Chinanews client, Beijing, March 18 (Reporter Zhang Ni) In February this year, well-known musician Zhao Yingjun and actor Wu Mengda passed away from liver cancer, which brought public attention to this type of disease again.
As a major liver disease country, the number of chronic liver disease patients in China is staggering.
On March 18th, when the "National Liver Love Day" is approaching, you should know these things about liver health!
Data Map Wang Caifenghui
Surprising number of patients with chronic liver disease
The liver is an important metabolic and detoxification organ of the human body. However, liver disease has always been a high incidence and common disease among Chinese residents. This has made China a major liver disease country.
According to statistics, in 2020, including chronic hepatitis, fatty liver and cirrhosis, the number of patients with chronic liver disease in China may exceed 447 million.
A report released by The Lancet in 2018 showed that China's hepatitis B infection rate is as high as 5.1%-10%, and there are about 80 million virus carriers, of which 20 million are confirmed patients.
The number of fatty liver in China exceeds 200 million.
According to the data from the China Cancer Registry Annual Report 2019, about 3.929 million malignant tumors occurred nationwide in 2015 (the data from the National Cancer Registry generally lags behind 3 years).
The data also shows that in 2015, there were about 365,000 new cases of liver cancer in the country, accounting for 50% of the global new cases.
Liver cancer is the second leading cause of death from tumors in China.
Among people under 60 years old, liver cancer is still the most common tumor with the highest fatality rate.
Data map: outpatient building of a hospital.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Yin Liqin
What factors cause the high incidence of liver disease?
-Chronic hepatitis virus
Hepatitis virus is the "first killer" of the liver.
At present, about 80% of liver cancers in the world are caused by hepatitis B. Without proper treatment and monitoring, 1 in 4 patients with chronic hepatitis B will die of liver cancer or liver disease.
Statistics show that there are more than 100 million patients with five types of chronic hepatitis in China.
The incidence of hepatitis is relatively high. On the one hand, due to the large number of virus carriers, cross-infection is easy to occur; on the other hand, people’s poor living habits lead to reduced immunity and carelessness to protect the liver, so they are more susceptible to chronic hepatitis.
-Excessive drinking
Data shows that there are at least 56 million alcoholic liver patients in China. People who have been drinking for more than 5 years and consuming more than 40 grams of alcohol per day, or those who consume more than 80 grams of alcohol per day within 2 weeks, are at higher risk of disease.
During the metabolism of ethanol and its derivatives, a large amount of inflammatory substances and oxides are produced, which can stimulate the transformation of liver cells to the fiber direction. When a certain threshold is exceeded, it will cause irreversible liver damage.
-Obesity
The "Report on the Status of Nutrition and Chronic Diseases of Chinese Residents (2020)" shows that the overweight and obesity rates of residents of various age groups in urban and rural areas continue to rise, with the overweight and obesity rates of residents aged 18 and above being 34.3% and 16.4%, respectively.
The fat we get from food depends on liver metabolism. Once the liver load is exceeded, it is easy to cause obesity. Therefore, almost obese people have different degrees of fatty liver problems.
Conversely, the accumulation of fat in the liver will further aggravate the inflammatory response, leading to a decline in liver function, lower fat decomposition efficiency, and falling into a vicious circle.
When the development of fatty liver exceeds a certain limit, it can cause insulin resistance, stress liver injury, etc. If it is not controlled, the incidence of liver cirrhosis within 10 years is as high as 25%.
Data map Photo courtesy of Cancer Hospital
-Parasitic infection
In recent years, the infection of Cl. sinensis (liver fluke) has increased.
Liver flukes are often parasitic in freshwater fish, and can also be parasitic in deep-sea fish such as salmon. Eating contaminated raw fish, etc., can cause liver and gallbladder system diseases, and even lead to liver and gallbladder cancer.
Therefore, when eating sashimi, you must pay attention to whether it passes strict inspections.
-Metabolism-related diseases
Obesity can cause steatohepatitis, cirrhosis, and even liver cancer.
Diabetes not only causes metabolic-related fatty liver disease, but is also related to the occurrence of liver tumors.
It is worth mentioning that diabetes is an important predisposing factor of liver bacterial infection (bacterial liver abscess).
-Drug abuse
Except for the drugs that directly act on the wound, most of the drugs that need to be injected into the body need to be decomposed and absorbed by the liver before being transported to the whole body, or waste products generated after the drug's effect is completed, it also needs to be metabolized by the liver.
Therefore, many drugs have certain side effects on the liver.
Unfortunately, many people suffer from drug abuse, such as certain antibiotics, proprietary Chinese medicines, anti-inflammatory drugs, painkillers, etc. Long-term medication confusion or blind medication not only prone to drug resistance, which greatly compromises the efficacy, but may also damage the health of the liver.
Data map photo by Xu Lanqing
How to protect our liver?
-Vaccination against hepatitis
To prevent viral hepatitis, vaccination against hepatitis is currently the main method.
——Avoid bad behavior
Use various blood products carefully and avoid going to irregular clinics for treatment; when injecting drugs, be sure to use disposable syringes; when using medical equipment, be sure to perform strict disinfection treatment; avoid going to irregular tattoo shops or beauty institutions Consumption; personal use alone.
For pregnant women who are infected with hepatitis B virus, you can choose to use antiviral drugs during pregnancy to block mother-to-child transmission according to the amount of virus in the body; men who have sex with men and have multiple sexual partners should use condoms and check regularly; teenagers should receive correct Sex education.
Hepatitis A and E are mainly infected through the fecal-oral route. The common spread is through water, food or daily contact. Prevention mainly depends on personal hygiene.
Data Map: Photo by Pei Lei in aerobics competition
-Steal your mouth and open your legs
Fatty liver is often accompanied by chronic diseases such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes or gout. Improving dietary structure and strengthening physical exercise are key measures.
Focus on controlling the intake of fat and sugar: eat less animal fat, fried foods and sweets; increase the intake of high-quality protein, such as drink more milk, eat more soybeans, eat more fish, etc.; increase the intake of dietary fiber, more Eat vegetables; avoid irregular diets, eat a full breakfast, eat well for lunch, and eat less for dinner.
Get rid of bad habits such as late-night snacks, fast eating, and snacks; stop drinking, because alcohol is the only cause of alcoholic liver disease, and it is also the main cause of other chronic liver disease attacks.
——Don't stay up late
Those who stay up late for a long time cause excessive fatigue, the body easily enters a state of oxidative stress, which increases the number of free radicals in the body, which not only increases the incidence of liver disease, but also accelerates the aging of liver cells.
Medical experiments have found that if people lose 4 hours of sleep, the vitality of immune cells in the body is reduced by 28%.
After the immunity declines, the liver's lethality and resistance to pathogens will be weakened, and the probability of disease will increase significantly.
——Don’t take medicine randomly
The incidence of drug-induced hepatitis is second only to viral hepatitis and fatty liver disease (alcoholic and non-alcoholic hepatitis).
Therefore, it is necessary to change the old view that Chinese medicine has no side effects and pay attention to the possibility of hepatotoxicity of Chinese medicine; avoid long-term or large-scale use of hepatotoxic drugs; be sure to follow the doctor's advice when administering the medicine.
——Pay attention to physical examination and re-examination
Healthy people should undergo a comprehensive physical examination once a year.
For people with chronic liver disease, it is recommended to check once every 3 months to 6 months.
Patients who already have liver cirrhosis should be reviewed every 3 months.
The items to be reviewed should include liver and kidney function, blood routine, liver color Doppler ultrasound, liver stiffness and elasticity testing, etc.
Patients over 35 years of age should also check liver tumor markers.
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