Hepatitis C is a liver disease brought on by the hepatitis C virus: the virus can lead to both acute and chronic hepatitis, ranging in severity from a mild illness lasting a few weeks to a serious, lifelong illness.
The hepatitis C virus is a bloodborne virus and the most common modes of infection are through exposure to small quantities of blood. This may happen through injection drug use, unsafe injection practices, unsafe health care, and the transfusion of unscreened blood and blood products.
All over the world, an estimated 71 million people have chronic hepatitis C infection.
A significant number of those who are chronically infected will develop cirrhosis or liver cancer.
Approximately 399 000 people die yearly from hepatitis C, mostly from cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.
Antiviral medicines can cure greater than 95% of persons with hepatitis C infection, thus reducing the possibility of death from liver cancer and cirrhosis, but availability to diagnosis and treatment is low.
There is at present no vaccine for hepatitis C; however research in this field is ongoing.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes both chronic and acute infection. Acute HCV infection is typically asymptomatic, and is only very hardly (if ever) related to life-threatening disease. About 15-- 45% of infected persons spontaneously clear the virus within 6 months of infection with no treatment.
The remaining 60-- 80% of persons will cultivate chronic HCV infection. Of those with chronic HCV infection, the risk of cirrhosis of the liver is between 15-- 30% within 20 years.
Your liver is your primary internal organ and your body's workhorse. Among its many jobs are converting food into fuel, processing fat from your blood, clearing harmful toxins, and making proteins that help your blood clot. This hard-working, supersized organ is susceptible to an often hard-to-diagnose and dangerous get more info health condition called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD.
Liver disease - Fatty Liver.
NAFLD is defined as the presence of fat in more than 5% of liver cells. It is the most prevalent liver disease and affects up to 25% of American adults, 60% of whom are men.
The disease raises your risk of heart disease and left untreated, NAFLD also can result in an inflamed liver, a condition called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
In fact, as many as 40% of people read more with NAFLD develop NASH. NASH can lead to scarring of the liver; severe scarring, called cirrhosis, increases your risk of liver cancer.
A growing problem.
Although drinking excessive alcohol can cause fat buildup in the liver, NAFLD affects people who consume little or no alcohol.
Instead, the main culprit is excess weight-- which causes extra fat to get stored in the liver-- and is related to dyslipidemia (abnormally high LDL cholesterol levels, low HDL levels, or both), high blood pressure, and diabetes.
Fatty Liver & Obesity
As the number of overweight people has increased, so too has the prevalence of NAFLD. "Much of this can be attributed to a frequent diet of more processed foods and high amounts of carbohydrates, as well as more sedentary lifestyles," says Dr. Kathleen Corey, director of the Fatty Liver Disease Clinic at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. She adds that some people with fatty livers have none of these risk factors, which suggests that genes can play an important role.
Eating healthier
Establishing healthy eating habits isn't as difficult or as restrictive as some people imagine. The crucial steps are to eat mostly foods derived from plants-- vegetables, fruits, whole grains and legumes (beans, peas, lentils)-- and limit highly processed foods. Begin on your healthy diet by following the links in this article.