Varanasi Hospital

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9 Tips For A Healthy Liver

The best way to fight liver disease is to avoid it, if at all possible. A healthy liver will save you from many diseases and disorders. Liver disease can be avoided by following some rules in your life. If you follow them, you can keep your liver healthy. So here we present 9 tips that you can build your routine.

1. Limit your alcohol intake:

Our liver can only process or break down a small amount of alcohol every hour. Beyond this, it can damage the liver cells and lead to inflammation and scarring.

For this reason, men should limit their alcohol intake to two standard drinks a day while women should only have one.

2. Have a balanced and healthy diet:

High levels of fat in the blood and high levels of cholesterol are common causes of fatty liver disease. Reducing the number of saturated fats, transfats and hydrogenated fats in your diet will help you to keep your liver healthy.

Eat more high-fibre foods such as fruits and vegetables and whole grains. For proteins, choose more fish, white meat, beans and nuts and cut down on red meat.

3. Check your body weight:

Obesity, particularly, abdominal or central obesity, is a major risk factor for developing the fatty liver disease. Together with a balanced diet and regular exercise, a healthy weight can be achieved and maintained.

4. Get vaccinated:

There are vaccines for hepatitis A and hepatitis B. Unfortunately, there’s no vaccine against the hepatitis C virus.

5. Be careful with traditional medicine:

Some of these traditional medicines or remedies contain heavy metals or unknown toxins. They can cause toxicity in the liver or they can stress and affect the regular functioning of your liver. Traditional medicine may cause liver inflammation and can lead to irreparable liver damage or even failure. It is wise to consult your doctor before taking such medicines.

6. Be careful of weight loss pills or fad diets:

Over-the-counter weight loss pills which are available without a prescription may contain toxins and ingredients which can be harmful to the liver. Thus, they should be avoided.

7. Avoid Fad dieting regime:

Fad diets make your weight swing up and down aggressively put excessive stress on your liver. Be careful of any specific diet that promises large amounts of weight loss in an unrealistically short period. These diets are usually lacking in essential nutrients and are not good but harmful to your liver.

8. Keep in check if you have Diabetes:

Diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol form a metabolic syndrome with obesity, poses major risks for fatty liver disease. Keep your diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol under good control with diet, exercise, and medications can help limit and prevent liver damage.

9. Stop smoking:

There are some studies that link cigarette smoking with the development of liver cancer. Smoking can also enhance the toxic effects that some medications have on the liver.

If you follow these guidelines, you will be successfully avoiding any liver disorder. However, sometimes problems can rise and it becomes necessary to get a liver operation.

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Health

Early Signs Of Appendicitis

Appendicitis is an inflammation of the appendix, a 4 inch-long tube organ that extends from the large intestine. Appendicitis is a medical emergency that almost always requires an appendix surgery to remove the appendix.

If an inflamed appendix is left untreated, the appendix will eventually burst, or perforate, spilling infectious materials into the abdominal cavity. This can lead to a serious inflammation of the abdominal cavity’s. That can be fatal unless it is treated quickly with strong antibiotics. So appendix surgery is very important in this case.

The early signs of this vary from person to person. Let’s understand them one by one. However, the most common symptom is as follows:

Extreme and sudden abdominal pain is normally the first symptom of appendicitis.

The pain often begins near the belly button. As it worsens, it will usually shift to the lower right side of the abdomen.

There are some other signs too:

  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Loss of appetite
  • Constipation or diarrhoea
  • Inability to pass gas
  • Low-grade fever and chills
  • A temperature between 99° and 102° Fahrenheit
  • Wanting to have a bowel movement to relieve discomfort
  • Stomach swelling

Although, these symptoms appear in only 50 percent of cases. Some patients may experience stomach pain very slightly or not at all. Others may have less common symptoms.

Symptoms in children and infants

Children and infants may not go through pain in one specific area. There may be tenderness throughout the body, or there may be no pain at all. While children and infants may not experience severe pain as older patients do, research suggests that abdominal pain is still the most common symptom of appendicitis for this age group.

Symptoms in older adults and during pregnancy

Older adults and pregnant women may also experience different signs. The stomach pain may be less severe and less specific. Possible symptoms include nausea, vomiting, and fever. During pregnancy, the pain may move upward toward the upper right quadrant after the first trimester.

Abdominal pain can be a symptom of other conditions that seem like appendicitis. These include Constipation, Stomach lesions, Inflammatory bowel diseases, including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, Damage or injury to the abdomen, Stool, parasites, or growths that clog the inside of the appendix.

There is no way to prevent appendicitis. However, detecting early signs of the same can help to deal better with it.

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Health

Gallbladder Diseases And Obesity: What Is The Connection?

Yes, there is a connection between gallbladder disease and obesity. Obesity is a medical condition measured on the basis of Body Mass Index(BMI) by measuring body weight with height. Obesity may develop diseases such as hypertension, metabolic diseases, heart diseases, gallbladder diseases, diabetes and also cancer. The gallbladder is one of the important organs that stores and concentrates bile which is produced in the liver and released into the small intestine. There are a number of gallbladder diseases such as cholecystitis(inflammation of the organ), cholelithiasis(presence of gallstones), gallbladder polyps and gallbladder cancer. It can affect anyone at any point of time irrespective of age and gender but mostly affects people who are overweight or obese, especially women and children.

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Health

Can A Hernia Reoccur After It Is Repaired?

Yes, there is a possibility of a hernia recurrence. A hernia can affect both men and women of any age including children. A hernia is a situation when a bulge comes out into the layers below the skin most commonly seen in the abdomen or the groin region. Although a hernia can be treated with a surgery, the biggest complication remains even after the surgery. Yes, a hernia can return after it is repaired and it is called a ‘recurrent’ a hernia. It can happen to every surgeon. Recurrent hernias are formed after the successful surgery of a primary hernia. It can happen at any point in time, maybe within few days or weeks after the first surgery or after many years. Although a patient cannot affect the risk of developing a first-time hernia, however, certain precautions can be taken to minimize the chance of developing a recurrent hernia.