition of cirrhosis. Cirrhosis is the last stage of alcoholic liver disease.

It's also still a mystery why some heavy alcohol users never develop alcoholic hepatitis or cirrhosis, while some moderate drinkers do. This fact leads researchers to theorize that other factors besides the use of alcohol may influence who gets the disease.

Heredity could play a role too. Mutations affecting metabolism could be one of the reasons for the selective nature of the disorder.

If you already have liver trouble, and you drink, it appears you have a higher risk of developing alcoholic hepatitis. This is especially true if you have hemochromotosis, a disease in which too much iron accumulates in the body.

Malnutrition may be another factor that influences who gets alcohol-induced hepatitis. Heavy drinkers often have poor dietary and nutritional habits, and may even substitute alcohol for food sometimes. Toxic byproducts in alcohol limit the digestive processes. Once again, this could result in damage to liver cells.

As with many other liver problems, there are no symptoms in the early stages of alcohol-induced hepatitis. But as the disease gets worse, symptoms become more prominent. Symptoms vary but often include:

abdominal pain and tenderness abnormal thirst and a dry mouth ascites, or fluid accumulation in the abdominal area lapses of memory and cognitive problems mixed with confusion occasional fevers and vomiting, sometimes with blood unusual fatigue, weakness and dizziness weight gain despite a lack of appetite paleness or yellowish skin and eyes that could be indicate jaundice

Symptoms of alcoholic hepatitis are likely to get worse if you consume a lot of alcohol in a short time, or indulge in binge drinking.

Anyone who experiences these symptoms should see a doctor as soon as possible because alcohol-induced hepatitis may lead to a variety of dangerous medical conditions, including gastrointestinal bleeding.

What Is Alcohol-Induced Hepatitis?

HEPATITIS

Can Fatty Liver Be Reversed? Learn the Proper Way

When it comes to the condition of the liver, everybody is concerned. Why? That's because it is one of the organs of the body that has a lot of important functions. So, any malfunction may cause a lot of problems. It is also a sensitive part of the body that if damaged, can be the cause of one's death. Liver fats when left unattended can be very threatening because it hinder or slow down the work of the liver. So, the big question here is, can fatty liver be reversed?

There are different factors that can cause this condition. Some of these are diabetes, obesity, alcoholism, and poor eating habits. Obesity goes with high cholesterol content of the body. This is due to not eating healthy foods. Diabetes is due to high blood sugar level. If the person has high amount of sugar in his blood, it means that he has high cholesterol level as well.

ALCOHOLIC HEPATITIS

Alcohol is also one of the greatest contributors to having a fatty and unhealthy liver. There are wines that are good for the health for as long as they are taken in moderately. But excessive consumption of alcohol will bring damage to your liver. Poor eating habit means eating unhealthy foods such as the processed foods containing toxins that are harmful to the liver.

To repeat the question, can fatty liver be reversed? Well, yes it can! Provided, that the sufferer will change his or her lifestyle. Just like with the eating habits. Instead of eating processed foods, the person should consume fresh fruits and vegetables. Choose those foods that are rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals for they can help improve the condition of the liver.

A regular exercise will help reduce or lose weight. This is highly recommended for obese patients. Daily moderate exercises can help burn the fats and cholesterol in the body. Drink a lot of water regularly to encourage the elimination of toxins out of the body. Have your diabetes cured by a doctor as early as possible or you may limit yourself from having sweetened or highly concentrated drinks such as sodas.

Though there is no assurance that these tips can completely cure fatty liver, rest assured that they can lessen further damage to the organ. A human body has only one liver so it has to be taken cared with.

Can Fatty Liver Be Reversed? Learn the Proper Way

ALCOHOLIC HEPATITIS

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Was Eliot Ness an Alcoholic?

We all know Eliot Ness as the famous prohibition agent who got Al Capone, but some biographical accounts of his life indicate that he ended up an alcoholic. There have been various fictionalized versions of Ness throughout the years, although none touched on a drinking problem.

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According to his biographer, Paul Heimel, who wrote Eliot Ness The True Story, the prohibition agent was not an alcoholic, according to his friends. He did like going out for a drink now and then and frequented famous nightspots. The biography dismisses the rumors of his alcoholism as just that, rumors.

ALCOHOLIC

In 1942, Eliot Ness was involved in an accident in the early hours of the morning. It was said that alcohol was a factor in the incident, although never proven. No one was seriously injured in the accident, but the incident cost Ness his career in Cleveland.

In books like Chasing Eliot Ness, the prohibition agent is seen drinking scotch after scotch and appears to have a drinking problem, although alcoholism is the least of his troubles in this book. There are scattered reports all over the internet and whether it is true or not depends upon which biographical account you read about the man behind the Untouchables.

Books like Torso, Nemesis and Chasing Eliot Ness fictionalize Ness, but none as much as The Untouchables by Oscar Fraley. Supposedly a biography of the prohibition agent, Fraley admitted to making the entire story up, according to the biography by Heimel.

Was Eliot Ness an alcoholic or not? He is listed on certain sites as an alcoholic, but there is no one alive today to say for sure. In the 1940s, when the stories came out, it was common for men to drink a few scotches, even during the day. It also makes for a good story to say that someone who fought so hard to keep liquor from Chicago would turn into a drunk. The only one who knows for sure is long gone. We have only fictionalized accounts of his life.

He was, however, a ladies man, according to the biography. This is most likely where the author of Chasing Eliot Ness got her inspiration.

Was Eliot Ness an Alcoholic?

ALCOHOLIC

Hepatitis C Prognosis - Is it Good?

