Issue :- 8

August 2016

Ayurvedic Treatment for Asthma
Ayurveda for Bronchial Asthma

Watch Health Mantra Live on Zee Salaam every Sunday at 11:30 am with Dr.Aslam Javed and know about your problems with him

To read the full article Importance of Skin Care
Dr.Aslam Javed

Ayurvedic Treatment For Kidney

Liver and Unani Treatment:

Liver problems include a wide range of diseases and conditions that can affect your liver. Your liver is an organ about the size of a football that sits just under your rib cage on the right side of your abdomen. Without your liver, you couldn't digest food and absorb nutrients, get rid of toxic substances from your body or stay alive.

Liver problems can be inherited, or liver problems can occur in response to viruses and chemicals. Some liver problems are temporary and go away on their own, while other liver problems can last for a long time and lead to serious complications.

Symptoms

Signs and symptoms of liver problems include:

  • Discolored skin and eyes that appear yellowish
  • Abdominal pain and swelling
  • Itchy skin that doesn't seem to go away
  • Dark urine color
  • Pale stool color
  • Bloody or tar-colored stool
  • Chronic fatigue
  • Nausea
  • Loss of appetite

Risk factors

Factors that may increase your risk of liver problems include:

  • A job that exposes you to other people's blood and body fluids
  • Blood transfusion before 1992
  • Body piercings
  • Certain herbs and supplements
  • Certain prescription medications
  • Diabetes
  • Heavy alcohol use
  • High levels of triglycerides in your blood
  • Injecting drugs using shared needles
  • Obesity
  • Tattoos
  • Unprotected sex
  • Working with chemicals or toxins without following safety precautions

The liver is the second largest organ in the body. It works hard, performing hundreds of complex functions, including:

  • fighting infections and illness
  • removing toxins (poisons), such as alcohol, from the body
  • controlling cholesterol levels
  • helping blood to clot (thicken)
  • releasing bile, a liquid that breaks down fats and aids digestion

Liver disease doesn't usually cause any obvious signs or symptoms until it's fairly advanced and the liver is damaged. At this stage, possible symptoms can include loss of appetite, weight loss and jaundice.

Types of liver disease

Listed below are some specific types of liver disease. The links provide more detailed information about each type.

  • Alcohol-related liver disease – where the liver is damaged after years of alcohol misuse, this can lead to cirrhosis (scarring of the liver)
  • Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease – a build-up of fat within liver cells, usually seen in overweight people or those who are obese
  • Hepatitis – which is inflammation (swelling) of the liver caused by a viral infection or exposure to harmful substances such as alcohol
  • Haemochromatosis –an inherited disorder where there's a gradual build-up of iron in the body, usually around the liver
  • Primary biliary cirrhosis –a rare, long-term type of liver disease that damages the bile ducts in the liver

It’s important to note that all types of liver disease can cause cirrhosis (scarring of the liver), not just alcohol-related liver disease.

Significant health problem

liver disease is on the increase. Three of the main causes of liver disease are:

  • obesity
  • undiagnosed hepatitis infection
  • alcohol misuse

What Are the Symptoms of Liver Failure?

The initial symptoms of liver failure are often ones that can be due to any number or conditions. Because of this, liver failure may be initially difficult to diagnose. Early symptoms include:

  • Nausea
  • Loss of appetite
  • Fatigue
  • Diarrhea

However, as liver failure progresses, the symptoms become more serious, requiring urgent care. These symptoms include:

  • Jaundice
  • Bleeding easily
  • Swollen abdomen
  • Mental disorientation or confusion (known as hepatic encephalopathy)
  • Sleepiness
  • Coma

Fatty Liver

Fatty liver, or steatosis, is a term that describes the buildup of fat in the liver. While it’s normal to have some fat in your liver, more than 5 to 10 percent of your liver weight is fat in the case of fatty liver.

What Are the Symptoms of Fatty Liver?

