A number of factors can lead to a deteriorated and poor-functioning liver. Firstly, a swollen or fatty liver can be the result of excessive alcohol-consumption. In comparison to other healthy people, the probability of cirrhosis of the liver is more among people who drink a lot. Usually, if a person drinks alcohol in excessive amounts for 10 years constantly, then he or she has a very high probability of falling prey to cirrhosis.
On the other hand, people who consume very little alcohol or are teetotalers, can suffer from the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. This happens because of a person’s food habits, which lead to the liver turning fatty, and if this condition is ignored, this can lead to cirrhosis. As per doctors, around 40% of the people in India are suffering from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Another factor which can lead to liver cirrhosis is Hepatitis-C, which causes damage to the liver through virus-infected blood. If a person is suffering from Hepatitis-C, the chances of them falling prey to cirrhosis increase by 30%. Hepatitis-C is a common cause leading to cirrhosis in Western Europe, North America, and many other parts of the world. Cirrhosis can also develop because of Hepatitis-B and D.
One cause of cirrhosis can also be the immune system attacking the healthy cells of organs and tissues, which is called as ‘auto-immune disease’. There are 80 such auto-immune diseases and can affect any part of your body, and with auto-immune diseases, increases the risk of cirrhosis. To avert cirrhosis, it is important for the auto-immune disease to get detected, symptoms of which can be joint-pain, swelling, tiredness, fever, and restlessness.
Symptoms of cirrhosis include difficulty in breathing, fever along with shivers, dropping of body weight, and blood-vomits, and it is important to get tested for the same if the doubt erupts, with the help of blood tests, imaging tests, or biopsies.
Liver-related ailments can also be avoided by walking merely 2500 steps a day, which reduces the risk of the same by 38%.
