Inflamed Liver

The liver is the largest gland in our body, and is present in the upper right part of the abdominal cavity. This glandular organ has a vital role in several metabolic processes of the body. It prepares and secretes bile juice that facilitates absorption of the fats in the intestine, breaks down essential nutrients of the body, produces enzymes and proteins, destroys toxins and helps in detoxification of the body and many more functions are carried out by it. An inflammation is a condition that clearly indicates that the liver is not in a healthy state.

Inflamed Liver Causes
When the liver suffers some kind of damage, then its cells tend to get inflamed. There are several factors that can be responsible for this. They are as follows:

• One of the major cause behind this problem is viral attack on the liver. When liver gets inflamed due to viral infection, it is medically referred to as hepatitis. There are many different types of hepatitis virus. Among them, hepatitis A, B and C are the most commonly found viruses that trigger inflammation of the liver.
• Alcoholic hepatitis is another cause of inflamed liver. This affects those people who are into heavy drinking of alcohol for a long period of time. The metabolite of alcohol has a harmful effect on the liver cells.
• Liver can get inflamed due to side effects of some drugs. It can happen because of medicinal drugs as well as recreational drugs. The extent of damage to the liver caused by these drugs depend on their dosage and period of time they have been used.
• Those who are suffering from autoimmune disease may develop this condition if the overactive immune system destroy large number of liver cells by mistake. Other causes of inflamed liver is exposure to harmful chemicals, bacterial infections, poor diet, etc.

Inflamed Liver Symptoms
When the liver is inflamed for less than six months then it is considered as an acute condition whereas if it continues beyond six months then it is a chronic case. The liver has this unique quality that it can function normally even when it is in damaged condition. Therefore, in the very initial stage, no signs and symptoms are observed in these patients. They do not feel any discomfort for the inflaming liver. Some identifiable symptoms of acute stage of inflamed liver are:

• A mild localized pain in the upper right side of the abdomen.
• With further inflammation, one can feel the swelling at the right bottom area of the rib cage and is tender to touch.
• A constant sense of fullness that causes a lot of discomfort.
• Loss of appetite.
• Achy feeling in the muscles and body joints that last for several weeks.
• Unexplained weight loss. This happens as the patient lacks interest in eating.

In the later stage, when the liver problem deteriorates further, following symptoms are observed:

• Jaundice. It can be identified with symptoms like fever, dark urine, yellowing of the skin and the white part of the eyes.
• Abdominal pain and tenderness near the liver area. The soreness may get extended up to the right shoulder.
• Bloating and flatulence after eating fatty or fried foods.
• Change of fat levels in the blood.
• Weakness and fatigue. As a result, the patient feels sleepy all the time.

Inflamed Liver Treatment
The treatment for inflammation in the liver largely depends on the extent of damage caused to the liver cells. This can be ascertained with the help of liver function tests (LFTs). There is no medicine to treat acute form of viral hepatitis. One has to slow down the activities and make some dietary changes which will help the liver to regenerate the cells and heal up the damage on its own.

The diet has to be healthy and balanced but intake of fatty foods and processed foods should be minimum. One has to be extra careful about daily consumption of calories and it should not exceed beyond 3000 calories per day. Plenty of fruits and vegetables have to be included in the daily diet. These patients should always have freshly cooked food items only. Drinking of sufficient water is a must as it helps in flushing out the toxins from the system. Alcohol consumption should be stopped completely.

Antiviral medications are prescribed for the treatment of chronic cases of viral infections such as hepatitis B and hepatitis C. Milk thistle is a popular herbal tonic which is widely used to control the viral infection. It promotes the growth of the new liver cells and thus replace the damaged cells. It also prevent toxic substances from entering into healthy cells. If it is because of side effects of some medicinal drugs, then those medicines need to be changed after consultation with doctor.

Inflamed liver could be a serious issue if it is not given proper treatment on time. If it remains in the inflamed state for a long time, it can lead to death of liver cells. These scarred tissues will not be able to function normally and put extra workload on the healthy liver tissues. Moreover, growing number of scar tissues in liver can cause cirrhosis which is an irreversible damage to the liver.