Fatty liver typically has no associated symptoms. You may experience fatigue or vague abdominal discomfort. Your liver may become slightly enlarged, and your doctor can detect this during a physical exam.

Excess fat can cause liver inflammation. If your liver becomes inflamed, you may have a poor appetite, weight loss, abdominal pain, weakness, and confusion.

What Are the Causes of Fatty Liver?

The most common cause of fatty liver is alcoholism and heavy drinking. In many cases, doctors don’t know what causes fatty liver in people who are not alcoholics.

Fatty liver develops when the body creates too much fat or cannot metabolize fat fast enough. The excess fat is stored in liver cells where it accumulates to form fatty liver disease. Eating a high-fat diet may not directly result in fatty liver.

Besides alcoholism, other common causes of fatty liver include:

  • obesity
  • hyperlipidemia, or high levels of fats in the blood
  • diabetes
  • genetic inheritance
  • rapid weight loss
  • side effect of certain medications, including aspirin, steroids, tamoxifen, and tetracycline

What Are the Types of Fatty Liver?

There are four types of fatty liver.

Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver

Nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) develops when the liver has difficulty breaking down fats, which causes a buildup in the liver tissue. The cause is not related to alcohol. NAFL is diagnosed when more than 10 percent of the liver is fat.

Alcoholic Fatty Liver

Alcoholic fatty liver is the earliest stage of alcohol-related liver disease. Heavy drinking damages the liver, and the liver cannot break down fats as a result. Abstaining from alcohol will likely cause the fatty liver to subside. Within six weeks of not drinking alcohol, the fat will disappear. However, if excessive alcohol use continues, cirrhosis may develop.

Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH)

When the fat builds up enough, it will cause the liver to swell. If the original cause is not from alcohol, it’s called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). This disease can impair liver function.

Symptoms can be seen with this disease. These include:

  • appetite loss
  • nausea
  • vomiting
  • abdominal pain
  • yellowing of the skin (jaundice) If left untreated, NASH can progress to permanent scarring of the liver and eventual liver failure.

Acute Fatty Liver of Pregnancy

Acute fatty liver is a rare complication of pregnancy that can be life-threatening.

Symptoms begin in the third trimester. These include:

  • persistent nausea and vomiting
  • pain in the upper-right abdomen
  • jaundice
  • general malaise

Women who are pregnant will be screened for this condition. Most women improve after delivery and have no lasting effects.

Who's at Risk for Fatty Liver?

Fatty liver is the buildup of extra fats in the liver, it’s more likely to develop if you’re overweight or obese. Having type 2 diabetes also may increase your risk for fatty liver. Fat accumulation in the liver has been linked to insulin resistance, which is the most common cause of type 2 diabetes.

Other factors that may increase your risk for fatty liver are:

  • excessive alcohol use
  • taking more than the recommended doses of certain over-the-counter medications, such as acetaminophen
  • pregnancy
  • high cholesterol
  • high triglyceride levels
  • malnutrition
  • metabolic syndrome

How Is Fatty Liver Diagnosed?

Physical Exam

If your liver is inflamed, your doctor can detect it by examining your abdomen. Let your doctor know if you have been experiencing fatigue or loss of appetite. Also, tell your doctor about any history of alcohol, medication, and supplement use.

Blood Tests

Your doctor may find that liver enzymes are higher than normal on a routine blood test. This doesn’t confirm a diagnosis of fatty liver. Further analysis is necessary to find the cause of the inflammation.

Ultrasound

The fat on your liver will show up as a white area on the ultrasound image. Other imaging studies may also be done, such as CT or MRI scans. Imaging studies can detect fat in the liver, but they cannot help your doctor confirm any further damage.

Liver Biopsy

In a liver biopsy, your doctor will insert a needle into the liver to remove a piece of tissue for examination. Your doctor will give you a local anesthetic to lessen the pain. This is the only way to know for certain if you have fatty liver. The biopsy will also help your doctor determine the exact cause.

