“There is little wonder that for many people the ‘C’ is hepatitis C has come to stand for confusion.” It was a CDC report claiming that 25% with the hepatitis C virus, will clear it, while a much greater percentage, 75%, will develop a longterm infection, that sparked some thoughts within me:
Why is it that some can clear this lethal virus while a much larger number cannot?
Can these odds be shifted to favor the first group?
What factors may be contributing to the weightiness of the unsuccessful clearers?
Can lifestyle modifications…
WHAT IS HEPATITS C
Hepatitis C is a “…viral infection that causes inflammation, injury, and ultimately scarring of the liver.” A virus gaining access to reap harm via blood-to-blood exchanges:
Blood Transfusions
(Sharing) Needles
Tattoos
Etc…
…wields an interesting dilemma: “Some lucky people apparently do fight off HCV on their own, as many as 15-45%; others may respond to interferon and clear the virus.” Below is a look at how a virus gets from Point A, the external environment, to Point B, within our very own bodies…
YOUR LIVER
“Imagine a machine that converts food into energy; stores nutrients, fats, and vitamins; makes proteins for blood plasma; and detoxifies poisons. Your liver does all this and more—much more.”
Essentially, your liver is a chemical factory with many intricate and very important functions, all of which support life and help maintain a balance within…
Stores Nutrients
Carbohydrates are stored as glycogen until needed.
“…you don’t have to eat carbohydrates all day long.”
“Some of the fats you eat build new cells.”
Extras are sent into circulation and stored as adipose (fat).
Proteins are made by the liver.
Clotting
Transport fat & nutrients
Control hormone levels
Maintain blood volume in arteries and veins (Albumin)
Your liver is also the largest depot of your body’s blood supply, a crucial factor since nutrients, as listed above, need a medium (blood) to carry their sustenance to every colony of cells living off the terrain of your body.
One of the most unique features attributed to your liver is that “…most people can lose three quarters of their liver without any change in function or development of symptoms.” “And it’s the only internal organ that regenerates itself.” From a personal standpoint, I find these fun factoids to be exciting, but slightly misleading too.
LIVERS & LIZARDS
So our liver is a lizard’s tail, and no matter how many swoops of a child’s incoming net, each lopped off tail represents…? I feel it represents our body’s adept ability to adapt, but I also feel that many may feel that this is a 100% guarantee with a lifetime warranty. A lizard’s tail functions to help a lizard navigate throughout its environment and when a child lops it off, shedding a smirk out of pure wonder and awe as the de-bodied tail continues to squirm, this lizard is left to adapt without an integral part of its navigational system.
Two dilemmas arise now:
Impaired Navigation
What happens when another child swoops in for the prized catch?
The second is where I seek to explain some of the misleading-ness behind an adapting liver. When those additional children do swoop in for a catch, and they surely will, they are not centering in on a target with a tail, they are centering in on a smaller and much more vulnerable target and thus the reorienting of their approach. Long story short, a liver, a lizard, whatever it is, if you kick it while it is down, something else is likely to get lopped off.
NUTRITION
“I encourage patients” to eat healthier while avoiding crash diets and food fads, all of which can be exceedingly tempting, but all lacking on delivery (Gregory).
The Liver’s Job:
Metabolize carbohydrates, proteins, and fats for energy.
Assimilate and store vitamins.
Making bile
Aids in the digestion and absorption of fats.
Filters and destroys toxins
“The immune system in the liver protects against infections or toxins, but also, in certain diseases, causes liver injury.”
DIETARY ADVICE
There are many personal accounts within this text and one point that came across rather strongly: Switching to more fruits, vegetables, nuts, and complex carbs improved the overall health of many. Below are some additional areas of interest in concern to dietary advice with hepatitis C.
Fat
A diet low in fat, particularly saturated fat.
Protein Restriction
Only for those with cirrhosis and encephalopathy (mental confusion).
Herbal Therapies
No studies to back them up & the herbal industry is unregulated, thus potentially dangerous.
Gregory provides a rather lengthy list of herbal supplements documented, by the FDA, to cause liver problems. Here are a few of those listed:
Ephedra
Chaparral
Comfrey
Germander
Vitamin A
Niacin
Alcohol Abuse
Taxes the body and depletes it of its vitamins, especially thiamine and folate.
Cirrhosis Advice
Smaller and more spread out meals, rather than the traditional two big ones.
Low protein, but enough to sustain muscle.
Mineral Deficiencies
Calcium, Magnesium, and Zinc
Salt Restriction
“…driving force behind the accumulation of fluid is the excessive retention of salt.”
