Hepatoprotectors won’t help keep the liver healthy

Liver disease rarely shows up right away. As a rule, in the early stages they are detected by chance – for example, during an ultrasound scan of the abdominal organs. And when the symptoms of the disease appear, the disease is usually already in a severe stage. Therefore, for prevention, many begin to take various hepatoprotectors. Why this should not be done and how to maintain liver health, Maria Arapova, hepatologist of the OMS Group of Companies, told Moskovskaya Pravda.

Hepatoprotectors are drugs that have been developed to protect the liver from aggressive internal and external influences, as well as to improve its self-healing function. However, the clinical effect of the vast majority of them has not been proven.

– Hepatoprotectors are the greatest myth of the late XX – early XXI century. They have no effect on the liver, says Maria Arapova. “Moreover, the safety of some of them in viral hepatitis and other liver diseases has not been studied.

In fact, as the expert notes, these are drugs that do not cure anything. Then the question arises: what then is the meaning of their application? After all, if you get sick, for example, with pneumonia, it would not occur to physicians to use “pneumatic protectors”, even if they are allowed to exist in nature. You will be treated with very specific, clinically proven medicines. The same applies to liver disease.

“If we are talking about the presence of some kind of disease, it makes no sense to drink hepatoprotectors, and in some cases it is even unsafe,” the doctor warns. – Prophylactic use of hepatoprotectors is also useless. Treatment of liver disease should be etiotropic, that is, aimed at the cause of the disease and its elimination.

The only effective prevention of liver diseases is a responsible attitude to one’s health, Maria Arapova is convinced. More specifically, there are four important rules to follow.

Rule 1 It is necessary to undergo regular medical examinations as part of the medical examination.

Rule 2 Rejection of bad habits. Smoking should definitely be abandoned. Drinking alcohol is allowed, but within reasonable limits. The risk of developing alcoholic liver disease occurs when taking more than 30 grams of pure ethanol per day for men and 20 grams for women. And drinking more than 80 grams of pure ethanol per day for 10 years or more increases the likelihood of developing cirrhosis of the liver.

Rule 3 Maintaining normal weight. Obese people have a sharply increased risk of developing one of the most common diseases – non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. This is a chronic liver disease caused by the accumulation of lipids in cellular elements. Non-alcoholic fatty disease can lead to the subsequent formation of fibrosis, cirrhosis and the formation of adenocarcinoma (liver cancer). Therefore, an unequivocal recommendation for those who want to have a healthy liver: in the absence of other negative factors, do not allow the appearance of excess weight and make efforts to properly reduce it, if it appears.

Rule 4 Do not forget about physical activity and sports. It is not necessary to exhaust yourself in the gym. To maintain the health of the liver and the whole body as a whole, a daily one-hour walk or equivalent activity is enough.

Alena Bodrienko.

Photo by D. Grishkin / press service mera and nMoscow government