by Ma. Teresa L. Ungson
HEPATITIS C is a liver disease. Hepatitis means inflammation of the liver. Inflammation is the painful, red swelling that results when tissues of the body become injured or infected. Inflammation can cause organs to not work properly.
The liver is an organ that does many important things. The liver removes harmful chemicals from your blood, fights infection, helps digest food, stores nutrients and vitamins, and stores energy. You cannot live without a liver.
The hepatitis C virus causes hepatitis C. Viruses are germs that can cause sickness. For example, the flu is caused by a virus. People can pass viruses to each other. So, who is vulnerable to hepatitis C virus? Anyone can get hepatitis C, but some people are at higher risk, including : (1) people who were born to a mother with hepatitis C, (2) people who have had more than one sex partner in the last 6 months or have a history of sexually transmitted disease, (3) people who had a blood transfusion or organ transplant before July 1992, (4) people with hemophilia who received blood products before 1987 and (5) people who have used illegal injection drugs
One can get hepatitis C through contact with an infected person’s blood. You could get hepatitis C from being born to a mother with hepatitis C, having sex with an infected person, being tattooed or pierced with unsterilized tools that were used on an infected person, getting an accidental needle stick with a needle that was used on an infected person, using an infected person’s razor or toothbrush, sharing drug needles with an infected person and by sharing drug needles with an infected person.
Most people have no symptoms until the virus causes liver damage, which can take 10 or more years to happen. Others have one or more of the following symptoms: yellowish eyes and skin, called jaundice, a longer than usual amount of time for bleeding to stop, swollen stomach or ankles, easy bruising, tiredness, upset stomach, fever, loss of appetite, diarrhea, light-colored stools, and dark yellow urine.
Hepatitis C is chronic when the body can’t get rid of the hepatitis C virus. Although some people clear the virus from their bodies in a few months, most hepatitis C infections become chronic. Without treatment, chronic hepatitis C can cause scarring of the liver, called cirrhosis; liver cancer; and liver failure.
Symptoms of liver cirrhosis include yellowish eyes and skin, called jaundice, a longer than usual amount of time for bleeding to stop, swollen stomach or ankles, tiredness, nausea, weakness, loss of appetite, weight loss, spider-like blood vessels, called spider angiomas, that develop on the skin
You can protect yourself and others from hepatitis C if you do not share drug needles, use another person’s toothbrush, razor, or anything else that could have blood on it, make sure any tattoos or body piercings you get are done with sterile tools, and do not donate blood or blood products if you have hepatitis C.
Coffee lovers here’s the latest good news on coffee and liver scarring due to hepatitis C. Caffeine in coffee reduces the severity of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus, a new study has found.
Liver fibrosis (scarring of the liver) is the second stage of liver disease during which liver function declines because of accumulated connective tissue.
The new U.S. National Institutes of Health study included 177 patients, mean age 51, whose daily consumption of caffeine from food and beverages was tracked for two years.
Patients who consumed more than 308 milligrams of caffeine from coffee per day had milder liver fibrosis than other patients. The daily amount of caffeine intake found to be beneficial is equivalent to 2.25 cups of regular coffee. For each 67-milligram increase in caffeine consumption (about one half cup of coffee), there was a 14% decrease in the odds of advanced fibrosis for patients with hepatitis C virus.
Other sources of caffeine — such as soft drinks, tea, caffeine-fortified drinks and caffeine pills — didn’t have the same helpful effect, according to the study published in the journal Hepatology.
The researchers said further research is needed to determine whether the protective effects of coffee/caffeine increase at levels beyond normal daily intake.
So, for now let’s celebrate coffee lovers! Here’s another scientific reason to enjoy a cup of coffee!