CHOLESTEROL
Cholesterol is made by several cells within our bodies, but “when too much cholesterol accumulates, cells may alter their functions and even die.” Excessive cholesterol is how atherosclerosis and gallstones can become impediments to our health. We can prevent this though, if and only if we are willing to “eliminate excess cholesterol.” Read more about the damaging effects of excessive cholesterol and how to reduce it, here.
Your liver takes this cholesterol and metabolizes it into bile acid. Bile acid is then secreted in the bile and removed from the body. It is the bile that aids in absorbing fat and fat soluble vitamins.
BILLIRUBIN
As mentioned in my diabetes article, the complete lifecycle of a red blood cell is about 120 days. This factor is also highly dependent on the health of the blood cells, a major reason why the A1C test for diabetes is a debatable diagnostic solution. At the end of their lives, red blood cells downgrade into a yellow pigment, a pigment which is then excreted via the liver into the bile. Unlike bile, this pigment has not been shown to have any digestive functions.
If this cascade of events is halted or disrupted by any means, this pigment can accumulate to dangerous levels within the body. A downgrade in health itself, this will eventually result in:
Jaundice—Yellow pigmentation of the skin and the whites of the eyes.
Dark Urine—Being primarily excreted via the kidneys.
Light-colored Feces—Lacking its conversion to stercobilin.
KIDNEYS
Glomerulonephritis, an acute inflammation of the kidneys can result from excess protein, immune complexes, and tissue damage, all of which overloads and overworks the kidneys.
EMOTIONAL WELLBEING
“Physical cure may be years away,” and this is why “we need to shift to healing—a balance and wholeness of mind, body, and spirit.”
Group Therapy—Studies confirm that individuals can live longer when they participate.
Physical Movement—Strengthens the body and improves emotional state.
Visualization, Meditation, Relaxation—Provides a relaxed alertness that can counteract stress.
CONCLUSION
Primary liver cancer with hepatitis C is clearly on the rise, just as our beliefs that we can fix this problem with some new and improved technological ingenuity. These convictions fall way short though, let me take a moment to give you a brilliant example. One of these technological ingenuities used by those caring for and even those looking to cure, is interferon therapy.
This therapy was splashed around while I was in nursing school, only coming up briefly in our texts or out of the mouths of our professors. From a personal standpoint, I thought of it as just another technological creation, and don’t get me wrong, it is. But it is also something a little more too…
Medicine is intriguing in that it is our way of trying to externally replicate an internal task. Remember when I mentioned that 25% who could successfully clear this virus? A key part to that is likely the action of interferons. It is our external replication of this activity that has helped treat many of those afflicted with hepatitis C, but it also the failure of this very same mechanism that has lead to the spread of this virus.
Interferon is a substance released by cells that have become virally infected. Its purpose serves to protect the uninfected cells by preventing the infection from spreading to them too—it interferes. We can naturally defend ourselves from viruses because we have a built-in defense system to handle this, yet we seek further assistance. The importance of this external assistance should not be downplayed, but our reliance upon it should. We are devoting too much time and too much effort to treatment protocols, rather than scratching item number one off the list and seeking a naturally preventative path.
It is downright obvious about the liver’s integral function within our bodies, but less obvious, is how we can promote optimal performance around the modern lifestyle.
Do you have or do you know anyone with Hepatitis C?
Hepatitis C: A Lizard’s Tale
After Reading: Living with Hepatitis C, Fifth Edition: A Survivor’s Guide By Gregory T. Everson, M.D., F.A.C.P.
“There is little wonder that for many people the ‘C’ is hepatitis C has come to stand for confusion.” It was a CDC report claiming that 25% with the hepatitis C virus, will clear it, while a much greater percentage, 75%, will develop a longterm infection, that sparked some thoughts within me:
Why is it that some can clear this lethal virus while a much larger number cannot?
Can these odds be shifted to favor the first group?
What factors may be contributing to the weightiness of the unsuccessful clearers?
Can lifestyle modifications…
WHAT IS HEPATITS C
Hepatitis C is a “…viral infection that causes inflammation, injury, and ultimately scarring of the liver.” A virus gaining access to reap harm via blood-to-blood exchanges:
…wields an interesting dilemma: “Some lucky people apparently do fight off HCV on their own, as many as 15-45%; others may respond to interferon and clear the virus.” Below is a look at how a virus gets from Point A, the external environment, to Point B, within our very own bodies…
YOUR LIVER
“Imagine a machine that converts food into energy; stores nutrients, fats, and vitamins; makes proteins for blood plasma; and detoxifies poisons. Your liver does all this and more—much more.”
