The liver is our “heart and liver baby”, is the most complex organ of the human body, is also the main drug metabolism organs, decomposition of toxic and harmful substances absorbed by the intestine or other parts of the body, the production of the body’s indispensable protein and clotting factors. However, in life, almost no one will care about it, and no one will know how serious the damage of drinking, smoking, dieting, staying up late and gorging on food and drinks is to the liver, and really wait until something is checked out, the liver has already had serious problems.
According to the latest statistics, there are about 600,000 new liver cancer patients and 250,000 dead patients in the world every year, of which about 45% are in China. The prevalence of liver disease in China is the highest in the world, and the trend is getting younger.
Is your liver okay now?
One-minute self-assessment – the status of your liver
The clinical symptoms of liver diseases are diverse, but their manifestations are more insidious and easily overlooked in the early stages of the disease. If the following symptoms are present, there may be a problem with the liver.
1.Loss of appetite, nausea and aversion to oil, vomiting, abdominal pain;
2, feeling tired, drowsy, irritable for no reason;
3, persistent fever;
4.Loss of appetite, weight loss;
5.Dry eyes, yellow sclera;
6.Yellowing and itching of skin;
7.Loss of libido and menstrual disorders in women;
8, thin sticky and fishy stools, yellow urine;
9, gums, nasal cavity bleeding easily;
10, neurasthenia, memory loss;
…… If you have experienced the above symptoms, it may be a distress letter from your liver.
Why is liver cancer always found in the middle and late stages?
Many patients who have never had any past history of liver disease are diagnosed with mid to late stage of liver cancer after seeking medical attention for occasional discomfort in the liver area. Why does the liver, which has always been silent, come to an aggressive stage once it is “injured”? In fact, there are two reasons.
1. Objective reason: The liver itself has no nerve, so in the early stage of the disease, liver disease can not use pain to achieve the warning effect of health crisis. Only when the growth and metastasis of malignant tumors in the middle and late stages directly invade or compress the sensory nerves of the tissues around the liver, the human body will feel pain.
2. Subjective reasons: Most people have limited knowledge of liver health prevention and treatment, and they do not have the habit of annual physical examination. Even if there is slight discomfort in the liver, it is often neglected and they fail to receive timely intervention from the early stage of the disease.
As a result, it may be too late to pay attention to liver discomfort until it is too late. It is especially important to protect liver health and prevent it as early as possible.
What tests can be done to detect liver cancer at an early stage?
Currently, there are four indicators that can provide valuable diagnoses for primary liver cancer through blood tests, namely alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), abnormal prothrombin (AP) gamma-glutamyl transferase isoenzyme II (GGT2) and serum alglucosidase (AFU).
Screening I: Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)
AFP is an embryonic-specific alpha globulin found in fetal serum in 1956, and it was measured in the serum of liver cancer patients in 1964.
Reference value: <20 micrograms per liter (g/L).
Pathological significance: Normally, this alpha-fetoprotein present in early embryonic serum disappears rapidly after birth, and if it reappears in adult serum, it suggests the possibility of hepatocellular carcinoma. Methemoglobin is now widely used for screening, diagnosis, judging the effect of treatment and predicting recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma. Positive results in screening can occur 8 to 11 months before the appearance of symptoms. The positive rate of alpha-fetoprotein in hepatocellular carcinoma patients is 70% to 90%.
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Diagnostic criteria: methemoglobin >500 micrograms per liter (μg/L) for 1 month or >200 micrograms per liter (μg/L) for 2 months without evidence of liver disease activity, and pregnancy and germinal germ tumor are ruled out, hepatocellular carcinoma should be highly suspected. Usually methemoglobin concentration correlates with the size of the tumor, but there is wide individual variation.
Test 2: Abnormal prothrombin (AP)
Abnormal prothrombin is also known as γ-carboxy prothrombin.
Reference value: <250 μg/L.
Clinical significance: The positive rate of serum abnormal prothrombin in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma is 69.4%. Most data show that abnormal prothrombinogen has a high specificity for primary liver cancer, while only a few are positive for benign liver disease and metastatic liver cancer, so it has early diagnostic value for subclinical liver cancer.
Test III: γ-glutamyltransferase isoenzyme II (GGT2)
The positive rate of γ-glutamyltransferase isoenzyme II for the diagnosis of primary and metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma is up to 90%, and the specificity is 97.1%, while the positive rate for patients with non-cancerous liver disease and extrahepatic disease is less than 5%. γ-glutamyltransferase isoenzyme II is not related to the concentration of methemoglobin, and the positive rate of γ-glutamyltransferase isoenzyme II is also higher in patients with low concentration of methemoglobin and false-negative hepatocellular carcinoma.
Test IV: Serum alglucosidase (AFU)
Reference value: 3.5 to 10.3 units per liter (U/L).
