If you don't want to risk yourself with liver diseases, change your behaviors now! Check out the symptoms and how to prevent.
“Liver” is the most important organ in the abdominal cavity. If neglected, you risk liver diseases, such as hepatitis, cirrhosis and fatty liver, which would cause abnormal symptoms and disorganize our body that could be life-threatening because the liver is responsible for producing bile which helps digest fatty foods and get rid of toxins. If you don't take good care of your "liver", you may have face liver failure and liver cancer. Importantly, when your liver starts to not function well, it usually does not show any symptoms, so we must keep an eye on our own symptoms whether there is a risk before it is too late. Especially, if you get sick, in addition to physical pain, you may also have to suffer from medical expenses. Don't wait any longer. Check out your risk behaviors, early symptoms of liver diseases and how to prevent it. Let’s explore now with Muang Thai Life Assurance.
- What causes liver diseases?
- Liver disease symptoms you should never ignore
- Foods that liver disease patients should avoid
- Tips for maintaining healthy liver
What causes liver diseases? Let’s find out!
Liver diseases can occur at all ages, and it was caused by abnormal liver functions which decreases its efficiency, such as efficiency in protein production, getting rid of toxins and blood flow through the liver. All of these cause the body's functioning system to fluctuate.
Causes of liver problems and liver diseases
- Grilled foods and foods high in fat, such as fried food, fatty foods, milk, butter, coconut milk, cheese, shrimp, crab eggs, and egg yolks: All the foods can cause high blood fat which accumulates in the liver, leading to fatty liver diseases, resulting in chronic hepatitis and eventually leading to liver cirrhosis.
- Drinking alcohol a lot regularly for a long period of time can cause the diseases the most: The alcohol can accumulate the fat to in the liver, leading to inflammation and fibrosis in the liver. When the liver is inflamed for a long time, it causes liver cirrhosis.
- Taking medicines and dietary supplements: When our body receives certain medicines continuously for a long time or in too high quantities, the liver may not be unable to get rid of it in time, so it may be remaining in our body, resulting in destroying the liver and having liver failure.
- Obesity: If there is too much fat accumulated in the abdominal cavity, the fat might accumulated in the liver, leading to fatty liver causing chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis.
- Frequent smoking or inhaling the smoke affects liver functions to work harder.
- Consuming too much sugar: Fructose in foods will harm the liver by accumulating fat in the liver until it becomes fatty liver disease.
- Chronic hepatitis B or C infection without being treated
Liver disease symptoms you should never ignore
Because a liver disease doesn’t show clear symptoms until the body can't take it anymore, so it is important to observe symptoms by yourself. If you get sick, the medical expenses can be also too much to take. Especially, if you have any risk behaviors, never ignore them. There are still some symptoms many people are worried about: itchiness caused by liver diseases, whether yellow eyes and swollen stomach are from liver diseases. To avoid confusion, let's look at the symptoms of liver diseases.
- Fatigue, not sleeping well, feeling sleepy during daytime, feeling tired easily, like without energy, nausea, loss of appetite, bloating, flatulence, and more frequent burping
- Women have irregular periods. Some men may experience enlarged breasts and pain in the breast. In some people, the testicles may atrophy, or they may have decreased sexual performance.
- Itchiness in body parts
- Yellow body, yellow eyes, similar to jaundice.
- Swelling, such as in stomach, back of the feet, arms, legs and abdomen
- For a wound, it would bleed more easily than normal and would not stop easily.
- If symptoms become severe, there may be vomiting of blood due to high pressure in the liver, causing high blood pressure in the esophagus.
- The body's immune system is weakened, resulting in being sick or infected more easily.
- Pain under the right ribcage or pain in the upper right abdomen which is the location of the liver.
- The corners of the mouth and lips are unusually dark. The tongue is dark purple. The edge of the tongue has a pressure mark of teeth.
- When severe, the breath may smell sweet. The patients may feel confused and mood swings. They may have twitching hands and feet and shaky hands.
Foods that liver disease patients should avoid
Foods or medicines that liver disease patients should avoid as they would cause even more harm to the liver. Let's find out now.
Foods that liver disease patients should avoid
- Undercooked seafood because seafood may be contaminated with germs, such as bacteria and hepatitis A virus: If infected, the poor immune system would be at more risk for severe infection.
- Liquor and all types of alcoholic beverages as they are toxic to the liver and increase the chance of fatty liver
- Foods that contain fat or high sugar: They increase the risk of fatty liver.
- Salt or salty food: Salt and foods high in sodium can cause edema and increase the risk of abdominal edema.
- Food contaminated with toxins, such as peanuts contaminated with aflatoxin, as it may increase the risk of liver cancer. Some types of poisonous mushrooms also increase the risk of severe hepatitis and liver failure.
Medicines that liver disease patients should avoid
The medicines are dietary supplements and herbs. Taking more medicine than necessary can cause the liver to work harder all the time, resulting in hepatitis. Some herbs may affect liver function, so, before taking medicine, dietary supplements, or herbs, you should consult your doctor first to check that they are safe and not harmful to the liver.
Tips for maintaining healthy liver
Keep your liver healthy to live your life confidently as the liver is the starting point for eliminating waste from our body. If you don't take good care of your liver, your body may fluctuate, and it may lead to many other diseases, such as cirrhosis or liver cancer. Let's check out how to take care of your liver.
- Refrain from drinking alcohol.
- Stop smoking.
- Do not eat raw food, especially pork, seafood, fermented fish, and uncooked freshwater fish.
- Unprotected sexual intercourse
- Tattooing or using unclean needles
- Avoid eating old food, processed food or seasoned food
- Avoid drug use without indication or avoid buying medicines on your own discretion as some medicines may have side effects on the liver.
- Exercise regularly.
- Control your weight to not get obese.
- Get vaccinated against hepatitis A and B.
Liver diseases show no symptoms, so it may get worse before you even know it. Therefore, if you are at risk, change your behaviors now. If you ignore it, the sickness does not only shock you and your family, without insurance plan, medical expenses can also be a problem. Therefore, we should take care of our health, and you should have health insurance before it’s too late. No worries about the medical expenses.
Boost your confidence with lump sum health insurance to take care of medical expenses for both common diseases and critical illnesses with a chosen amount ranging from 200,000 Baht to 100,000,000 Baht, covering heart disease, cancer, common diseases and modern treatment technology. The entry age is until the age of 90 years* with long-term coverage period until the age of 99 years.*
Purchase today to enjoy 0% interest installments for up to 6 months or get cashback up to 13%.
More information
☑️ Call Tel. 1766, available 24/7.
☑️ Contact life insurance agent or Kasikornbank and Land and Houses Bank branches.
- Coverage period of the rider must not exceed the coverage period of the life insurance policy that this rider is attached to.
- Premium is eligible for tax deduction. Conditions are as specified by the Revenue Department.
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Resources: Data retrieved on 01/09/2023
🔖 Siriraj Piyamahakarun Hospital
🔖 Chulalongkorn Hospital, Thai Red Cross Society