Essentially, your liver is a chemical factory with many intricate and very important functions, all of which support life and help maintain a balance within…
Your liver is also the largest depot of your body’s blood supply, a crucial factor since nutrients, as listed above, need a medium (blood) to carry their sustenance to every colony of cells living off the terrain of your body.
One of the most unique features attributed to your liver is that “…most people can lose three quarters of their liver without any change in function or development of symptoms.” “And it’s the only internal organ that regenerates itself.” From a personal standpoint, I find these fun factoids to be exciting, but slightly misleading too.
LIVERS & LIZARDS
So our liver is a lizard’s tail, and no matter how many swoops of a child’s incoming net, each lopped off tail represents…? I feel it represents our body’s adept ability to adapt, but I also feel that many may feel that this is a 100% guarantee with a lifetime warranty. A lizard’s tail functions to help a lizard navigate throughout its environment and when a child lops it off, shedding a smirk out of pure wonder and awe as the de-bodied tail continues to squirm, this lizard is left to adapt without an integral part of its navigational system.
Two dilemmas arise now:
The second is where I seek to explain some of the misleading-ness behind an adapting liver. When those additional children do swoop in for a catch, and they surely will, they are not centering in on a target with a tail, they are centering in on a smaller and much more vulnerable target and thus the reorienting of their approach. Long story short, a liver, a lizard, whatever it is, if you kick it while it is down, something else is likely to get lopped off.
NUTRITION
“I encourage patients” to eat healthier while avoiding crash diets and food fads, all of which can be exceedingly tempting, but all lacking on delivery (Gregory).
The Liver’s Job:
DIETARY ADVICE
There are many personal accounts within this text and one point that came across rather strongly: Switching to more fruits, vegetables, nuts, and complex carbs improved the overall health of many. Below are some additional areas of interest in concern to dietary advice with hepatitis C.
CHOLESTEROL
Cholesterol is made by several cells within our bodies, but “when too much cholesterol accumulates, cells may alter their functions and even die.” Excessive cholesterol is how atherosclerosis and gallstones can become impediments to our health. We can prevent this though, if and only if we are willing to “eliminate excess cholesterol.” Read more about the damaging effects of excessive cholesterol and how to reduce it, here.
Your liver takes this cholesterol and metabolizes it into bile acid. Bile acid is then secreted in the bile and removed from the body. It is the bile that aids in absorbing fat and fat soluble vitamins.
BILLIRUBIN
As mentioned in my diabetes article, the complete lifecycle of a red blood cell is about 120 days. This factor is also highly dependent on the health of the blood cells, a major reason why the A1C test for diabetes is a debatable diagnostic solution. At the end of their lives, red blood cells downgrade into a yellow pigment, a pigment which is then excreted via the liver into the bile. Unlike bile, this pigment has not been shown to have any digestive functions.
If this cascade of events is halted or disrupted by any means, this pigment can accumulate to dangerous levels within the body. A downgrade in health itself, this will eventually result in:
KIDNEYS
Glomerulonephritis, an acute inflammation of the kidneys can result from excess protein, immune complexes, and tissue damage, all of which overloads and overworks the kidneys.
EMOTIONAL WELLBEING
“Physical cure may be years away,” and this is why “we need to shift to healing—a balance and wholeness of mind, body, and spirit.”
CONCLUSION
Primary liver cancer with hepatitis C is clearly on the rise, just as our beliefs that we can fix this problem with some new and improved technological ingenuity. These convictions fall way short though, let me take a moment to give you a brilliant example. One of these technological ingenuities used by those caring for and even those looking to cure, is interferon therapy.
This therapy was splashed around while I was in nursing school, only coming up briefly in our texts or out of the mouths of our professors. From a personal standpoint, I thought of it as just another technological creation, and don’t get me wrong, it is. But it is also something a little more too…
Medicine is intriguing in that it is our way of trying to externally replicate an internal task. Remember when I mentioned that 25% who could successfully clear this virus? A key part to that is likely the action of interferons. It is our external replication of this activity that has helped treat many of those afflicted with hepatitis C, but it also the failure of this very same mechanism that has lead to the spread of this virus.
Interferon is a substance released by cells that have become virally infected. Its purpose serves to protect the uninfected cells by preventing the infection from spreading to them too—it interferes. We can naturally defend ourselves from viruses because we have a built-in defense system to handle this, yet we seek further assistance. The importance of this external assistance should not be downplayed, but our reliance upon it should. We are devoting too much time and too much effort to treatment protocols, rather than scratching item number one off the list and seeking a naturally preventative path.
It is downright obvious about the liver’s integral function within our bodies, but less obvious, is how we can promote optimal performance around the modern lifestyle.
Do you have or do you know anyone with Hepatitis C?
What lifestyle modifications have helped you?
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