Beware of these 10 things that can cause liver disease
The liver is the most generous internal organ of the body and is involved in more than 500 different functions including digestion, metabolism, nutrients storage and toxins removal. There can be many things and health conditions that can unknowingly cause liver damage.
Routine habits like eating junk food, smoking, self-medication, Loss of appetite, vomiting, nausea and work-related stress are a few common symptoms of liver damage. Many times we get confused and mistake these symptoms for indigestion, thus liver damage can go unnoticed. Though, there’s a way to retract certain consequences and protect your liver from various health complexities. We should aware of a few things that can damage the liver.
10 things that cause liver damage
- Alcohol: Alcohol is bad for your liver. When you intake alcohol, the liver gets distracted from its other functions and concentrates to convert alcohol to a less toxic form. Ingestion of alcohol by the liver causes fatty liver disease, inflammation of the liver and cirrhosis.
- Obesity: Obese people have excess body fat which tends to gather around the liver, and one of the reasons for fatty liver disease. Obesity is also connected to cirrhosis of liver and liver failure.
- Diabetes: Diabetes increases liver disease risk by 50 percent. People with diabetes due to insulin resistance have high levels of insulin in their blood. It triggers abdominal weight gain. By this liver stores the fat internally, causing fatty liver disease.
- High salt intake: Intake of salt in high amount increases blood pressure. It also causes fatty liver disease by building up fluid in the liver.
- Smoking: Harmful chemicals in cigarette smoke increase the oxidative pressure of the system after reaching the liver, it causes irreversible damage to the liver cells.
- Overuse of Medications: Overuse of medicines can cause liver damage.
- Nutritional supplements: Excess amounts of dietary or nutritional supplements can increase the production of several liver enzymes which can damage the liver.
- Inappropriate use of alternative medicines: Allopathy medicines as well as herbal medicines can cause liver disease if taken in excessive amounts.
- Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy may be one of the reasons for damaging the livers because of the drugs associated with the treatment.
- Infections and Illness: Viral hepatitis A, B and C and autoimmune hepatitis attack the liver cells directly causing inflammation. It can cause cirrhosis of the liver without proper treatment and may gradually lead to liver failure.
For more information, you can directly visit Dr. Swapnil Sharma – Liver Transplant Surgeon in Mumbai.