Liver Cleanse

Preventing and Treating Liver Disease

Prevention is always the first alternative to any problem. Liver disease is no exception. Since everything we eat must pass through the liver, special attention to nutrition and diet can help keep you healthy.

Eat a well balanced, nutritionally adequate diet. Cut down on the amount of deep-fried and fatty foods consumed. Doctors believe that the risk of gallbladder disorders (including gallstones, a liver-related disease) can be reduced by avoiding high-fat and cholesterol foods. Increase your intake of high-fiber foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain breads, rice and cereals. A high-fiber diet is especially helpful in keeping you healthy. If you drink a lot cut down. If you have a drinking problem then you need to seek counceling or get deliverance.

There are a number of problems in the liver that can be treated with nonsurgical, interventional radiology techniques.

Portal Hypertension Seen most frequently in patients with liver disease such as cirrhosis or hepatitis, portal hypertension is a condition in which the normal flow of blood through the liver is slowed or blocked by scarring or other damage. Patients with the condition are at risk of internal bleeding or other life-threatening complications.

Interventional radiologists treat portal hypertension without surgery, using a procedure called TIPS (transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt). The doctor threads a thin tube (catheter) through a small incision in the skin near the neck and guides it to the blocked blood vessels in the liver. Under X-ray guidance, the doctor creates a tunnel in the liver through which the blocked blood can flow. The tunnel is held open by the insertion of a small metal cylinder, called a stent.

Bile Duct Obstruction In some patients, such as those with liver cancer or individuals who have had an injury to the liver, the bile ducts become blocked and bile cannot drain from the liver. The interventional radiologist places a thin tube (catheter) through the skin and into the bile ducts to drain the bile. In some cases, a small metal cylinder, called a stent, is placed in the liver to hold the blocked area open. A catheter may also be placed to drain bile in patients who have a hole in the bile ducts or as preparation for surgery on the bile ducts.

Chemoembolization is a palliative treatment for liver cancer. This can be a cancer originating in the liver or a cancer that has spread ("metastasized") to the liver from other areas in the body. During Chemoembolization, three chemotherapy drugs are injected directly into the artery that supplies blood to the tumor in the liver. The artery is then blocked off ("embolized") with a mixture of oil and tiny particles.

Some herbal remedies information has been circulated for years. one, milk thistle is said to revitalize the liver. Government studies on Milk Thistle have been inconclusive. A recent study reached the follow conclusion:
Clinical efficacy of milk thistle is not clearly established. Interpretation of the evidence is hampered by poor study methods and/or poor quality of reporting in publications. Problems in study design include heterogeneity in etiology and extent of liver disease, small sample sizes, and variation in formulation, dosing, and duration of milk thistle therapy. Possible benefit has been shown most frequently, but not consistently, for improvement in aminotransferases and liver function tests are overwhelmingly the most common outcome measure studied. Survival and other clinical outcome measures have been studied least often, with both positive and negative findings. Available evidence is not sufficient to suggest whether milk thistle may be more effective for some liver diseases than others or if effectiveness might be related to duration of therapy or chronicity and severity of liver disease. Regarding adverse effects, little evidence is available regarding causality, but available evidence does suggest that milk thistle is associated with few, and generally minor, adverse effects. Despite substantial in vitro and animal research, the mechanism of action of milk thistle is not fully defined and may be multifactorial. A systematic review of this evidence to clarify what is known and identify gaps in knowledge would be important to guide design of future studies of the mechanisms of milk thistle and clinical trials.

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