What Way Are You Damaging Your Liver?
17 Jun 2007
"What causes liver disease?" Ask anyone this question and 99 percent will say, "It’s imbibing in too much Cabernet Sauvignon or other alcoholic drinks". But today the liver can be injured by a host of less known, but equally hazardous habits. So how are you doing unfriendly things to your liver? And what can we learn from the "Mayflower" that carried Pilgrims to this continent in 1620?
The football-sized liver is an amazing organ. Every day it performs hundreds of functions. But today, as never before in history, its most important challenge is changing toxic substances we ingest into products that can be safely by removed from the body. And although the liver has great power to regenerate, never think it’s indestructible.
So what’s the problem? Consider the abuse television offers the liver every day. Ads persuading consumers there’s no reason to suffer even minor pain. Tens of thousands of people swallow these pills as if the were m and m candy. But taking painkillers, particularly more than the recommended dose of acetaminophen (Tylenol), along with alcohol, can cause liver failure and death.
Other thousands of cold sufferers are prescribed antibiotics that have no effect on viral cold infections. Others who reach for a variety of cold medications of questionable value that places extra needless burden on the liver.
Ever years I see an increasing number of patients using herbal medicines. But a recent report from The Mayo Clinic cautions that herbal supplements such as kava, comfrey, chaparral, kombucha tea and skullcap can be toxic to liver. Remember, it was a natural drug, hemlock, that killed Socrates two thousand years ago.
Be careful of what gets on your skin. When using an aerosol cleaner make sure the room is well ventillated or wear a mask. Use protective measures when spraying to control insects or fungicides. And be certain to use a mask when painting with a spray device.
Don’t become a victim to viral infections of the liver that are preventable. Hepatitis A is transmitted by sewage contaminated food and drink. It can be fatal in elderly people.
Today large numbers of North Americans are infected with hepatitis B. It’s a serious disease that can result in liver cancer, cirrhosis and spread by sexual contact, saliva and contaminated needles.
One-third of patients infected with this virus are without symptoms. Others suffer from fever, muscle and joint pain and jaundice, a yellowing of the skin.
A vaccine called "Twinrix" provides dual protection against hepatitis A and B. It’s prudent for travellers, health workers and those who live dangerous sexual lives should be vaccinated against hepatitis B. Ideally everyone should have this protection.
What’s is shocking is that excessive use of alcohol and hepatitis B are not the only ways to develop cirrhosis. A report from Johns Hopkins claims 25 percent of North Americans suffer from nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
It results from not stepping on the bathroom scale to see the pounds mounting up year after year. Patients with NAFLD develop fatty deposits in the liver, elevated liver enzymes, but have no history of excessive consumption of alcohol.
Hopkins researchers claim that 15 percent of NAFLD go on to develop nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) which causes scarring of the liver. Pathologists say these changes are indistinguishable from liver damage caused by too much alcohol. What is even more startling is that NAFLD is now being seen in young obese children. If this isn’t a wakeup call I don’t know is.
I’ve just completed reading a fascinating book, "Mayflower" about Pilgrims who landed in Plymouth in 1620. Half of them died within a year from hunger, cold and infection. But none died from lack of exercise. Today we’re dying from obesity, destroying our liver from drugs we often do not need. And from being too lazy to use our legs.
It was also interesting to learn that later in the Mayflower voyage it became necessary to ration beer. This caused illness among both Pilgrims and sailors and some died. Beer in 17th century England was safer than water. I’m convinced that in 2007 alcohol is still safer than most drugs. And even kind to your liver in moderation.
