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4 Outstanding Facts On Liver By The Best Hospital In Kolkata
A liver is an amazing organ that requires no further introduction. Your liver performs essential functions, like detoxifying the body and storing vital nutrients.
Recommended Read: Signs Of A Liver That’s Damaged And Requires Liver Treatment
Today, ILS Hospitals, one of the best hospitals in Kolkata and Agartala will tell you 4 outstanding facts on liver so stay connected!
Your liver can regenerate itself
Yes, you heard that right. It’s an absolutely correct statement. A liver can completely regrow itself from 25% to 100 % in a matter of weeks. When a person donates 75% of his or her liver then the liver can regenerate itself to its original size in two weeks without fail.
Healthy liver = Well-functioning brain
Your liver regulates plasma glucose and ammonia levels in the body. If these two enzymes are not regulated then it will lead to a serious medical condition called hepatic encephalopathy (declined brain function) that can result in a coma. So, yes, admit it, a healthy liver is crucial for a healthy brain.
Liver is important for drug metabolism
Oral medicines are first converted by the liver for the body to accept and if your liver does not or is unable to perform this vital function then no matter how much effective the oral medicines are, they just won’t work.
Our liver is the second largest organ in the body
The liver weighs more than 3 pounds and is the second-largest organ in the body. So, which one is the first largest organ? Well, it’s your skin.
Since the liver is such a superstar organ, it needs great care and love. An unhealthy liver can lead to serious liver ailments, like fatty liver disease and cirrhosis. If you want your liver to be young and healthy, then take note of the following things:
- Eat a healthy and balanced diet
- Maintain a healthy weight
- Ditch your sedentary lifestyle
- Avoid hepatitis B and hepatitis C infections
- Quit smoking
- Drink alcohol moderately
- Get regular medical checkups
If you need liver treatment in Kolkata and Agartala, consider ILS Hospitals. Our several healthcare units in Kolkata and Agartala aim to provide accurate and effective liver treatment.
Liver Diseases – Causes And Symptoms
The liver is the largest organ in our body. It helps in digesting our food, stores energy and removes unwanted substances from the body. It is situated right under your rib cage on the right side of your abdomen. Like every organ, the liver can have diseases too. Liver diseases can be genetic or due to pathogens or the consumption of excess alcohol. There are various liver treatment approaches depending on the type of diseases. But how would you know if you have any liver disease? Today, we will discuss some of the symptoms that help detect liver diseases and also, which type of disease is caused by what.
Signs and symptoms of liver disease include:
- Skin and eyes appear yellowish: This is the most common symptom which usually means that you might have jaundice.
- Abdominal pain and swelling: If you are feeling pain and swelling in abdomen regularly, it means your liver is not functioning properly, leading to inflammation of the liver.
- Swelling in the legs and ankles: Due to liver disease, the secretion of a protein named Albumin can become inadequate and can cause fluid leakage known as edema. Due to gravity, this fluid gets deposited in the legs and ankles, causing their swelling.
- Itchy skin: It is caused due to the bile products deposited in the skin.
- Chronic fatigue: This is another common symptom for people with liver problems.
- Nausea or vomiting: If your digestive system is not working properly due to liver problems then you would feel nauseous and it becomes hard to keep your food down which also leads to loss of appetite.
Liver disease has many causes:
- Infection: Liver diseases can occur due to infection by Parasites and viruses causing inflammation that reduces liver function. These viruses can spread through blood, contaminated food or water, or close contact with an infected person. The common types of liver infection are hepatitis viruses, including Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, and Hepatitis C.
- Immune system abnormality: Some autoimmune liver diseases include Autoimmune hepatitis, primary biliary cirrhosis, etc can affect your liver system as well.
- Genetics: Liver diseases can be genetic where an abnormal gene is inherited from one or both of your parents causing various substances to build up in your liver, and thus resulting in liver damage. Some genetic liver diseases include Hemochromatosis, Hyperoxaluria, and oxalosis, Wilson’s disease, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.
- Cancer and other growth: Liver cancer is a severe liver disease. There are various reasons for liver cancer. One of the reasons doctors have found is regular and heavy alcohol consumption. Another type of cancer is bile duct cancer which also happens due to the same reasons.
- Fat accumulating in the liver: Eating unhealthy food is pretty common these days which is why fat accumulation in the liver has become very common as well.