How Is Fatty Liver Treated?

your doctor will offer recommendations to reduce your risk factors. These recommendations include:

  • limiting or avoiding alcoholic beverages
  • managing your cholesterol
  • losing weight
  • controlling your blood sugar

If you have fatty liver because of obesity or unhealthy eating habits, your doctor may also suggest that you increase physical activity and eliminate certain types of food from your diet. Reducing the number of calories you eat each day can help you lose weight and heal your liver.

You can also reverse fatty liver disease by reducing or eliminating fatty foods and foods high in sugar from your diet. Choose healthier foods like fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Replace red meats with lean animal proteins like chicken and fish.

Hepatitis A, B and C

Hepatitis A, B and C the most devastating disease in India

Medical researchers have been concerned about Hepatitis spreading rapidly across the country. There are three main viruses, which attack on liver, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C; all three different from each other. Hepatitis A, which may be dangerous, lasts only a few weeks, because your immune system deals with it properly. Hepatitis A spreads through infected food and water. Vaccine is available against it. Hepatitis B spreads not through food or water but through infected blood and sexual contact with infected person. Normally, immunity fails to deal with B properly and it turns into a dangerous disease, which at later stage may degenerate into cancer. It is curable and vaccine is also available.

Medical researchers have been concerned about Hepatitis spreading rapidly across the country. There are three main viruses, which attack on liver, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C; all three different from each other. Hepatitis A, which may be dangerous, lasts only a few weeks, because your immune system deals with it properly. Hepatitis A spreads through infected food and water. Vaccine is available against it. Hepatitis B spreads not through food or water but through infected blood and sexual contact with infected person. Normally, immunity fails to deal with B properly and it turns into a dangerous disease, which at later stage may degenerate into cancer. It is curable and vaccine is also available.

To be noted, Hepatitis C too spreads through infected blood not food or water. Its transmission during sex is not commonly understood. In general human body cannot fight against Hepatitis C and it becomes a fatal disease which later may degenerate into cancer. It is curable but vaccine against it is not available. Keep in mind that vaccine against A or B does not prevent C.

If you fear that you may be a potential victim of Hepatitis, get you tested for Hepatitis B and C, a potential cause of cancer at later stage. It is very necessary, because people infected with virus C and B do not show any symptom. Sometimes, symptoms appear in bold after your liver has been severely damaged.

Hepatitis is of three types: A, B and C. according to doctors Hepatitis A is not a serious disease and nearly everyone infected with this type self-recovers without any treatment. But it never means to ignore the symptoms, and medical consultation is a must. Unlike A, Hepatitis B and C are relatively fatal. Common symptoms of Hepatitis B are diarrhea, fatigue, loss of appetite, muscle or joint pain, abdominal pain and yellowness of skin andeyes. According to doctors Hepatitis B if not taken care of timely, not only it may degenerate into cancer rather it may cause death. Statistics show, only in America 3000-5000 people succumb to death yearly because of Hepatitis B. It transmits through contaminated blood or the body fluids of infected person.

Hepatitis, a life threatening challenge is taking lives nationwide. As per the report of Liver Foundation organisation, in India eight out of every ten are suffering somehow or the other from this acute disease. While ten million people die because of Hepatitis. Another reason after its wide spread is our lack of awareness and proper understanding of disease.

Apart from precautionary measures, it is necessary for newborn babies to be vaccinated against Hepatitis B in order to prevent the disease. Vaccination should be completed within eighteen months. Children under eighteen years, who are not vaccinated against Hepatitis B in childhood, may take its vaccine. Flu or redness in skin after vaccination is nothing to fear, but if there is any respiratory problem or heart beats at abnormal pace either too fast or too low, consultation to doctor becomes necessary. However, according to doctors vaccination against Hepatitis B has no side effect. Now we will discuss in detail the function of liver, its significance in our body and why its health is so necessary.

