How is your liver after the Spring Festival? Keep these tips for protecting your liver!

With the end of the Spring Festival holiday, the lively festival atmosphere gradually fades, but the bad living habits formed during this period are likely to have put a heavy burden on the liver. In order to restore the liver's vitality as soon as possible, it is necessary for us to pay attention to liver protection after the holiday.

Let the Xiangdong Hospital Affiliated to Hunan Normal University take us to look at the behaviors that affect liver health during the Spring Festival, and how to effectively protect the liver after the festival.

1. What unhealthy lifestyles during the Spring Festival can harm the liver?

1. Excessive drinking

During the Spring Festival, alcohol is a common drink on the table, but alcohol is extremely harmful to the liver. The ethanol in the wine will be converted into acetaldehyde after entering the liver. Both will directly damage liver cells, causing liver cell degeneration and necrosis. Long-term excessive drinking can easily induce alcoholic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and even increase the risk of liver cancer. For patients with liver disease, drinking during the Spring Festival is undoubtedly worse. Normal people's excessive drinking may also cause liver poisoning and hepatitis.

2. Unbalanced diet

During the Spring Festival, many people eat a lot of high-fat and high-cholesterol foods, such as fried foods, fatty meat, animal offal, etc. These foods will increase the burden of liver fat metabolism, and excess fat will accumulate in the liver, which can easily lead to fatty liver. In severe cases, it will damage the liver cell membrane, affect liver function, and cause symptoms such as liver pain, fatigue, and jaundice.

Therefore, after the festival, the diet should be light, eat more vegetables and fruits, and reduce the burden on the liver. Especially for patients with cirrhosis, they should pay more attention to their diet and avoid eating hard foods to prevent upper gastrointestinal bleeding.

3. Disordered work and rest

During the Spring Festival, there are many entertainment activities, and it is common to play cards, watch TV or surf the Internet all night. However, staying up late will increase the burden on the liver and affect its metabolic function. The liver needs to rest at night to repair itself, and 11 pm to 2 am is the golden time for liver care.

2. Signs of liver damage

1. Abnormal digestion

If you have a long-term loss of appetite after the holidays and are accompanied by a bitter taste in the mouth and bad breath, in addition to considering gastrointestinal diseases, hepatitis may also be the cause.

2. General discomfort

If you feel weak, stay in bed, or even have a low-grade fever after the holidays, similar to cold symptoms, it may be a sign of severe liver dysfunction. If you find that your urine is yellow like strong tea, and in severe cases, your eyes and skin turn yellow, that is, jaundice, it often means that liver and gallbladder problems are already serious and you need to see a doctor in time.

3. Changes in physical signs

When liver disease develops to a certain extent, small red spots will appear on the palms, which is called "liver palms" and is one of the manifestations of cirrhosis.

3. Liver Protection Guide

1. Adjust your diet

Avoid overeating, eat until you are 70% to 80% full at each meal. Eat more vegetables, fruits and other foods rich in vitamins and fiber to increase dietary fiber intake, promote intestinal peristalsis, and help the liver detoxify. Reduce the intake of greasy, spicy, and irritating foods to reduce the burden of liver digestion.

2. Moderate exercise

Arrange moderate exercise every day, such as walking, jogging, yoga, etc. Exercise can consume excess calories, reduce the risk of fat accumulation in the liver, reduce the burden on the liver, enhance the body's metabolic function, and help the liver recover.

3. Regular physical examinations and screenings

High-risk groups such as those with a family history of liver disease, chronic liver disease patients, and long-term drinkers should undergo regular liver function tests after the holidays. Physical examinations can detect liver problems early, take timely treatment measures, and avoid worsening of the disease.

Hunan Medical Chat Special Author: Zhou Zhiquan, Department of Infectious Diseases, Xiangdong Hospital Affiliated to Hunan Normal University

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(Edited by Wx)