Hep B Blog

Category Archives: Living with Hepatitis B

Mosquito Repellent and Hepatitis B

Summer has arrived and so have your annoying neighborhood mosquitoes, who show up uninvited to every party.  Everyone’s first impulse is to spray on the DEET, an effective, insect repellent, to keep them away.

If you have hepatitis B, and are working hard to “love your liver”, you might be wondering what affect DEET will have on your liver.   Your liver is an amazing organ responsible for filtering just about everything we inhale, ingest or absorb through the skin.  DEET is an effective, but strong chemical, that when applied to the skin, or accidentally inhaled while spraying, or ingested due to poor hand washing, may be found in the blood stream up to 12 hours later.  It’s your liver’s job to ensure this toxin is filtered from your system.   An over-taxed liver can be problematic for anyone, but placing additional burdens on your liver when you have HBV can contribute to liver damage over time.

Here are a couple of things to consider.  Mosquitoes and other flying, or biting insects are vectors for numerous diseases that can make us very sick.   (Please keep in mind that mosquitoes are NOT vectors for hepatitis B.)  As a result we have to consider other options, or weigh the risks vs. the benefits of spraying on a dose of DEET.  If you do decide that DEET is the best protection against mosquitoes, consider limiting your exposure by applying it to your clothing, rather than directly to the skin.  When you’re back inside and out of mosquito territory, wash it off.  Don’t wear it to bed.

A natural alternative to chemically produced repellents is citronella, which has been registered for use in the U.S. since 1948.  It is made by steam distillation of certain grasses, and is considered a biopesticide, a naturally occurring substance that controls by non-toxic means.

Citronella can be purchased in various outdoor candles and natural, registered products such as Burt’s Bee’s Herbal Insect Repellent, or Avon Skin So Soft.  Citronella and other remedies can be purchased as essential oils and applied to the skin.  Please remember that natural does not equate to safe.  Make sure directions-for-use are legitimate and followed explicitly.  These oils are dangerous when ingested, and they are not packaged in child-resistant containers to avoid accidental swallowing.  Be sure to research all natural remedies or chemical products, and ensure the directions-for-use are legitimate, and that they are stored out of reach of children.  In researching this blog, I ran across various factoids and instructions-for-use with natural remedies that were contradicted in other articles.

Here are some additional tips that may require a little more forethought, and may not be as effective as a chemical repellent.  However, they can provide some relief and perhaps a balance.  Recommendations include:

  • Wear light colored clothing.  Mosquitoes are attracted to dark clothing.
  • Cover as much skin as possible with clothing… long sleeves, pants, socks, hats, etc.
  • Consider the fragrances you wear.  Floral or fruity fragrances, scented soaps, perfumes, hair products, scented sunscreen and even fragrance from fabric softeners and dryer sheets attract mosquitoes.  In my house, nothing smells clean and fresh.  Everything is unscented.
  • Avoid being out when mosquitoes are most active – dawn and dusk.
  • Use external fans.  Mosquitoes don’t fly well in a stiff breeze!
  • Avoid areas with standing water.
  • Eat garlic…lots of it.  My pharmacist is Indian, and also prescribes natural remedies.  She told me garlic is often consumed in massive quantities to discourage mosquitoes.
  • Bats are your friends…   I grew up with two medium-sized, but stagnant ponds on our property.  We had lots of bats and no mosquitoes.

As always, it’s all about common sense and balance.  If you’re having a picnic at the Dismal Swamp, or traveling to countries where the risk of disease carrying mosquitoes is very high, then you might want to think about bringing along the can of DEET, and using it responsibly.  Perhaps an outing here or there may also warrant the use.  Otherwise, make an attempt to combat mosquitoes naturally, or make a concerted effort to avoid them at their worst.  Yet another way to incorporate “loving your liver” into your daily life!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Choosing a Liver Specialist to Treat Your HBV

Got HepB?  Which doctor is right for you?  Do you need a hepatologist, gastroenterologist (GI doctor), or an infectious disease doctor?  Is the patient an adult or child?  If you’re new to HBV, these specialty doctors are likely foreign to your doctor line-up, and weeding through the specialty titles and training can be confusing.   However, if you have HBV, it’s essential that you find a knowledgeable liver specialist to monitor and potentially treat your hepatitis B.

