Although, stereotypically, diseases of the liver are linked to drugs and alcohol, the truth is that over a hundred known forms of liver disease are caused by a range of other factors. They affect everyone from old adults to infants.
Often, you’ll meet people that have only heard of cirrhosis as far as liver disease is concerned. That’s probably because it is the final stage of many kinds of liver disease. It is known to lead to liver failure and many other health problems, like ascites, hepatic encephalopathy, and variceal bleeding.
We highlight some of the most frequently occurring diseases of the liver and the general causes behind each type:
Hepatitis
Hepatitis is mainly caused by viruses that attack the liver. The most oft-seen forms of hepatitis virus are hepatitis B, A, and C. Although vaccinations can be used in the prevention of most types of hepatitis, no vaccination exists for hepatitis C. Hepatitis C is one of the biggest causes for liver transplants in North American hospitals.
Fatty Liver Disease
This is one of the most commonly occurring diseases of the liver in Canada. The leading cause behind this is obesity.
Alcoholic Liver Diseases
Factors like weight, nationality, age, health and gender have an effect on how a person’s liver acts on and metabolizes alcohol. When the liver can no longer handle the amount of alcohol being consumed, there may be a disruption to regular liver function. Chemical imbalance may result.
If the liver normally detoxifies the alcohol as soon as it is consumed, it may stop doing so in the case of a disease. Liver cells will be destroyed or changed, causing fatty deposits and inflammation, as well as permanent scarring.
Liver cancer may also be caused by alcohol-induced liver conditions.
Genetic Liver Conditions
Defective genes are the main factor behind the development of liver diseases like Wilson disease, hemochromatosis, glycogen storage disease, alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency, and tyrosinemia. Such diseases often don’t show themselves until adult years, although they may be diagnosed at infancy.
Auto-Immune Disorders
Sometimes, the immunity system of the patient begins to attack its own bile ducts and liver cells causing scarring and inflammation. This leads to progressive kinds of liver disease. Disease like primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), autoimmune hepatitis, and primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) are believed to be caused by auto-immune agents.
Liver Diseases Induced by Toxins and Drugs
The liver carries the main responsibility for most chemical and medicine processing in your body. This makes it very vulnerable to chronic or acute liver conditions caused by chemicals. In certain cases, this is the predictable outcome of overconsumption or overexposure to particular chemicals. These include industrial toxins, such as carbon tetrachloride and polyvinyl chloride, as well as acetaminophen. In other cases, unpredictable reactions to chemicals can also occur.
Liver Cancer
In spite of primary liver cancer being relatively rare, several other kinds of cancer often materialize in the liver. Since the liver constantly filters high volumes of blood that may contain cancer cells, secondary cancer often attacks the liver. In cases where the site of cancer origination is the liver, it is usually caused by hepatitis C or hepatitis B.