Liver Diseases

Your liver is the largest organ inside your body. It is also one of the most important. The liver has many jobs, including changing food into energy and cleaning alcohol and poisons from the blood. Your liver also makes bile, a yellowish-green liquid that helps with digestion.

There are many kinds of liver diseases. Viruses cause some of them, like hepatitis A, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. Others can be the result of drugs, poisons or drinking too much alcohol. If the liver forms scar tissue because of an illness, it's called cirrhosis. Jaundice, or yellowing of the skin, can be one sign of liver disease.

Like other parts of your body, cancer can affect the liver. You could also inherit a liver disease such as hemochromatosis.

Alcoholic Liver Disease on Wikipedia

Alcoholic beverage is the major cause of liver disease in Western Countries. (In Asian countries viral hepatitis is the major cause).

Effects of alcohol

Fatty change

Fatty change is the accumulation of fat in hepatocyte which can be seen as fatty globules under the microscope. Alcoholism causes large fatty globules (macrovesicular steatosis). Small fatty globules have different causes. Other causes of macrovesicular steatosis include diabetes, obesity and starvation. Alcoholic fatty change is probably dose related.

Alcoholic hepatitis

Some people get an acute hepatitis or inflammatory reaction to the cells affected by fatty change. This is not directly related to the dose of alcohol. Some people seem more prone to this reaction than others. This is called alcoholic steatonecrosis and the inflammation probably predisposes to liver fibrosis.

Liver fibrosis

Liver fibrosis, in itself, is largely asymptomatic but as it progresses it can turn into cirrhosis, where the fibrosis alters the architecture and impairs the function of the liver. Fatty change and alcoholic hepatitis are probably reversible. The later stages of fibrosis and cirrhosis tend to be irreversible but can usually be quite well managed for long periods of time.

Cirrhosis

Cirrhosis is a late stage of liver disease marked by fibrosis and altered liver architecture. It is often progresses and may eventually lead to liver failure. Late complications of cirrhosis or liver failure include portal hypertension, coagulopathy, ascites and other complications including hepatic encephalopathy and the hepatorenal syndrome. Cirrhosis also has number of other causes, such as hepatitis and toxins. The late stages of cirrhosis (say from viral hepatitis or alcohol) may look similar. This phenomenon is termed a "final common pathway" for a disease. [ Read More ]

External Resources

NPR : Ray Charles, American Legend, Dies at 73 - American musical icon Ray Charles died of complications from liver disease today at his Beverly Hills home. In a career that lasted more than half a century, Charles defied categorization and brought his soulful stylings to jazz, pop, country and R&B. [8:20 Realaudio broadcast]

Robert Buck Memorial Scholarship Fund - The 10,000 Maniacs guitarist succumbed to liver disease on December 19, 2000 at the age of 42. To honor Rob's memory, the band has established a scholarship fund. Online donations accepted.

No Salt, Lowest Sodium Cookbook - For heart patients and those with liver, kidney, and other chronic diseases requiring a no salt diet.

Circle of Health, Inc. - Herbs for impotency, weight loss, chronic fatigue, liver or heart disease, and other common ailments.

Flexsite Diagnostics,Inc. - Source of diagnostic products for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, liver disease, and specific types of cancer.

Narratives of Liver Transplantation: Recipient Perspectives on the Quality of Life - An exploratory study into individual perceptions of end-stage liver disease and liver transplant with a special focus on Quality of Life concepts, including interviews with liver transplant recipients. Concludes that quality of life is best measured with respect to social norms.

StemCells, Inc. - Researches, develops, and markets cell-based therapies to treat diseases of the central nervous system, liver, and pancreas. (Nasdaq: STEM).

Imperial Cancer Research Fund: Liver Cancer - UK charity addresses prevention, diagnosis and treatment of this disease. Also provides details on fundraising.

USC Comprehensive Liver Cancer Center - Offers general information about the disease plus a profile of this Los Angeles, California institution and services.

Wilsons Disease Support Group UK - Support, outreach and information for people interested in Wilson's disease - an hereditary but treatable disorder caused by defective handling of copper in the body, mainly affecting the liver and brain.

Related Pages on HealthTales.com:

Liver Cancer
Liver Transplantation
Autoimmune Diseases
Bladder Diseases
Bone Diseases
Brain Diseases
Breast Diseases
Colonic Diseases
Digestive Diseases
Endocrine Diseases