The positive rate of serum alglucosidase for patients with metafolin-negative hepatocellular carcinoma and small hepatocellular carcinoma was 76.1% and 70.8%, respectively. It was negative for metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma and benign liver tumors, but the false positive rate was higher in patients with cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis.
Alpha-fetoprotein, γ-glutamyl transpeptidase isoenzyme II and abnormal prothrombin have a definite diagnostic value for hepatocellular carcinoma, and also have early diagnostic significance in screening. The combined test of the three items can greatly improve the diagnostic accuracy. If combined with methemoglobin, it can be used as an auxiliary diagnosis for patients with methemoglobin-negative hepatocellular carcinoma.
Warm Tips: With the advancement of early diagnosis and treatment of primary liver cancer and liver surgery technology, the overall efficacy has been improved. However, even if radical resection of liver cancer is obtained, 60%-70% of patients still have metastatic recurrence within 5 years. Regular observation with AFP test and ultrasonic examination after surgery is required to detect recurrence and metastasis of liver cancer as early as possible.
Take care of your own liver!
To protect your liver, stay away from these 6 vices.
1.Smoking and alcohol are harmful to liver and body;
2, often stay up late will increase the risk of liver disease;
3, fat people first fat liver, overweight people should be careful of “fatty liver”;
4, the gas hurts the liver, want to liver health to maintain a beautiful mood;
5, is the medicine three points poison, whether it is health products or traditional Chinese medicine;
6, drink too many drinks easy to get fatty liver, try to drink more water.
Eat right and practice hard, happy for a hundred years
Eat right to nourish the liver and protect life, eat wrong to hurt the liver and body. Overall, liver diet to light, eat less greasy, spicy, otherwise it will make liver dysfunction. Wolfberry, gum, chrysanthemum, cassia, etc. are good products to protect the liver;
Diligent hands and feet more exercise, in order to nourish the liver, life is exercise, exercise is the best way to protect the liver. For liver disease patients, it is very important to choose the right program for you, walking, jogging, deep breathing, tai chi, are good choices. Stretching, swallowing saliva, combing the head, rubbing the ears, easy to raise the liver;
The liver should learn to be less angry, reasonable discharge of bad emotions. A bad mood, low spirits, depression and irritability may damage the liver and affect its function. Tears are like a natural detoxification therapy given to each of us by God, it can quickly detoxify the liver, so cry out when you have grievances;
In order to live a hundred years with a good liver, life should be regular. Physical health in the end depends on themselves, in order to avoid bad habits endanger the liver health, to maintain a normal and regular routine.
Protect your liver – men and women are different, the seasons are different
Women take the liver as the innate, nourish the liver first nourish the blood:.
”Women take the liver as the first day”, nourish the liver, you can have a good tone, good body. A woman’s life and blood has an inseparable relationship, in addition to the monthly must come to the “good friend”, pregnancy, childbirth, and even breastfeeding, every physiological process that women experience throughout their lives are closely related to blood, therefore, “women to blood as the essence of the blood to use”, to a lifetime of health and happiness, we must start with blood.
The liver and kidneys have the same origin, men nourish the kidneys first liver:.
The Chinese medicine since ancient times has “liver and kidney homologation”, “essence and blood with the birth”, we believe that the man kidney first liver, why say so? Kidney deficiency in Chinese medicine, there are kidney deficiency, kidney Yin deficiency and kidney Yang deficiency three cases, but no matter which, we must first complement the liver blood. Liver blood is full so that blood can be smoothly converted into kidney essence, kidney essence can be filled, and the function of kidney to hide essence can be properly performed. It can be said that the liver blood should be replenished first when replenishing the kidney essence.
To adapt to the seasons, the four seasons have their own focus on liver health.
Throughout the year, cold, hot, warm and cool climate change affects our body’s physiological functions, so we should adapt to the four seasons of climate change to nourish our health. Adjust your life in accordance with the four seasons, in different seasons with different liver recipes, liver nourishment and liver care to be effective, we can also maintain health.
Spring health care to follow the breath of spring, take care of the liver method. Specifically should do less acid, cold, spicy and greasy drink more water, more sunshine more exercise, early to bed and early to rise ……
Summer liver to sleep late and get up early, appropriate nap; let the qi vent usually, maintain a happy mood; diet pay attention to meat and vegetables, more hydration;
In autumn, the liver fire in the human body is prone to exuberance and irritability, at this time we had better go to bed early and get up early, peace of mind, astringent qi, more sunshine, more exercise, adjust the diet, reduce the aggression of autumn dryness on the human body;
In winter, the liver should pay attention to hiding Yang Qi, especially pay attention to keeping warm, go to bed early and get up late, and often nourish the spirit, keep the mind peaceful, and exercise the muscles and bones properly.