Cirrhosis is a bad liver disease that affects a lot of people – over two million adults in America. People suffering from it face a lot of difficulties.
They often get confused, fall down, have belly swelling, painful muscle cramps, itchy skin, and sleep badly. Living with cirrhosis can be really hard, affecting their happiness and how they live every day.
Dr. Elliot Tapper, a liver doctor at Michigan Medicine, often looks after patients with serious liver problems.
“Most people feel trapped because cirrhosis seriously affects their lives,” says Dr. Tapper. Many other doctors also feel the same. Yet, Dr. Tapper believes that things can get better.
Hope Amidst Alarm
“The word ‘cirrhosis’ can be scary. Sadly, more and more young people are getting this disease,” says Dr. Tapper. But he’s hopeful. “Now, we have new and better ways to find and treat cirrhosis.”
Dr. Tapper worked with another liver doctor at Michigan Medicine, Dr. Neehar Parikh. Together, they studied the newest ways to find and treat cirrhosis.
They published their research in a well-known medical journal called JAMA.
The Breakthroughs in Treating Cirrhosis
In their research, they discovered three important things:
- They studied 201 patients suffering from a problem often caused by cirrhosis, called ‘portal hypertension’. Here, they found that drugs called ‘non-selective beta blockers’ really helped slow down the disease and reduce the chance of death.
- They also looked at several studies involving 172 patients using a drug called ‘lactulose’. This drug is usually used as a laxative and to reduce ammonia levels. They found that this drug helped to lower death rates and improve severe liver disease.
- Lastly, they found out that a drug called ‘Terlipressin’ greatly improved chances of recovery from a deadly complication of cirrhosis called ‘hepatorenal syndrome’.
Dr. Tapper believes these discoveries bring “a lot of hope”. This is because, about 40% of people with cirrhosis experience severe symptoms and their chance of survival isn’t high at first.
Improved Quality of Life for Patients
But there’s even more hope. Dr. Tapper believes these new findings can help improve the lives of millions suffering from this disease every day.
“In fact, we saw big improvements in symptoms of cirrhosis when we looked at our studies,” says Dr. Tapper.
They found that a common drug used for allergies called ‘hydroxyzine’ helped people with cirrhosis sleep better. Also, drinking a mixture of pickle juice and a substance called ‘taurine’ consistently helped ease muscle cramps.
These cramps can be really hard for patients to live with. Lastly, they found that a drug called ‘tadalafil’, usually used to widen blood vessels, improved sexual problems in men.
In conclusion, cirrhosis is a tough disease to live with, but Dr. Tapper and his team are confident that with these new advancements, patients can look forward to brighter, better days.
If you care about liver health, please read studies about a diet that can treat fatty liver disease and obesity, and coffee drinkers may halve their risk of liver cancer.
For more information about liver health, please see recent studies that anti-inflammatory diet could help prevent fatty liver disease, and results showing vitamin D could help prevent non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
The study was published in JAMA.
Follow us on Twitter for more articles about this topic.
Copyright © 2023 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