If you have any of the aforementioned symptoms, it might imply that you have some underlying liver disease. It is best to get these symptoms evaluated and avail liver treatment as soon as possible, to lead a healthier life ahead.
Health Tips To Stay Healthy This Durga Puja Festive Season
Durga Puja – the festival that brings us closer to our family and friends. Amidst these overwhelming seasonal spirit, often we let our guards down and fall in tarps to several health complications. ILS Hospitals lists out some of the health issues related to festive-season and offers some tips and precautions to stay healthy.
1. As we are going through a confused climate, it is uncertain to say whether or not it will be raining in between Puja season. So, take every precaution you should during this time. Also, while pandal hopping, don’t forget to use the mosquito repellent.
2. Despite the prevailing monsoon, the intense sunlight, during the day with clear sky, can cause severe dehydration and sunburn if proper measures are not taken. So don’t forget to carry your umbrella during your day voyages and apply your sunscreen cream as well.
3. You should also be very particular about the food and drinks you feast upon outdoors, with your friends and family. Practice extra caution while going for the Fast food items like Noodles, Rolls and Pani Puri from street vendors.
4. Carrying and consuming bottled water is highly advised. Unpackaged water can be contaminated and thereby can lead to Diarrhoea, Typhoid, Food Poisoning, and Hepatitis.
5. Being in crowded places can cause spreading of several contagious illnesses such as cold, cough, flu and viral infections. Stay on guard while being with crowds in pandals and never-ending queue leading towards the same.
6. Pandal hopping for hours, regardless, of day or night is tiresome. Adequate rest is extremely necessary for you. So, even if you are extremely busy having fun, take out atleast 6 hours each day for sleep. Staying awake all night long is particularly not advised for elderly people and children.
7. Over excitement and enjoyment without caution can also lead towards mild to major injury. So keep a leash on the same and make health and safety your first priority.
8. If you already have any medical discomfort, you should be extra careful. For eg., if you have diabetes, you should keep taking your medicine without a miss and in case you have asthma and respiratory discomfort, it is best to plan your visit to avoid crowds as it might trigger an attack.
So, follow these simple precautionary tips and reap the best of this festive season. Also, take note that ILS Hospitals is all set and functional during the entire puja season. So come down at ILS Hospitals to address any medical emergency or discomfort that you encounter.
6 Health Complications That Will Motivate You to Quit Smoking Now
How do you define a cigarette?
A pinch of tobacco wrapped in a roll, with fire on one side and a fool on the other side.
Work is stressful, for most of us, isn’t it? How often do you rely on your ‘so-called friend’ to relieve this never-ending stress? The answers will range from never, rarely, depends, often, to all the time.
The more your answer titles towards the right, the earlier and the deeper you are digging for your own grave.
Here we present 6 health complications associated with smoking that will motivate you to quit smoking –
1. Heart and Lungs diseases
Our lungs are capable of filtering the air and supplying oxygen to the bloodstream. However, over the years of smoking, both lungs and heart begin to perform inefficiently and as a result, the person develops several types of cardiovascular and respiratory conditions.
2. Diabetes Type 2
The direct impact of smoking on-setting diabetes is still a matter of conflict among research scholars, but it certainly has been found that prolonged smoking increases the complications associated with diabetes type 2. Several patients, who also happens to be chain smokers, often visits diabetes clinic to address a common complication of loss of sensation in feet/legs.
3. Reproductive Health
Let it be men or women, prolonged smoking can affect their reproductive health. As per leading gynaecologists, for women, it can lead to ectopic pregnancy and a lower rate of natural conception. Whereas, in case of men, it can lead to erectile dysfunction.
4. Poor Metabolism
The component nicotine makes people addictive of the same and as a result, many chain smokers suffer from several digestive and metabolic malfunctions. As a result, a person can either lose or gain significant body weight. People seeking liver treatment often turn out to be chain smokers.
5. Oral and Throat
Holding the cigarette between the teeth, in a long run leads to misalignment of teeth along with severe gum diseases. As per ENT specialists, several kinds of mouth/throat ulcers and cancer is a result of smoking too.
6. Bone Decay
Prolonged smoking leads to a much faster rate of bone decay as compared to non-smokers. It is often closely followed by severe orthopaedic complications and rheumatoid arthritis as well.