A hepatologist is a doctor that specializes in diseases associated with the liver.  Hepatology is a sub-specialty of gastroenterology.  This is an obvious choice for patients with HBV, but it may be difficult to find a hepatologist in your vicinity.

A gastroenterologist, or GI doctor, specializes in the function and disorders of the GI tract, which includes the esophagus, stomach, pancreas, intestines and the liver.  This covers a very broad spectrum of functions and diseases.  The key is to find a GI doctor that has experience treating patients with liver disease – specifically, viral hepatitis, and hepatitis B.  If your GI candidate spends much of his week performing endoscopies, he is likely not a good choice for a liver specialist.

Because hepatitis B is an infectious disease, it would seem logical that an infectious disease specialist would be the best choice.  However, this is not usually the case with hepatitis B, or viral hepatitis, but rather HIV and other infectious diseases.  Your best bet will most likely be a hepatologist or a GI doctor.

If the patient is a child, it is imperative that the child see a pediatric liver specialist.  Some of the best and brightest, cutting edge doctors are both pediatric hepatologists and GI docs.  Children with HBV are monitored and treated much differently than adults.  The labs look different, and the treatment protocols also differ.  You need a pediatric specialist.

Ultimately, the key is finding a liver specialist that has experience monitoring and treating patients with hepatitis B.  You need to ask the important questions.   How many patients are they currently monitoring and treating with hep B?  How is your doctor keeping abreast of the latest and greatest advances in the management of hepatitis B?  Does she attend conferences on viral hepatitis?

HBV is a chronic disease, so you are potentially entering into a long term relationship.  Be sure to ask questions that are important to YOU.  How are test results disseminated?  Are frequent visits required?  Is your doctor open minded – perhaps willing to consult with other experts treating patients with HBV?  It would be great if this specialist is affiliated with a large hospital or university center.  This may provide additional options such as clinical trials, should they become available.  Plus they tend to have a larger patient population, hence more case specific experience.

Typically, the need to visit your liver specialist is not that frequent, unless you are undergoing treatment.  Even then, much of the monitoring and follow-up are in the blood work, and much of that can be drawn locally, with the results sent to your liver specialist.  Some treatment protocols require more monitoring and blood work than others, but even so, it is typically for a short period of time.  This fact is significant, as it expands the size of your geographic circle of potential experts.

The Hepatitis B Foundation maintains a wonderful database of liver specialists for both adults and children.  From there you can check out your potential expert with members of HBV support groups that may have personal experience with your candidate.

Good luck choosing your liver specialist!

Hepatitis B and Your Neighborhood Pool

Photo by Sheila http://ht.ly/6eRlt

Memorial Day marks the unofficial beginning of the summer, and with it, the opening of the community pool.  Every summer, questions regarding hepatitis B and the public pool are asked.  Typically it is those that are infected, or have children that are infected with HBV, that have concerns.  Hepatitis B is 100 times more infectious than HIV.  Does that mean you should be worried about contracting or spreading a blood borne pathogen like hepatitis B at the community pool?  Personally I don’t believe so, but there are a couple of things to consider.

If you’re concerned about a blood spill in the pool water than do not worry.  As long as you are frequenting a well-maintained pool that follows guidelines for consistently monitoring chlorine and pH levels in the pool, you’ll be fine.

Use common sense when at the pool.  Check that the water is clear, and the sides aren’t slimy. If the odor of your pool is too strong, something may be off.  Speak with management if you have concerns.  Pool staff are responsible for keeping water safe.  There are strict guidelines that must be followed.  Still have doubts?  Purchase your own pool test strips to confirm disinfecting quality of the pool.

Blood spills on the deck are a plausible transmission route for blood borne pathogens like HBV, but this hazard can be readily averted with proper cleanup.  Chlorine is a very effective agent against hepatitis B and other pathogens.  When made fresh and used in the correct concentrations, (nine parts water to one part chlorine) it kills pathogens like HBV.  As a team manager of a neighborhood swim team, I found the lifeguard slow to clean up a blood spill on deck.  The protocols are in place, but everyone needs to be vigilant to ensure they are followed.  If you have HBV and are bleeding on deck, don’t be afraid to insist that the blood spill be properly disinfected.  There’s no need to disclose your status.  These are standard precautions that should be followed for all blood and other body fluid spills.

