Liver disease doesn't always cause noticeable signs and symptoms. If signs and symptoms of liver disease do occur, they may include: Skin and eyes that appear yellowish (jaundice) Abdominal pain and swelling.
A person may not experience any symptoms of their condition until they have lived with it for years. It is important to talk to a doctor about any symptoms that may indicate a problem with the liver.
The liver is known as a silent organ, as even when a liver failure occurs, the symptoms often go unnoticed. When symptoms such as jaundice become apparent, the disorder will have already reached an advanced stage. When liver function declines, your body will feel sluggish; you will feel tired and lose your appetite.
For other conditions, the most common symptom is jaundice — a yellowing of your skin and the whites of your eyes. Jaundice develops when your liver can't clear a substance called bilirubin. Other signs of liver disease may include: Abdominal (belly) pain (especially on the right side).
Loss of Appetite
Loss of appetite is a common cause of liver disease. It is especially likely if the person also has nausea and vomiting as symptoms. Not surprisingly, weight loss is a common result. The good news is that this is considered an early sign of liver disease.
The liver has a unique capacity among organs to regenerate itself after damage. A liver can regrow to a normal size even after up to 90% of it has been removed. But the liver isn't invincible. Many diseases and exposures can harm it beyond the point of repair.
Liver failure occurs when your liver isn't working well enough to perform its functions (for example, manufacturing bile and ridding your body of harmful substances). Symptoms include nausea, loss of appetite, and blood in the stool.
The liver can develop new cells, but prolonged alcohol misuse (drinking too much) over many years can reduce its ability to regenerate.
People with serious liver damage have usually been drinking for 20 or more years. But complications can develop after 5 to 10 years of heavy drinking. Again, this can be highly variable between individuals and is likely genetic.
Patients with compensated cirrhosis have a median survival that may extend beyond 12 years. Patients with decompensated cirrhosis have a worse prognosis than do those with compensated cirrhosis; the average survival without transplantation is approximately two years [13,14].
Stage 1: Inflammation
In the early stages of liver disease, the liver will become swollen or inflamed as the body's natural response to injury. Liver inflammation, or hepatitis, can also occur when there are more toxins in the blood than the liver is able to manage. The earlier the diagnosis, the better.
Generally, symptoms of alcoholic liver disease include abdominal pain and tenderness, dry mouth and increased thirst, fatigue, jaundice (which is yellowing of the skin), loss of appetite, and nausea. Your skin may look abnormally dark or light. Your feet or hands may look red.
Some alcohol-related liver damage can be reversed if you stop drinking alcohol early enough in the disease process. Healing can begin as early as a few days to weeks after you stop drinking, but if the damage is severe, healing can take several months.
A juice cleanse, often called a juice fast, is a detox diet that involves drinking only raw vegetable and fruit juice for 3 days. According to juice cleanse advocates, the diet fills the body with phytonutrients and antioxidants, protecting the body from free radical damage and eliminating toxins.
The liver releases bile salts into the stool, giving it a normal brown color. You may have clay-colored stools if you have a liver infection that reduces bile production, or if the flow of bile out of the liver is blocked. Yellow skin (jaundice) often occurs with clay-colored stools.
The first stage of liver disease involves inflammation of the individual's bile duct or liver. Abdominal pain is often the first symptoms of this inflammation as the person's body attempts to fight off the disease or infection.
Alcohol Related Cirrhosis: The most serious form of ALD, it occurs when the entire liver is scarred, causing the liver to shrink and harden. This can lead to liver failure. Usually the damage cannot be reversed. Between 10 to 20 percent of heavy drinkers develop cirrhosis typically after 10 or more years of drinking.
Life expectancy with cirrhosis of the liver depends on whether you are in the early or late stage of the disease. People in the early stage of the disease may live between nine and 12 years, while people in the late stages may only live two years.
Myth: I might have cirrhosis, but the liver will regenerate and heal itself naturally. Fact: The liver is a highly regenerative organ but only if it's still healthy enough to do so and doesn't have extensive scar tissue. Once cirrhosis is present, your liver's regeneration becomes very limited.