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  • Your Environment and Your Liver

    October is Liver Cancer Awareness Month! This month let’s celebrate your liver for all it does for your body! This blog post will talk about how your environment, where you live, work, and play, affect your liver. A healthy functioning liver (no advanced fibrosis/cirrhosis) is busy and effectively manages toxins daily. If your body was an automobile, your liver would be considered the engine. It does hundreds of vital things to make sure everything runs smoothly. Some of the most important functions of the liver include: Stores vitamins, sugar, and iron to help give your body energy. Controls the production and removal of cholesterol. Clears your blood of waste products, drugs, and other poisonous substances. Makes clotting factors to stop excessive bleeding after cuts or injuries. Makes immune factors and removes bacteria from the blood to fight infection. Releases a substance called “bile” to help digest food and absorb nutrients How Does Lifestyle Affect My Liver? Eating healthy for your liver is so important! The Hepatitis B Foundation encourages all people living with hepatitis B to eat a healthy diet, get regular exercise, and incorporate healthy habits in their day-to-day life. Some suggestions include: Diet Changes Avoid drinking alcohol and smoking since both will hurt your liver, which is already being injured by the hepatitis B virus. Eat a healthy diet of fruit, whole grains, fish and lean meats, and a lot of vegetables. “Cruciferous vegetables” in particular -- cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower -- have been shown to help protect the liver against environmental chemicals. Limit foods and drinks with added sugars including sodas, fruit juices, desserts, packaged snacks, and other foods that contain added sugar. Limit foods containing saturated fats including fatty cuts of meat and foods fried in oil. Avoid eating raw or undercooked shellfish (e.g. clams, mussels, oysters, scallops) because they could be contaminated with a bacteria called Vibrio

    http://www.hepb.org/blog/your-environment-and-your-liver/
  • Vlog: Why is the Hep B United Summit Important?

    Join Michaela Jackson for A Day in the Life of a Public Health Coordinator to learn about why the annual Hep B United Summit is important! [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAloZsRo9r0[/embedyt] In this episode, some of the Hep B United coalition partners explain why some of the leaders in the hepatitis B world gather in Washington D.C. each year. The Summit took place from July 24th - July 26th, 2018.

    http://www.hepb.org/blog/vlog-hep-b-united-summit-important/
  • It’s Flu Season: When You Have Hepatitis B, Too Much Tylenol Can Damage Your Liver

    Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net By Christine Kukka Cold season is here and sometimes getting a flu shot and consistently washing our hands aren’t enough to keep colds at bay. If you do get sick, make sure the over-the-counter medication you take doesn’t damage your liver while it’s relieving your aches and pains. Acetaminophen (Tylenol or Paracetamol) is the most popular over-the-counter painkiller in the United States. Americans take 8 billion acetaminophen pills each year for pain reduction, and the drug is also found in cough and congestion medications. When we have hepatitis B, we need to be careful we don’t unintentionally overdose when we take acetaminophen pills to reduce our pain and cough or sinus medications that also contain acetaminophen. The trouble is, dozens of cold and flu medications that promise to suppress our coughs and let us sleep through the night also contain acetaminophen, but it's not emblazoned in large print on their labels. Instead, we need to search carefully for “acetaminophen” listed in its ingredient list on the back of the package. Image courtesy of lobster20 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net How much acetaminophen can adults safely take? Unless we have serious liver damage, such as cirrhosis, doctors say we can safely take the recommended dose of acetaminophen for a very limited period of time without damaging our livers. In fact, doctors routinely recommend this painkiller following a liver biopsy or to reduce interferon’s flu-like side effects. The maximum dose of acetaminophen that adults can safely take over a 24-hour period is four grams, which equals eight extra-strength pills or about 12 regular-strength pills. (An extra-strength pill contains 500 mg and a regular strength pill contains 325 mg). But, if we drink two alcoholic beverages a day, we need to cut that recommended acetaminophen dose in half, that’s how much acetaminophen can affect our livers. If we take too much of this

    http://www.hepb.org/blog/flu-season-hepatitis-b-much-tylenol-can-damage-liver/
  • Hepatitis B Carriers Need Not Apply: Discrimination in China

    Please take look at this video on HBV discrimination in China.  This isn’t a new story for China, rather an ongoing problem. Despite the high numbers of HBV infected persons living in China, discrimination is rampant.  One in ten Chinese carry the hepatitis B virus. The range of HBV discrimination in China is vast.  Life changing opportunities are lost due to rejection: rejection from school, lost employment opportunities, and even lost love, all due to HBV carrier status.  Even simple, every-day routines like meals with friends and family are impacted. Many of those infected are expected to eat separately, or carry their own bowl and chopsticks.  This is due to widespread ignorance on how HBV is transmitted. An HBF friend told me Lei Chuang, the student in the video who was rejected from a top post-graduate University program due to his HBV status, is a very popular.  Evidently he is a very visible and admired anti-HBV discrimination activist in China.  Lei Chuang suspended his post-graduate studies in order to campaign against HBV discrimination. One of his on-going projects is an invitation to dine with the Chinese Premier. Every day he sends one letter to the Premier – 151 letters and counting. That takes a lot of courage. Lu Jun is the director of the Beijing Yirenping Center.  He has been actively fighting discrimination in China, along with providing education, outreach and patient counseling.  His organization works tirelessly to defend the rights of those living with HBV by providing legal support for anti-discrimination lawsuits. He was also pivotal in creating the Chinese HBV internet forum, www.hbvhbv.com, creating a critical link between nearly half a million Chinese subscribers. (Keep in my that social media outlets such as facebook, twitter and Youtube are blocked in China.) Lu Jun is also a friend of the Hepatitis B Foundation, and joined us for our patient conference in June of 2008. Having witnessed HBV discrimination in China,

    http://www.hepb.org/blog/hepatitis-b-carriers-need-not-apply-hbv-discrimination-in-china/
  • About

    The Hepatitis B Foundation is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to finding a cure for hepatitis B and helping to improve the lives of those affected worldwide through research, education and patient advocacy. Visit www.hepb.org Liver Cancer Connect, a dedicated program of the Hepatitis B Foundation, provides patient-focused information on primary liver cancer. Visit www.livercancerconnect.org.

    http://www.hepb.org/blog/about-2/