How Cirrhosis Affect Your Health

The worst state of liver disease is cancer, which was led by liver cirrhosis before it occurs. Cirrhosis causes more damage than people can realise. One of the most dangerous things about liver cirrhosis is how it damaged the liver and gradually turns into cancer, which the disease occurs when the liver reaches the worsening phase without any treatment to delay it. 

What is Cirrhosis

Cirrhosis is one of the liver diseases caused by many reasons and it can be developed into liver cancer in the future. The hardest thing for the patient is to recognise that they already have cirrhosis. The signs of cirrhosis are barely shown, especially when it is in the early stage, which makes it too late for the inhibit. When it fully turns itself into cirrhosis, it may already cause damage to the liver by more than 80%.  

Types of Cirrhosis

Normally, liver cirrhosis is caused by continued heavy drinking, the excessive amount of fat level in the liver and the infection from hepatitis b, c and d. It can be summarised that cirrhosis is caused by a damaged liver that cannot be healed by itself anymore and continually be damaged until it scarred too much.

Alcoholic Cirrhosis

Heavy alcohol drinking is the cause of alcoholic cirrhosis. continued drinking or excessive alcohol consumption that the body cannot fully cope with is the initial point of this liver disease. The liver will start to not work efficiently because of it and alcoholic cirrhosis can lead to liver failure.

Primary Biliary Cirrhosis

Primary biliary cirrhosis is one of the most complex and enigmatic liver diseases. This cirrhosis disease or PBC is caused by the confusion of the immune system, which leads to the bile duct being attacked. The liver will be injured by the bile that spilt out and it will be damaged from it. This confusion of the immune system causes cirrhosis in the end.   

Decompensated Cirrhosis

The decompensated cirrhosis can be described as the almost liver failure state.  Decompensated cirrhosis means that it already reaches a dangerous state and symptoms will be shown through the swelling abdominal parts and jaundice. This type of cirrhosis is caused by heavy drinking habits, the infection from hepatitis and too much fatty storage in the liver.

Cirrhosis Symptoms

As it is mentioned before, cirrhosis will show its symptoms only when they already reach the late phase and severe. The liver might be worsened and illustrate the signs throughout the body of the patients.

1. The patient will nausea, fatigue and lost appetite.
2. The body of the patient will turn yellowish, as it is because of jaundice. 
3. Weight loss will occur, at the same time, the abdomen parts and legs will swell up. It can be ascites that caused the swelling. 
4. The skin of the patient will easily be bruised or bleed. There might be itchy and the palm skin will show redness, also spider-like blood vessels will occur on the patient skin too. 
5. The male patient will encounter the loss of sex drive and breast enlargement caused by cirrhosis. For the female patient, the period cycle will be abnormal or maybe reach the state of loss period.  

Cirrhosis Stages

Cirrhosis can be divided into 4 stages: Steatosis, Fibrosis, Cirrhosis and Liver failure.

1. Steatosis: This is the first phase of liver cirrhosis. There will be inflammation and it can still be cured. However, the longer you leave it like this, the more damage will affect the liver. 
2. Fibrosis: This is the second phase of damaged liver. Fibrosis is caused by damage that happens to the liver, the scars that leave there will become fibrosis. The tissue of the liver will be damaged and will not fully function. 
3. Cirrhosis: This phase can be called the fatal phase, the patient whose liver encounters this cirrhosis can be assumed that they have too many scars on their liver. The liver will not fully function as it was and it nearly reaches liver failure. 
4. Liver failure: This is the lethal phase for patients who encounters cirrhosis. The treatment or any method to delay cirrhosis will be the most important thing for the patient to be concerned about.

How can Cirrhosis be Diagnosed

For diagnosing liver cirrhosis, they can be performed through these 3 methods.

1. The first method is to test by blood, the result will reveal the health condition of the patient including how the organs function. 
2. The next one is the scanning test. Ultrasound technology will be used to examine the condition and the injuries that occur in the liver. This method is called fibro scan, which uses a transient elastography scan to detect abnormalities. 
3. The last method will be directly examined by using tissue sampling. The physician will insert the needle to pick up the tissue for checking the condition of the liver. 

Cirrhosis Conclusion

Cirrhosis is needed to be a concern. Liver cirrhosis gradually develops in the liver of the patient without showing any abnormalities that can be considered symptoms. Not until it becomes a late state that can lead to liver cancer or liver failure, which might be too late and the liver might also damage by more than 80%. The best thing is to prevent it first, by fixing the drinking habit and starting to concern more about health. Consulting with the physician is a must for some patients who have congenital diseases.