HEPATITIS

HEPATITIS IS AN INFLAMMATION of the liver, which can be caused by a virus, alcohol, and some drugs. Some cases of hepatitis have no known cause. Viral hepatitis, also known as infectious hepatitis, will cause the following symptoms in its acute stage: You will feel very tired and listless. Your skin and the whites of your eyes will develop a yellowish tinge. You may feel nauseated and have no appetite, and if you are a smoker you will be put off cigarettes.

There are several types of viral hepatitis:

Hepatitis A is caused by a food-borne virus, found in contaminated shellfish, or food and water exposed to unsanitary conditions. Many people with hepatitis A have no symptoms, while others may experience flu-like symptoms including fever, headache, aching muscles, loss of appetite, nausea, and vomiting; they may develop jaundice.

After a person is exposed to the virus, during the asymptomatic incubation stage, hepatitis A is infectious for two weeks. The acute phase lasts for three to four weeks, and most patients recover without any lingering effects and without specific medical treatment. If you believe you’ve been infected with hepatitis A, your doctor may give you a shot of gamma globulin to enhance your immunity and decrease the severity of the infection. A vaccine is now available for hepatitis A, and you should consider it if you’re planning to travel through possible problem areas.

Hepatitis B is caused by a blood-borne virus, and transmitted sexually or through contaminated needles. Some 10 percent of patients with hepatitis B develop chronic hepatitis, which can cause severe damage to the liver. Pregnant women infected with hepatitis B risk passing on the infection to the fetus, with potentially fatal consequences. There is an effective vaccine for this virus, which is routinely given to health-care workers. For those who are not vaccinated, hepatitis B immune globulin can give temporary immunity if taken immediately after exposure. There is no cure for chronic hepatitis B. While interferon is used to fight hepatitis, no long-term studies on its effectiveness have been done. Some temporary improvement has been seen with the drug, but many patients’ liver function returns to the pretreatment state when the drug is stopped. The general recommendation for people who might be exposed to hepatitis B is to have the vaccine, which is given in three shots over eight months.

The following people are candidates for this vaccine:

• intravenous drug users
• health-care workers
• anyone living with someone infected with hepatitis B
• homosexual men who are sexually active
• heterosexuals who have multiple partners
• recipients of certain blood products
• children of immigrants from areas where hepatitis B is common, such as Southeast Asia
• infants born to infected women
• travelers who are going to spend six months or more in a region with a high incidence of the disease

Hepatitis C (which used to be called non-A, non-B hepatitis) is similar to type B, but is transmitted through blood transfusions or infected needles. Fortunately, since this virus has been identified, it has been screened out of blood used for transfusions. Recent studies on hepatitis C point to it as being the most common cause for chronic hepatitis; some people harbor the hepatitis C virus for twenty years. Some infected people have few symptoms while others experience all the symptoms typical of chronic hepatitis. Interferon is used to treat hepatitis C, but, as with hepatitis B, only a percentage of patients respond positively, and many relapse.

Most people who have infectious hepatitis are diagnosed by their doctors: They have obvious symptoms and are given a liver function test, which identifies their disease. But there are people who suffer from a type of hepatitis that is not infectious but from poor health habits. This virtually self-inflicted hepatitis is the type I see most frequently. People with this type may not have any symptoms; their hepatitis is discovered by a routine blood test and then a liver function test. I most commonly see this type of hepatitis in patients who drink alcohol regularly (some of them as little as two drinks a day), and who are generally run-down and have a poor diet. Occasionally, this hepatitis may develop from taking medication-large doses of aspirin and ibuprofen may prove toxic. Tylenol when combined with alcohol has been known to have extremely toxic effects on the liver. Long-acting niacin can also cause liver damage, mostly in large doses exceeding 2,000 mg. a day, though some people have been affected by as little as 500 mg. a day.

Whether you are being treated by your doctor for infectious hepatitis, or you have developed noninfectious hepatitis, you can help restore your liver to normal through natural means. Indeed, there is no drug treatment to cure hepatitis; antibiotics and other drugs are ineffective against the virus. The goal of treatment is to ease the symptoms and promote self-healing. The first step, of course, is to give up anything that may further damage the liver. This means all alcohol, including wine and beer, until liver functions have been restored to normal. Medications such as aspirin, ibuprofen, and Tylenol should kept to a minimum. Keep in mind that everything you eat and drink is processed through the liver, and that a high-fiber diet will help to eliminate bile acids and toxic substances from the system. Avoid fried food and animal fats, and keep saturated fats and simple carbohydrates to a minimum, as they place extra stress on the liver.

Exercise is a natural way to promote a healthy liver. An interesting study involving ten dogs showed the effects of exercise in minimizing fatty buildup in the liver. All the dogs were fed a diet rich in lard and cholesterol, and all ten were kept confined in small cages. But five of the dogs were exercised on a treadmill for one hour each day. By the end of the study, three of the unexercised dogs had died of liver disease, and two had fatty, cirrhotic livers. The exercised dogs, on the other hand, had essentially healthy livers, in spite of the high-fat diet.

Vitamin C is very helpful in improving hepatitis. It’s interesting to note that only 2 g. proved effective in preventing hepatitis B in hospitalized patients, who are vulnerable to the disease. While 7 percent of the control patients developed hepatitis B, none of the treated patients did.

Vitamin B12 and folic acid have been found somewhat helpful in shortening the recovery time of hepatitis. The B12 should be taken in tablet form dissolved under the tongue (which is how it’s best absorbed).

NATURAL TREATMENTS FOR HEPATITIS

• Eliminate all alcoholic beverages.
• Avoid animal fats and saturated fats and fried foods.
• Keep simple carbohydrates to a minimum.
• Eat a diet rich in complex carbohydrates.
• Establish a daily exercise routine.

IN ADDITION TO YOUR DAILY SUPPLEMENTS, TAKE:

• Vitamin C: 2 to 3 g. (2,000 to 3,000 mg.) daily.
• Vitamin B complex: 50 mg. daily.
• Vitamin B12: 1,000 meg. daily in tablet form dissolved under the tongue.
• Folic acid: 800 mcg. daily.

IN ADDITION: There’s an herb called silymarin, which is actually the common milk thistle, that is reported to be enormously helpful in fighting the effects of cirrhosis of the liver and particularly alcoholic cirrhosis. It is commonly used in Europe and is finally being studied in the United States. Catechine is another botanical that can be helpful. Both are available in health food stores. Discuss these treatments with your doctor.

People suffering from chronic infectious hepatitis may also be helped by thymic hormonal replacement, which has great potential for treating immune system diseases, from allergies to lupus, cancer, and AIDS. The thymus, a gland within the chest which is thought to control the immune system, is large in children but becomes atrophied around age twenty. A doctor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, found in controlled studies that 75 percent of his patients who were treated with thymosin injections were cleared of hepatitis B. A study is in progress to discover more about the effectiveness of thymus replacement.