Liver Cirrhosis and You Don’t Even Drink?
Cirrhosis can happen even if you do not drink alcohol. Here’s what you need to know to avoid it.
Liver disease is fraught with stigma. Cirrhosis, one of the leading causes of terminal liver disease, is almost always associated with alcohol. Patients who suffer from cirrhosis, often suffer from the stigma of alcoholism. But not everyone with cirrhosis was a heavy drinker. Many of the patients waiting in line for a liver transplant never touched a drop of alcohol in their lives. How can this be?
To understand how this can happen, it is important to know what cirrhosis is. Cirrhosis is the irreversible scarring of your liver. The disease derives its name from the Greek word kirrhos which describes the tawny yellow color of people’s skin with jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes) that results from bilirubin buildup in the blood.
Cirrhosis involves the gradual decline in liver function, resulting from the characteristic bridging fibrosis within the organ’s tissue. As fibrosis takes over, the liver gradually loses its many bodily functions. Soon its ability to produce albumin, a key blood protein that helps keep plasma in your vessels, starts to fail. As a result, fluid leaks out into your tissues causing swelling.