The liver is an important organ of the body, which is located in the upper right-hand portion of the abdomen beneath the diaphragm. It is the most vital organ which contains a lot of blood and weighs approximately 1400-1600 gm. More than 500 vital functions have been identified with the liver. Some of them include the following:

  • Stores vitamins, minerals, iron and sugar
  • Filters blood and detoxifies it
  • Controls cholesterol as well as chemical or drug mix up with blood flow
  • Transforms food into chemicals essential for energy
  • Keeps hormones balanced
  • Produces various types of protein and regulates blood clotting
  • Excretes waste products through intestine

Liver inflammation is called Hepatitis. Virus is a little bacterium which may harm organs of body if it comes in connection. The main cause of liver damage are viruses of multiple types, named as A, B, C, D and E. Virus A and E cause common short-term Hepatitis, while virus B and C are dangerous and cause short-term Hepatitis but in some cases lead to chronic Hepatitis which gradually causes liver shrink, called Cirrhosis. Cirrhosis lasts 15-30 years. Hepatitis C may be termed silent virus because the person infected with it looks healthy after the diagnosis of the symptoms. There is no vaccine against Hepatitis C, while it is available against B. We all should get tested for Hepatitis B and receive vaccination against it, because as per the statistics virus of Hepatitis C exists nationwide in seventeen millions people. People infected with Hepatitis C suffer from severe fatigue and debility. Such patients should avoid all alcoholic beverages. There are two most complex problems in Hepatitis C; Cirrhosis and liver cancer whose treatment is only liver transplantation. Some of the symptoms are listed below:

  • Weight loss
  • Yellowness in face
  • Abdominal swelling due to fluid
  • Vomiting blood
  • Drowsiness
  • Halitosis
  • Sleep disorders
  • Hand tremor
  • Swelling of legs and the whole body
  • Warm palm
  • Erythema
  • Profuse perspiration

There are many things that get you infected with Hepatitis virus. Most of the people do not have any idea how they have caught this disease. Nothing to worry about how you caught it, the only thing necessary is to combat the disease. Keep in mind, the virus does not transmit by sneezing, coughing, kissing, using utensil or washroom shared with infected person and normal daily interaction. Generally it transmits when a person comes in connection with infected blood. Also it transmits through the following:

  • Infected blood transfusion
  • Using infected syringe or needle
  • Using dentist’s infected tools
  • Getting a tattoo or having earlobes pierced with infected needle
  • Sexual contact (causing blood mixup)
  • Sexual contact during menstruation period
  • Using razor or toothbrush of infected person
  • Mother to child in rare cases

Hepatitis is curable for sure, provided timely taken care of. So it is very necessary to take all precautionary measures, and if still you catch infection, immediate action against it is indispensible.

Here I see necessary to suggest that you should avoid allopathic medicines for Hepatitis treatment as long as possible. Hepatitis is not a new disease. Human being has been suffering from it since ancient time. Luminaries of Unanipathy prescribed successful and effective treatment of the disease after thorough research and its results have greatly astonished the modern allopathic researchers. In case you recognise any symptom of the disease in your body, prefer Unani treatment to the most possible extent in order to avoid Cirrhosis and liver cancer. Otherwise, liver transplantation is the only choice left. To be noted that only reliable and expert doctors should be consulted for complete treatment of the disease. Diet prevention is not a bar. In some people immunity itself kills this disease. Interferon is a type of protein helpful in fighting against the diseases caused by virus. As body alone cannot produce that much protein it is necessary to take Interferon as drug. Get you tested for Hepatitis B and C and must vaccinate you and your family. Practice religion in full, adopt a cautious approach in life, and be limited to your wife.

For Consultation click here

For more information you can also follow us on:

 

Copyright 2014 Unani Herbal

If you wish to cancel your subscription to this newsletter click here