What Is Liver Disease?
Liver disease includes any condition that damages your liver. Over time, scar tissue can build up in your liver. Scarring or fibrosis can progress over many years until you develop cirrhosis鈥攖he most advanced form of liver fibrosis. Cirrhosis, decreases the liver鈥檚 ability to filter toxins from your blood and make proteins your body uses to be healthy. Without treatment, liver disease can lead to liver failure or liver cancer.
Types of Liver Disease
There are more than 100 types of liver disease. You may be familiar with some of the most common types:
- Hepatitis, or inflammation of the liver, is caused by a virus, alcohol or drug use, exposure to toxins, or autoimmune disorders.
- Fatty liver disease (steatosis or steatotic liver disease) happens when too much fat builds up in your liver. Diabetes, hypertensions, high cholesterol levels, chronic alcohol use, and an unhealthy diet are usually the main causes.
- Autoimmune conditions can cause your body to mistakenly attack your liver.
- Cancer or noncancerous tumors can develop in your liver or bile duct, which moves substances from the liver through your digestive system.
- Genetic diseases like alpha-1 antritrypsin deficiency, Wilson's disease, or hemochromatosis can impact the liver.
What Are the Symptoms of Liver Disease?
Liver disease usually doesn鈥檛 cause symptoms in the early stages. As the condition advances, you may experience the following:
- Cold intolerance
- Confusion
- Fatigue
- Jaundice (yellow skin or eyes)
- Pruritus (itchy skin), especially on the hands and feet
- Swelling in the abdomen or legs
- Unexplained weight loss
Liver Disease: Urine Color
Discolored urine can be an early sign of liver disease. Your urine may appear brown or amber due to a buildup of bilirubin, a yellow-orange pigment created when your liver breaks down red blood cells.
Skin Problems Related to Liver Diseases
Along with jaundice and itching, liver disease can cause skin discoloration and spider veins, small areas of broken capillaries (small blood vessels) on your body. You may also notice palmar erythema, a painless condition that makes your palms or fingertips appear red. And some people develop porphyria cutanea tarda from liver disease. This condition causes painful blisters on skin exposed to sunlight.
Liver Specialist Near Me
Liver Disease Stages
Liver disease has four stages.
Stage 1: Your liver becomes swollen or inflamed when it鈥檚 injured. You generally have no symptoms during this stage.
Stage 2: If you don鈥檛 treat the source of the inflammation, your liver will develop fibrosis (scarring). Most people will have few symptoms. But if hepatologists (liver specialists) identify the fibrosis early, they can usually treat it.
Stage 3: Without treatment, fibrosis causes cirrhosis or severe liver scarring. It may take years to move from mild to moderate fibrosis to advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis. You might not have any noticeable symptoms until the liver disease is already advanced.
Stage 4: Fibrosis or cirrhosis eventually leads to liver failure. Failure occurs when your liver can no longer function. At this point, a liver transplant might be the only available treatment.
What Is End-Stage Liver Disease?
End-stage liver disease is the most severe stage of liver disease and occurs when advanced scarring prevents your liver from functioning. At this stage, your symptoms will become worse, and you may have additional complications:
- Ascites (fluid building in your abdomen)
- Brain damage from a buildup of toxins in your blood (hepatic encephalopathy)
- Kidney failure
- Increased risk for infections
How to Test for Liver Disease
Your provider uses three primary tools to diagnose liver disease:
- A physical exam to see if your liver is enlarged or if you have other signs of liver disease
- Blood tests to measure liver tests and assess your blood鈥檚 ability to clot
- An ultrasound or other imaging studies of the liver to look for changes of cirrhosis of the liver or other associated complications
- A liver biopsy in rare cases. During this test, a special needle to remove a small piece of liver tissue, which they can examine for liver disease.
Liver Disease Treatment
Your treatment plan depends on what鈥檚 causing your liver disease and how far it鈥檚 advanced. Liver disease treatments may include one or more of the following options:
- Medications can treat viruses or infections, reduce swelling, improve blood flow to the liver, lower blood cholesterol, and reduce brain fog. If you have a rare liver disease, you may need a specialized type of medicine.
- Lifestyle changes can help manage some types of liver disease. Avoid alcohol, limit fat and calories, and increase your fiber intake. You may need to stop drinking alcohol entirely regardless of the cause of your liver disease.
- A liver transplant may be the best treatment option for end-stage liver disease. A transplant replaces your damaged liver with a healthy liver from a donor.
Is Liver Disease Reversible?
In the early stages of liver disease, your liver can generate healthy new cells to replace the damaged ones. That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 important to identify the condition early while there鈥檚 a chance to reverse it. If too much of your liver has scarring, reversing all the damage may be impossible. However, taking medicines and making lifestyle changes may stop the damage from becoming worse.
