How to Treat Liver Disease

If you’ve noticed your skin is unusually yellow and you’re experiencing a lot of fatigue lately, you may have liver disease. Unfortunately, there are several different types of liver disease that all have different treatment regimens, such as making lifestyle changes, taking medication, and undergoing surgery. Fortunately, once you’ve been diagnosed with a particular form of liver disease, your doctor will typically be able to determine which treatment path is best for your situation.

Method 1 - Spotting the Symptoms of Liver Disease

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→ Look out for yellow discoloration of the skin and eyes. This type of yellow discoloration, known as jaundice, is one of the most telling symptoms of liver disease. Jaundice is a symptom of alcoholic hepatitis, viral hepatitis, and cirrhosis.

→ Jaundice occurs as a result of an excess of the pigment bilirubin in the body. Although this is usually a sign of liver disease, jaundice can also be caused by obstruction of the bile duct or by the excessive breakdown of red blood cells.

→ If your jaundice begins to appear over the course a few days or a week, this is a greater indication that it is probably caused by hepatitis.

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→ Pay attention to times when you experience fatigue and weakness. All types of liver disease include general fatigue and lack of strength as part of their symptoms. The fatigue may be constant or intermittent, so be on the lookout for any times that you feel tired for no reason.

→ You may feel exhausted and unenergetic as well as weak if you have liver disease.

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→ Note if you experience a loss of appetite. Alcoholic hepatitis, viral hepatitis, and cirrhosis all cause reduced appetite among people suffering from these diseases. This is among the first signs of liver disease and may also appear as feeling very full after eating a small meal.

→ Loss of appetite is easier to spot when it’s accompanied by unexpected weight loss (resulting from eating less).

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→ Take note of any nausea and vomiting you experience. Nausea is another early symptom of alcoholic hepatitis, viral hepatitis, and cirrhosis. Note that nausea is also a common symptom of a variety of other illnesses, so this symptom by itself doesn’t necessarily indicate that you have liver disease. See a doctor if you have persistent nausea and vomiting that doesn’t go away.

→ If you have advanced cirrhosis, you may also notice traces of blood in your vomit.

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→ Be on the lookout for pain and swelling in the abdomen. Nearly all liver diseases include painful abdominal swelling around the area of the liver. This area is located just under your rib cage on the right side of your body. If you feel swelling and tenderness on this part of your body, see a doctor to confirm whether something is wrong with your liver.

→ You may also feel a shortness of breath as a result of liver swelling. If this is the case, seek medical attention as soon as possible.

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→ Watch out for aches and pain in your joints. Hemochromatosis and hepatitis B are both commonly marked by joint pain. While hepatitis B can occur at any time, hemochromatosis is a hereditary disease and usually occurs in middle age.

→ Diabetes, loss of sex drive, and impotence are also symptoms of hemochromatosis, although these tend to appear in more advanced cases.

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→ Look out for swelling and fluid retention in your feet. This phenomenon, known as edema, is a common symptom of advanced cirrhosis and usually indicates severe liver damage. In addition to swelling in the feet, legs, and ankles, sufferers may also experience fluid retention in the abdomen, known as ascites.

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→ See a doctor for an official diagnosis if you experience these symptoms. Many of these symptoms, such as fatigue and nausea, can be indicative of a wide variety of illnesses besides liver disease. Thus, it’s very important that you see a doctor who can confirm whether or not you have liver disease before you start worrying about how to treat it.

→ At the same time, if your symptoms are being caused by something OTHER than liver disease, you’ll also need to take steps to treat this other problem.

Method 2 - Making Lifestyle Changes

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→ Stop drinking alcohol. Drinking alcohol, especially heavily, damages and inflames the liver, so quitting alcohol is the best home treatment method for preventing or reversing liver disease. While some forms of liver disease may require you to abstain from alcohol only temporarily, if you suffer from alcoholic hepatitis, quitting alcohol for the rest of your life is the only way to reverse your liver damage and prevent your condition from worsening.

→ If you have an alcohol dependency, it may be dangerous for you to suddenly stop drinking entirely. Talk with your doctor about a recovery plan that’s tailored to your particular situation.