The big culprit at the pool is swimmers with diarrhea.  Diarrhea causing germs may survive even in a well-maintained pool.    Chlorine resistant Cryptosporidium, also known as “Crypto”, is one such microbe.  One inadvertent gulp of contaminated pool water and it’s possible you, too, will contract diarrhea.  The good news is HBV is not spread via contaminated water, or the oral-fecal route.  Know the ABC’s of viral hepatitis!  Keep little ones out of the pool if they have diarrhea, make frequent swim-diaper changes, and don’t count on the plastic swim pants to keep everything in.  Oh, and don’t let the kids drink the pool water.  Parents, good luck with that one!

There are legitimate dangers lurking at the pool – a recent recall on pool drain covers jeopardize the safety of children, the risk of drowning and injury always exists, and of course there’s the risk of diarrhea causing illnesses.  Fortunately the odds of transmitting or contracting HBV are infinitesimal in a well maintained pool.  As always, remember that HBV has a safe and effective vaccine. Be sure those you know and love are vaccinated.

Beat the heat at your neighborhood pool this summer.  And finally, if your public pool looks like this… well, common sense would tell you there’s a lot more to worry about than hepatitis B!

 

Hepatitis B and Chocolate

Planning on digging into your favorite dark-chocolate stash, or biting the ears off of a dark-chocolate bunny this weekend?  Dark chocolate is popping up everywhere.  Even some old favorites have a new, dark chocolate wrapper, replacing the now-passé milk chocolate.  Recently, studies have extolled the benefits of dark chocolate, and how it potentially prevents heart disease, reduces the risk of brain damage after a stroke, lowers the risk of heart failure, lowers blood pressure, reduces heart disease, has anti-cancer benefits, slows dementia, raises libido, and last but not least, is mood enhancing.  What about those suffering hepatitis B associated liver disease?

Last year there was a study out of Spain that investigated the benefits of dark chocolate to patients with liver disease – specifically patients with cirrhosis.  Cirrhosis causes portal pressure to rise, potentially resulting in damage to blood vessels in the liver.  Eating causes an additional rise in pressure, which becomes more dangerous as liver disease progresses.  Half of the study participants were given white chocolate, and the other dark chocolate.  The dark chocolate group saw a larger decrease in the blood pressure of the liver, and increased blood flow.  Keep in mind that this was a small study with only 21 participants.

The good news is that dark chocolate, specifically the cocoa component, is rich in antioxidants called flavonoids, and other beneficial components such as  phenylethylamine, theobromine,  anandamide, magnesium, copper, and vitamins E and B.  That’s certainly a mouth-full, but it is these key components that provide all the benefits of chocolate.

Here’s the bad news.  Many of us enjoy milk chocolate, or even the dreaded white chocolate, which has little or no benefit due to the processing of the cocoa, and the resulting loss of flavonoids.   In fact, the lighter the chocolate, the fewer the benefits.  In a perfect world we would be eating unsweetened, cocoa powder right out of the tin, or a chocolate bar with upwards of 85% cocoa.  That can be a pretty biting chocolate.  The chocolate many of us enjoy has a larger quantity of white sugar , which is not beneficial to the liver, or any other organ, nor is the additional butterfat, which is added to lighter chocolate.  However, if you can adjust your tastes a little and learn to adapt to less sugar and butterfat, dark chocolate is great addition to your diet.

Aren’t most of us looking for an excuse to add chocolate to our diets?  Ultimately, all things in moderation is the key.  A small amount (roughly 6.7 grams) of dark chocolate added to your daily diet is certainly not going to hurt you, and may in fact reduce abdominal pressure and portal pressure in the liver.  Perhaps the greatest redeeming quality of chocolate is it’s mood enhancing qualities.  If it feels good, and eaten in moderation, then why not reap the benefits of dark chocolate and enjoy your improved mood.

Got Hepatitis B? B Sure to Take Care of U!

As a mother of a child with hepatitis B, I was always concerned my child would transmit the virus to others.  One day a toddler came up and bit her in the finger and drew blood.  She was strapped into her stroller, and yet I felt guilty and fearful she might transmit the virus to “the biter”.  I rushed my child to the pediatrician, and immediately inquired about the safety of the other toddler.  He reminded me that that “blood is a two-way street for the transmission of infectious diseases”.   I should worry about MY child.   The other child was likely vaccinated since HBV vaccination is required in my state. I heeded his advice, and from that day forth I started thinking about the safety of MY child and others infected with HBV.

