Chronic liver disease
Chronic liver disease in the clinical context is a disease process of the liver that involves a process of progressive destruction and regeneration of the liver parenchyma leading to fibrosis and cirrhosis.
Causes
The list of conditions associated with chronic liver disease is extensive and can be categorized in the following way:
Viral causes
- Hepatitis B
- Hepatitis C
Cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein Barr virus (EBV), and yellow fever viruses cause acute hepatitis.
Toxic and drugs
- Alcoholic liver disease
- Rarely drug induced liver diseasefrom methotrexate, amiodarone, nitrofurantoin and others
Paracetamol (acetaminophen) causes acute liver damage.
Metabolic
- Non-alcoholic fatty
- Primary biliary cirrhosis(also known as primary biliary cholangitis)
- Primary sclerosing cholangitis
Other
- Right heart failure
Complications of chronic liver disease
- Portal hypertension
- Ascites
- Hypersplenism(with or without splenomegaly)
- Lower oesophageal varicesand rectal varices
- Synthetic dysfunction
- Hypoalbuminaemia
- Coagulopathy
- Hepatopulmonary syndrome
- Hepatorenal syndrome
- Encephalopathy
- Hepatocellular carcinoma
Symptoms
Signs and symptoms of liver disease include:
- Skin and eyes that appear yellowish (jaundice)
- Abdominal pain and swelling
- Swelling in the legs and ankles
- Itchy skin
- Dark urine color
- Pale stool color, or bloody or tar-colored stool
- Chronic fatigue
- Nausea or vomiting
- Loss of appetite
- Tendency to bruise easily
Risk factors
Factors that may increase your risk of liver disease include:
- Heavy alcohol use
- Injecting drugs using shared needles
- Tattoos or body piercings
- Blood transfusion before 1992
- Exposure to other people’s blood and body fluids
- Unprotected sex
- Exposure to certain chemicals or toxins
- Diabetes
- Obesity
- High levels of triglycerides in your blood
Homoeopathic Treatment
- Homeopathic medicinestreat the underlying cause of Liver disease, such as viral infection, genetic tendency, bad effects of alcohol, metabolic changes, etc. and thus help to treat Liver disease.
- Homeopathy helps to control further cellular damage. It cannot cure the scarred tissues, as such, as it is not possible to regenerate scarred tissues.
- When introduced at an early stage of liver disease, homeopathic medicines can effectively reduce the viral count (in Hepatitis caused by HBV and HCV) as well as give symptomatic relief without side effects.
- Homeopathic medications can prevent the progress of liver disease.