Well, both yes and now. The reason why the hepatitis C prognosis can be good, is because a new herbal cure was developed for hepatitis in 2009, and it is completely herbal. The way that it works is by blocking the enzyme, which the HCV virus uses to replicate. Aside from that, if hepatitis C is left untreated it can turn chronic, and many complications can occur.

hepatitis

When can acute Hepatitis C turn chronic? Reasons why in some cases Hepatitis C can turn worse from acute to chronic vary to a great extent. Doctors have found that individual characteristics along with several other factors decide whether a patient's Hepatitis C infection will become chronic. Experts have been unable to come up with reliable estimates regarding the risk of the disease becoming chronic as the research is still maturing. So far data has reflected that one-third of patients who fail to get treated can develop cirrhosis in 20 years, while another one-third of the infected patients progress to this stage in 30 years. In case of the rest of the patients, it is highly unlikely that they will develop cirrhosis during their life span.

HEPATITIS

Aside from that, the hepatitis C disease is one of the illnesses, which has taken many tolls. Especially in the past, when the watter supplies were not controlled properly, and blood transfusion was done without any testing of the blood for pathogens, the hepatitis C prognosis was not good.

How can hepatitis c be cured, before it turns worse?Well, up till 2008 there were several treatment options for this type of hepatitis. Interferon therapy was one of them, and was quite effective. In 2009, Australian researchers came up with a natural cure for hepatitis C, which is completely herbal, and any patients suffering from the disease, can apply it tat home. Currently, lots of people are getting rid of the infection completely, by applying the new treatment. The reason it is effective, is that it completely stops the hepatitis C virus from replicating, which results in a quick elimination of any infection. That's one of the reasons why today, the hepatitis C prognosis is quite good and optimistic.

Hepatitis C Prognosis - Is it Good?

HEPATITIS

My Husband Will Die From End Stage Liver Disease Unless He Can Get a Liver Transplant

Liver disease, is not talked about a lot in the societies of today very often. It is a quiet killer with many symptoms. Statistically, liver is rapidly increasing in today's world as a ruthless fatal disease due to our diets and lifestyles.

Liver disease can be caused by many different things. Some of which are drinking alcohol, abusing drugs, using too much Tylenol, hepatitis, obesity, and many other reasons.

ALCOHOLIC HEPATITIS

Liver disease can kill you, if not treated early and properly. Regular blood work can show if the liver is functioning well or not. You should always ask your doctor to routinely check your liver function.

A very healthy diet, abstaining from drinking alcohol, and exercise promote good liver function.

Symptoms depend on the type and the extent of liver disease. In many cases, there may be no symptoms at all, or you may have some or all of these symptoms. Darkened urine, due to high bilirubin, nausea, loss of appetite, unusual weight loss or weight gain, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain in the upper right part of the stomach.

Other sympstoms are, a feeling of illness, enlarged blood vessels in the abdomen ( portal hypertension), fatigue, or low blood sugar. Muscle aches and pains, loss of sex drive, jaundice, light coloration of stools, bloating and distention of the abdomen.

Symptoms of liver disease, as you can see, mimic a lot of other illnesses and diseases, and vice versa.

In Alcoholic liver disease, which is what my husband has, there are four stages. Stage one is a fatty liver, stage 2 is alcoholic hepatitis, stage 3 is liver fibrosis, and stage 4 is cirrhosis, and sometimes cancer of the liver.

My husband's symptoms of alcoholic liver disease were very subtle at first, and they had mimicked the flu, being tired, sleepiness, heart trouble, obesity, muscle pain and weakness upon exertion, and foggyness due to depression.

My husband was a heavy drinker for several years. He quit on his own after a doctor told him that he had moderate cirrhosis of the liver. The doctor warned him that he might die in a few years if he did not stop drinking. At that time he was diagnosed with fatty liver, Barrett's Esophagus, portal hypertension, and sluggish kidneys.

The specialist advised my husband to lose weight, to slow down the disease. He went from drinking too much alcohol, to overeating his favorite foods, which are hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and sweets. He seemed to replace his alcohol addiction with unhealthy food choices. We now know that his kind of food adds to the destruction of the liver as well.

Now it is three years later, and last week he was given the diagnosis of stage 4 cirrhosis. It came on so quickly!

He has been having some of the symptoms for the last few years and we really were not aware of how bad his disease had gotten. He had gradually begun gaining a lot of weight, and he became very swollen in his feet, legs, and abdomen. We just thought this had been due to his poor diet.

Then he suddenly developed symptoms of encephalopathy, (swelling of the brain due to toxins in the brain), a few weeks ago, and he was hospitalized just in time. It was very frightening to see him so very ill. He does not remember anything about the first twenty four hours of going there. He was talking out of critically ill. He became incoherent, and unaware of how sick he was. He stayed in the hospital for a few days until they stabilized him. Then he was sent home with medications and it was up to me to care for him unless he became acute again.

At the hospital he was then referred to a new liver specialist as an out patient. When we saw the specialist, he was straight with us, and told us that John now had stage 4 cirrhosis of the liver. He informed us my husband would need to lose 100 lbs in 6 months to become qualified to get on the liver transplant list.

Now he has to try to lose weight, most of which is water, stay with a special, very strict liver diet. He is to take 7 1/2 water pills a day, and large doses of Lactulose, (a medicine to rid his body of high ammonia levels through the bowels), to help prevent the brain from swelling.

I was inspired to write such an article due to my husband getting this terrible disease from drinking heavily for many years. Warn your friends and loved ones to beware of the causes of liver disease, and also its many symptoms.

There are many sites to visit about these subjects on the internet.

Here are a couple: http://www.medicinenet.com/liver_disease/article.htm

http://www.webmd.com/search/search_results/default.aspx?query=liver%20disease&sourceType=undefined

My Husband Will Die From End Stage Liver Disease Unless He Can Get a Liver Transplant

ALCOHOLIC HEPATITIS