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→ Avoid supplements that contain iron if you have hemochromatosis. Because hemochromatosis causes your body to absorb excess iron from the food you eat, a key part of your treatment regimen will be to avoid taking in iron wherever possible. In addition to avoiding iron supplements, refrain from taking vitamin C supplements as well, as vitamin C also increases your body’s absorption of iron.

→ People with hemochromatosis are also particularly susceptible to infections caused by the bacteria in raw fish and shellfish. If you have hemochromatosis, avoid these food items as well.

→ Be sure to talk to your doctor about how to maintain a healthy, nutrient-rich diet while avoiding multivitamins and supplements that contain iron or vitamin C.

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→ Take safety precautions to avoid catching viral hepatitis. There are no lifestyle changes you can make to treat viral hepatitis, but there are several things you can do to avoid catching it from someone else. These include using a condom during sex, refraining from sharing needles, not using the personal items (e.g., a cell phone, a pencil, etc.) of someone infected with hepatitis, and practicing good personal hygiene.

→ Some easy ways to practice good hygiene include thoroughly washing your hands often and wearing disposable gloves when handling dirty materials.

→ It’s especially important to engage in this type of preventive care if you work or live somewhere there is extended contact with other people, such as a restaurant, a dormitory, a daycare, or a nursing home.

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→ Talk to your doctor about achieving a healthy weight if necessary. In addition to quitting alcohol, the best way to treat alcoholic hepatitis and non-fatty liver disease (NFLD) is ensuring that your weight is at a healthy level that doesn’t do damage to your liver. Your doctor will be able to tell you what a healthy weight is for your specific body type and to recommend a diet and exercise regimen to reach that weight if necessary.

→ In addition to losing weight, you may also need to change your diet so that your body is receiving the nutrients it needs to be healthy.

Method 3 - Treating Liver Disease with Medication and Surgery

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→ Undergo periodic blood removal to treat hemochromatosis. In this procedure, a needle is inserted into a vein in your arm to draw out the blood while you recline in a chair. You’ll probably undergo this procedure once or twice a week at first, until your blood iron levels return to normal. After that point, your blood will probably have to be removed every 2-4 months.

→ This treatment is known as phlebotomy and can be done either at a hospital or your doctor’s office.

→ Note that some people may not require bi-monthly blood removal at all, while others have to undergo the procedure every month. Your particular treatment plan will depend on how quickly iron tends to accumulate in your body.

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→ Take medications to reduce liver inflammation for alcoholic hepatitis. Your doctor will most likely prescribe you corticosteroids if you have severe alcoholic hepatitis. However, if you’re unable to take corticosteroids due to a separate health condition, you may be prescribed pentoxifylline, an anti-inflammatory medication that is effective in some (though not all) hepatitis cases.

→ You may not be able to take corticosteroids if you have failing kidneys, gastrointestinal bleeding, or an infection.

→ Note that long-term use of corticosteroids can result in serious side effects, including osteoporosis, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

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→ Use doctor-prescribed medicine to treat viral hepatitis. Chronic hepatitis B can usually be successfully treated with entecavir or tenofovir. An even wider variety of medications are used to treat hepatitis C, including simeprevir, daclatasvir, sofosbuvir, the combination of sofosbuvir and ledipasvir, and the combination of paritaprevir, ombitasvir, ritonavir, and dasabuvir.

→ Unfortunately, there are no treatments to cure hepatitis A.

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→ Ask your doctor about weight-loss surgery if you have NFLD. This option is normally reserved for patients who have to lose a great deal of weight or who struggle to lose weight on their own. However, studies indicate that this treatment method is usually quite effective at reducing liver damage caused by NFLD.

→ This type of surgery is also known as bariatric surgery.

TIPS

→ Your treatment plan will depend on the cause of your liver disease. Since there are so many different causes of liver disease, your treatment plan may look very different from someone else's. Your healthcare provider will work with you to figure out which lifestyle changes and medical treatments make sense for you.

Warnings

→ Liver disease can become a serious, life-threatening illness if left untreated. If you start to notice signs and symptoms of liver disease, seek medical treatment right away.