Fortunately, hepatitis B is a vaccine preventable disease, so that does ease concerns regarding the transmission of HBV to others.  A simple three shot HBV vaccine series does the trick.  There is no reason someone should NOT be protected against a vaccine preventable virus that is 100 times more infectious than HIV!   Stop feeling guilty, and start thinking about protecting YOU!

If you have HBV, Hepatitis A (HAV) can be very dangerous.   HAV is vaccine preventable.  A simple two shot series will keep all those with or without HBV safe from highly-contagious HAV.

Unfortunately, there is no vaccine for HCV or HIV.  If you are HBV+, a  co-infection is complicated and dangerous, and can result in significant liver damage.  The best way to combat infection from HCV, HIV and other infectious diseases is to use standard precautions.

Make standard precautions part of your everyday life.  Simple hand washing and proper avoidance of contact with someone else’s blood and body fluids is an easy way to avoid transmission of potentially life threatening illnesses, or any illness.  Cover open cuts with a Band-Aid.  Provide a barrier between someone else’s blood or body fluids, and any open wounds, sores, mucus membranes and orifices.  You don’t want to get infected with another blood borne pathogen!  Does this mean you need to look like someone out of a bio-hazard lab with goggles and gloves?  No!  Use common sense, and you can be safe without going overboard.   A simple barrier between you and someone else’s body fluids is the best way to avoid exposure.  Keep something like a clean diaper, towel or wrapped sanitary pad, in a plastic baggie, in your car, and on each level of your home.

Personal toiletries should be just that…personal.  Keep your toothbrush away from your sibling, friend or SO. Neatly dispose of used feminine hygiene products because it’s the right thing to do.  Don’t leave your razor or nail clippers lying around.  Sharp, personal objects really are a perfect transmission route for infectious disease.

Got HBV?  Remember, keep YOURSELF safe!  And the kid in the stroller… well she’s a teen, today.  Now there’s a whole new set of worries.

Who’s On Your HBV Team?

No matter where you are with your hepatitis B – chronically infected since birth, or recently learned you are HBV positive, you want to be sure you are surrounded by all of the right people to give you the medical guidance and emotional support you need.

Start with your primary care physician (PCP).  You want a doctor that listens to you and is willing to work with your liver specialist.  Your PCP’s office may be coordinating your annual or bi-annual lab work for HBV monitoring and is your first line of care .

HBV can be complicated when it comes to making decisions about whether or not you need monitoring, treatment, or monitoring for liver cancer (HCC).  There are many phases of HBV, and you want to be sure you are followed through ALL phases.  You need a liver specialist that has experience working with patients infected with HBV.  This doctor is nearly always a Gastroenterologist (GI doc) or a Hepatologist.  If the patient is a child, you need a pediatric GI doctor or hepatologist.  Although well qualified, an infectious disease doctor is not really the best fit because of the involvement of the liver.  Once again, experience with HBV infected patients is crucial.  These specialists are often found at large, or University Hospital centers.

Check out this directory of liver specialists in your area.   Keep in mind that living a couple of hours from your liver specialist should be fine.  Visits are typically annual or bi-annual.  Visits may increase depending on treatment you may require.  Lab work can usually be coordinated with your local lab via your PCP.

Get to know your local pharmacist.  They are a wonderful source of information on everything from prescribed HBV medications to choosing the best OTC cold medicines, or pain relievers.  I am on a first name basis with my pharmacist, and try to visit when the volume of customers is low, so no one feels rushed.

Living with a chronic illness can take its toll on your mental health.  Each patient is unique, but generally all patients cycle through initial fear or denial, isolation, worry, and acceptance.  If you feel you are depressed and need help coping with your HBV, seek advice from your PCP, liver specialist, or a mental health expert.

Consider joining a support group.  Sometimes it’s lonely dealing with a complicated, chronic illness like HBV.   Support groups are a great forum for addressing the many concerns when dealing with various aspects of your HBV, from the best treatment protocols to sex and dating.  I belong to two HBV support groups and I find the interactions extremely informative, and the list members caring and very supportive of members in all stages of their HBV.

Take a look at The Hepatitis B Foundation’s website.  There’s a multitude of information from simple HBV basics to in-depth information from world-renowned liver specialists and researchers, along with personal stories.  Ask away if you have any questions.  HBF is here to help, and we hope to be part of your team.