Description: hepatitis is a viral infection of the liver. There are a number of different viruses whose names are identified by a different letter. Hepatitis A is caught through eating or drinking food with viral faecal contamination. Most other types of hepatitis such as B,C,D,E,F and G are transmitted by blood or blood products through needles, tattoos, cuts or sometimes unprotected sexual intercourse. Acute hepatitis is a very serious disease with liver failure of varying degrees. After the patient has recovered chronic hepatic disease can lead onto cirrhosis or even liver cancer. Excess alcohol can also cause hepatitis and cirrhosis.
What your doctor can do
Provide you with protection a with hepatitis vaccine before going into countries where hepatitis is a risk.
In acute hepatitis there is no effective treatment, but with time most patients recover.
Chronic hepatitis may be helped by a number of drugs such as interferon alpha, lamivudine or steroids. These may reduce the inflammation and may lower the risk of subsequent cirrhosis or cancer.
What you can do
Lifestyle
- Avoiding hepatitis is by far the best, so make sure you are vaccinated if going to at-risk areas. Only drink bottled water and do not use any ice; eat only freshly cooked vegetables and avoid salads. Handwashing, handwashing and handwashing. Demand non reusable needles and intravenous tubing sets. Always use a condom during sexual intercourse.
- If you have contracted hepatitis, don’t overstress the liver. Avoid toxins, poisons and preservatives which rely on the liver for their detoxification before they can be excreted. Eat organic, non-fatty and simple food.
- Some people believe that high doses of intravenous vitamin C (30–45 grams) can damage the virus and be beneficial in both the acute and chronic phases of the disease.
Nutritional supplements
Because the liver may not be functioning well, these are especially important:
- A good multivitamin/multimineral makes sure that the liver and the immune system have all the nutrients and minerals required to function perfectly. These contain the nutrients the liver needs to detoxify and change potentially damaging materials in the body to less harmful ones.
- Grape seed extract (proanthocyanidins) is a powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent. In the detoxification process many free radicals are produced, and proanthocyanidins help neutralise these before they cause damage.
- Coenzyme Q10 is an anti-inflammatory supplement; it also provides additional energy. Dosages of 30–100mg/day help the liver cells to work.
- Fibre supplements and probiotics can help the bowel cleanse the system
- Specific compounds can also help the liver work and heal, in addition to those found in a good multi-tablet: tri methyl glycine (Betane), selenium, glutathione, dietary flavanoids – green tea extract, curcumin, indole 3 carbinol, sulfapyrone, milk thistle.
- Some good supplement tablets contain all of these, and they should be used by people who have had hepatitis and/or hepatic damage.
The Nutritional supplements I use and recommend to my patients
For Hepatitis patients – USANA – Cellsentials *, Biomega, Active Calcium plus, Hepacil, Proflavanol C, Fibergy and probiotics –
Curcumin (tumeric) – Curcugel in NZ obtain from John Appleton
Other therapies
There are a number of other therapies which you might like to look at. They have not been specifically included with this disease because some are a form of treatment which is applicable to most diseases and many focus on the mind, body, spirit, and the universe.
These include - acupuncture, Ayurvedic medicine, energy healing, homeopathy, naturopathy, prayer, visualisation and some people with this condition might like to look at these topics (I have described them more fully on another page on this website click here .)
With my personal experience and reading, I do not think that I can comment of whether one or a number of these might help. They fit well with most conventional and complementary treatments and I suspect some or even all of them can be extremely powerful - if performed by an experienced practitioner. My only caveat is that if in the course of one of these therapies, you are given potions or herbs, do check with your health practitioner that they will not interfere with other treatments or drugs you are receiving.
Nutritional supplements
I believe in today's world that nutritional supplements are so necessary as to be an essential component of any form of both prevention and treatment. Not only is today's food lacking in nutrients because of the way it was grown and processed, but also most of us make the wrong choices in diet. It is virtually impossible to obtain optimal levels of most of the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients although many people try to do so, and even then fresh produce is not available all year round. *There are many quality supplements available on the market, including –Thorne, NFS, Douglas Labs, Xtend Life, True Star Health, USANA, and Metagenics. There are others, but do your due diligence before choosing one. USANA Health Sciences has added a new adjunct to its multivitamin and multi mineral called CellSentials. These are a patented blend of phyto-nutrients which they believe affects cell signaling and growth, and increases the production of preventative antioxidants within the cell. These should add to the value of the multi, so these are the multivitamin/mineral preparation I recommend.