The liver is an important organ located in your abdomen. It is the liver’s job to filter out harmful toxins in your bloodstream and process nutrients. When your liver is damaged, it tries to heal itself, and like many other organs, when it heals it forms scar tissue on the area that has been damaged. This scar tissue is inflexible, and when enough of it is present, it prevents the liver from performing its functions properly. Unfortunately, initial damage to the liver often goes undetected because the outward symptoms do not present themselves until the damage is extreme. When extensive scarring is present in the liver it is called cirrhosis. Advanced cirrhosis of the liver is a life threatening condition, and can require a liver transplant or lead to death.
Symptoms
Cirrhosis of the liver often goes undetected in its early stages because the symptoms don’t really appear until the disease has reached an advanced stage. Blood work can be done to detect irregular or elevated liver enzymes, but other than that, the outward symptoms may go unnoticed for a long time. Diagnosis can also be complicated because typical symptoms such as fatigue, weight loss, itching, confusion or pain in the stomach can be ignored or mistaken for signs of other illnesses. The symptoms that usually end up getting attention from the doctors are jaundice, which is characterized by a yellowing of the skin or eyes, nosebleeds that are constant and excessive, bruising and edema of the abdomen and legs.
Other telltale signs are when the palms turn red or when red spots and tiny lines on the skin appear. All of these symptoms are indications of the presence of toxins in the bloodstream, and usually lead to tests such as liver biopsies being performed to confirm that it’s cirrhosis.
Stages
Cirrhosis of the liver is a diagnosis that describes liver damage caused by a variety of things, including a high-
Stage 3 of cirrhosis of the liver is the first point at which you might notice symptoms, which are caused by increased blood pressure caused by the scarring in the liver. Finally, in the fourth stage, the fibrous tissue that has replaced healthy tissue in the liver’s structure prevents it from functioning properly and serious health issues begin to appear.
Diet
Although liver damage is not reversible, there are many things that can be done to improve the condition of patients suffering from cirrhosis of the liver. Alcohol must be avoided completely, and this is also true of high fat foods. A healthy diet of whole grains, fresh vegetables and fruits is particularly helpful, because damage to the liver prevents it from performing one of its vital functions, delivering nutrients to the body.
Because of a variety of complications that can take place in patients with cirrhosis of the liver, it is usually a good idea to cut back dramatically on sodium, stay away from too much animal protein, and eat multiple small meals rather than large meals. Many medications can exacerbate problems in the liver, so be sure to check with your doctor before taking anything without his knowledge.