October is Liver Awareness Month

One in ten Americans has some form of liver disease. October is Liver Awareness Month. MPB's Karen Brown spoke with University of Mississippi Medical Center Gastroenterologist, Dr. Walter Boone, about the liver, starting with gall bladder disease.

Dr. Boone: Gallbladder disease is related to the liver because the liver makes the material that gets into the gallbladder and makes gallstones.

Karen: Right from birth, some babies are jaundiced. Does that involve the liver?

Dr. Boone: Most of the time it does involve the liver but also it involves some of the blood cells breaking up and that there is a lot of material to be processed by the liver and that takes time.

Karen: If someone gets jaundice later in life does that indicate there’s some type of liver disease involved?

Dr. Boone: In general, it indicates that there is some significant disease of the liver.

Karen: What diseases are most common? Is Hepatitis one of them?

Dr. Boone: Hepatitis is a very common liver disease. Cirrhosis of the liver from drinking alcohol is a very common disease. Cirrhosis of the liver is scar tissue of the liver. Liver cells die and are replaced by scar tissue just as you get a scratch on your skin.

Karen: What about cancer of the liver?

Dr. Boone: What we’re in the midst of presently is dramatic increase in the numbers of patients who have cancer of the liver. We think that’s a result, primarily, of increased infection with Hepatitis C and Hepatitis B. Alcohol has always been around and that’s probably been one of the major causes of cirrhosis of the liver or liver cell death. Liver cell death can be caused by a variety of things but most commonly Hepatitis C and Hepatitis B. And once those liver cells die, scar tissue forms just like any other cut or injury and that scar tissue replaces those liver cells. After a significant amount of liver cell damage and scar tissue formation, cirrhosis (which is fibrosis of the liver) manifests itself as liver insufficiency.

Karen: Are there lifestyle choices we can make that will help prevent Hepatitis or other forms of liver disease?

Dr. Boone: Absolutely. Intravenous drugs is one of the chief offenders in the spread and production of hepatitis virus.

Karen: Infected needles?

Dr. Boone: Sharing needles, infected needles, unclean needles. Absolutely.

Karen: When we hear about hepatitis in a restaurant. How does that come about it.

A variety of features - the cook in the back could be the sole part. If you eat oysters or eat shellfish we know the virus lives in sea water and we know that could be a possible cause. Any sort of contamination in the kitchen, depending on what it was. If one of the employees goes to the bathroom and does the appropriate things and fails to adequately wash his hands after cleaning his rectum obviously there’s stool there. Any time stool there’s bacteria/virus and virus can be transmitted to the food.

Karen: Is there a screening for the liver or things a doctor will check on an annual basis?

Dr. Boone: Most everybody, when they have a normal health profile gets a panel of lab tests which distinctly and definitely outline the function of the liver. Blood tests on a routine basis ordinarily pick up abnormalities of the liver.

Karen: Anything our listeners should know regarding their own health and their own liver?

Dr. Boone: Alcohol in moderation, no intravenous drugs outside a hospital environment and let me just mention to you that every time you buy raw oysters you always get a little flag from the waitress that tells you anytime you eat raw seafood there’s always the possibility of contamination.