Liver disease should not be underestimated.

The liver is one of the organs in the human body. Due to fewer nerves in liver, it is difficult for patients with liver disease to know that their liver has problems without serious complications. Therefore, the liver also known as "silent organ".

Although there are no obvious symptoms or discomfort when the liver is sick, there are still other signals to remind patients that their liver has problems, including jaundice, abdominal pain, bloating, weight loss, and loss of appetite.

Dr Lim Chee Sang , consultant of gastroenterology and hepatology Pantai Hospital Ipoh said that the liver work as a chemical factory in the human body. Its main functions include albumin synthesis, immunoglobulin production, bile production and excretion, pathogen and toxin removal, and blood coagulation factor synthesis.

He said that based on traditional Chinese medical concept, if you find that your body have symptoms of fatigue and loss of appetite, you will first suspect on liver problem. Most of them will proceed to purchase for liver protection drugs from pharmacy or take unknown folk remedies to take care of your liver.

"The liver itself has a very high tolerance to disease. As long as the liver entity is maintained at about a quarter, it can cope with the work required by the individual's metabolism for a day."

Dr. Lim Chee Sang said that the so-called "liver function test" items in clinical medicine, the items most familiar to the general public are alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST).

He mentioned that the normal range of ALT and AST concentrations is below 40. When acute hepatitis or chronic hepatitis worsens, ALT and AST can even be abnormally high above 1000. If the index is higher than 40, it means that the liver is not healthy, medically known as hepatitis.

Hepatitis is a disease with high incidence

Dr. Lim Chee Sang revealed that hepatitis is a disease with a relatively high incidence, which will have a certain impact on the patient’s health.

"Hepatitis is a general term for liver inflammation caused by various factors, mostly caused by bacteria, viruses, alcohol, autoimmunity, drugs and parasites. Hepatitis is commonly caused by viruses including hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis D, Hepatitis E and others."

He said that hepatitis A and E are very contagious and can be transmitted directly through the digestive tract, while Hepatitis B, C and D are also contagious to a certain extent and can be transmitted through blood. For other non-viral hepatitis Infectious are not contagious which no need to worry so much. 

Dr Lim Chee Sang mentioned that hepatitis brings great harm to patients. The symptoms of hepatitis include yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice), itching, right upper quadrant pain, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting, rash, fever, weight loss, dark or tea-colored urine. 

He suggested that if patients have symptoms as mentioned above, they should proceed to hospital immediately for examination and diagnosis by doctors.

He pointed out that doctors mainly diagnose through clinical symptoms, liver function tests, virus-specific marker tests, tumor markers, imaging tests, histopathological tests, etc. to diagnosis and exclude other not related diseases.

"Hepatitis may not cause any symptoms and can only be detected through blood tests. Before suffering from cirrhosis, people may not suspect chronic hepatitis. Once cirrhosis develops, the consequences will be unimaginable, and it may eventually lead to liver cancer."

 Dr Lim Chee Sang believes that the sooner the Hepatitis is treated, the better the effect, and late treatment will lead to bad consequences. Therefore, he advises patients to seek medical treatment as soon as possible once they find out that they have hepatitis.

This article was contributed by Dr. Lim Chee Sang, Resident Consultant Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist at Pantai Hospital Ipoh. To know more about where and when to see Dr. Lim Chee Sang at his clinic, click here .