Tips on How to Keep Your Liver Healthy

The liver is the powerhouse organ of the body that performs over 500 vital life-sustaining functions. We cannot live without a liver.

Hepatitis C is caused by the hepatitis C virus that lives in the blood that primarily attacks the liver and affects other organs. Hepatitis C is a silent disease because the person often does not have symptoms until liver damage is present.

Taking care of your liver will help your quality of life.

How to Keep Your Liver Healthy

• Get tested for hepatitis C
• Seek medical treatment for hepatitis C
• Get vaccinated for hepatitis A and B. There is no vaccination for hepatitis C
• Avoid alcohol of all types
• Avoid recreational drugs
• Avoid herbal supplements and remedies
• Avoid exposure to toxins and chemicals
• Eat a healthy liver-friendly diet
• Drink green tea or coffee. Green tea and coffee have power-packed ingredients that help protect the liver from damage
• Drink 48 to 64 ounces of water daily
• Lose weight if you are overweight
• Mild exercise regularly
• Take over-the-counter medications and prescription medications safely
• Talk to your pharmacist about your prescription medications, vitamins, and supplements about ingredients that can harm your liver
• Be careful in taking over-the-counter medications containing acetaminophen (Tylenol) based products. Talk to your doctor about what amount is safe for you to take with your liver condition
• Get 8 hours of sleep per night
• Practice safe sex

Talk to your doctor about

• Getting tested for hepatitis C, even if you don’t have symptoms or have risk factors
• If you experience itchy skin
• Tired all the time
• Weak
• Loss of appetite
• Unexplained weight loss
• Nauseous
• Yellowish eyes or skin
• Stools are discolored
• Dark-colored urine
• Bruising or bleeding easily
• Swelling in the legs or abdomen
• Confusion or fuzzy thinking

Common risk factors for hepatitis C

• If you have HIV
• Ever used recreational drugs, injectable or inhaled drugs
• Experienced a needle stick
• Been exposed to someone else’s blood
• Shared toothbrush, razor, nail clippers, and personal hygiene items with someone
• Ever been on hemodialysis
• Received a clotting factor before 1987
• Had a blood transfusion or received an organ transplant before 1992
• Ever had hepatitis B or abnormal liver tests
• Been born to a mother who had hepatitis C
• Received a tattoo or body piercing with unsterilized equipment
• If you have ever been in or worked at a prison or healthcare environment

Get tested. Seek treatment.

Take care of your liver. You’re worth it!