Despite the frightening consequences of smoking, the silver lining is the fact that putting down smoking can help significantly in damage control.
On this World No Tobacco Day, on 31st May 2018, ILS Hospitals encourages every smoker to quit smoking. Not only it affects your own health but it also causes damage to your family, friends, and colleagues, who eventually becomes passive smokers, over the years.
Why a Healthy Liver can help you Lead a Healthy Life?
The human body comprises of several organ systems and each of these consists of several organs. Every organ plays a significant role in maintaining and regulating a healthy and functional life. One of such important organs is the liver. It produces cholesterol and mainly regulates the body metabolism. In simple word, this controls whether you are slim or overweight.
The cholesterol produced by the liver is essential for the body and it becomes a threat only when it accumulates beyond a safe limit. Several times, the liver encounters several malfunctions and abnormalities, which makes liver treatment inevitable. Minor problems associated with liver lead to problems like bloating, gas or constipation. The severe ones cause more serious threats and requires surgery.
It is crucial that one eats healthy food to provide the liver with all the nutrients necessary for it. This way it keeps functioning in a normal way and keeps the body weight in check. In contrast, when one stuffs his belly with fried food and toxic substances, he ends up burdening the liver and also a need for liver treatment arises.
In order to cope up with the highly processed food, the liver has to get extremely indulged in detoxifying the body. Simultaneously, it skips the function of mobilizing fat altogether. With time, the fat and cholesterol gets accumulated in the bloodstream. It causes several conditions such as cardiovascular disorders, arthritis, diabetes, hormonal imbalance and many more.
It is important to keep the liver healthy at all times, so that it can keep the body’s metabolism and toxic level in check. It can be done easily by controlling the proportion of food along with exercising regularly. Also, limiting the amount of alcohol being consumed helps a lot. Though occasional drinking does not cause any significant deterioration of the liver, drinking regularly can cause cirrhosis.
One should also keep a distance for over the counter drugs, especially the un-prescribed pain killers. In any case, experiment with health is a bad idea, a doctor’s advice is compulsory before consuming any medicine. Also, one should watch out for some of the unconventional methods of liver damage such as Hepatitis B and C. These diseases can be kept at bay by avoiding IV drugs, multiple sexual partners, body piercing and tattoos with infected needles.
These small changes can make a significant difference in the liver condition and improve the overall health stability.
Why Taking Care of Surgical Wound is Essential and How to Do it?
In today’s disease-stricken world, every individual undergoes at least one surgery in his lifetime. Some have to make round trips to the operation theaters multiple times in their lifetime for the surgical treatment for diseases of several domains.
The surgical wounds are the spots on the body where the incisions are made to carry out the surgery. Hospitals these days use the laparoscopic surgery to minimize the area required to make the surgical cut. But no matter the size of the wound, infection can still be imminent, if proper care is not practiced.
The skin starts to heal on its own within a day or two post operation. This varies from person to person depending on the overall health condition and type of surgical procedure. Closing the cut with clips or stitches enhances the healing process significantly.
The size and the sensitivity of the incision depends upon the type of disease and its surgery. The wound can be closed either with clips, stitches or surgical glue, depending upon the size, location and the intensity of the bonding needed by the cut.
In case the surgery was a minor one and the doctors have used surgical glue, it is the best alternative one can imagine. In case, it is the dissolvable stitches, the work of patient becomes comparatively easy. But in case it is the non-dissolvable stitches, clips or staples, much more caution and care is needed to ensure sterility. Clips, stapler and stitches are removed by the doctor or a skilled nurse after 3 to 15 days after the surgical procedure.
What to do to ensure everything is alright?
Keeping the wound covered all the times ensures that the wound does not get contaminated with environmental pathogens. A covered wound is likely to heal three times quicker as compared to uncovered wounds. Use of antibiotic cream is also recommended, this further diminishes the risk of infection up to 18 percent.
Keeping the wound out of any contact with water is very vital, especially for the first 24 hours. Usually dressing for a major surgery is usually recommended to carry out by a professional. However, sometimes the patient himself might need to address it personally.
Removing any fluid coming out of the wound and keeping it dry is the optimal condition for healing. It reduces the overall risk of infection. Sometimes, exerting some pressure to the wound might also be needed to keep the stitch intact.