What You Can Do to Help Reduce Liver Damage

With your physician’s guidance, you can help reduce liver damage and improve your liver condition. One option for doing this is making lifestyle changes. These healthy changes are an excellent start toward reducing liver damage and helping your condition. If your doctor agrees, here are some options for reducing liver damage that I've used:

Eating a liver-healthy diet

A liver-healthy diet often involves eating fresh or frozen vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and balanced protein in healthy serving sizes. Your doctor may recommend avoid sugar and processed foods. For me, a good rule of thumb is if it is grown from the ground (not a processed version) or had a mother, then it’s safe to eat. If it's man-made (taken out of its original form and processed), it’s probably not liver healthy.

Losing weight

If your doctor recommends losing weight, reduce your daily calories and exercising 5 to 6 days a week can help. Changing daily eating and exercise habits can help also reduce fat in your liver. Food and activity trackers make a difference in helping you lose weight while forming healthy habits. Work toward small, achievable goals. Small target goals help keep you on track toward better liver health.

Your doctor or registered dietitian can work with you to develop a healthy diet plan that is best for your condition. Ask your doctor or registered dietitian for advice on what is a healthy weight range for you.

Exercising daily

Mild physical activity each day (like walking or riding a bicycle) can help reduce weight and increase stamina. Being physically active 10 to 15 minutes a day, 5 days per week, builds momentum as you work toward increasing your time.

Your metabolism and endurance will increase while burning calories and losing weight. If you can’t walk outside, there are DVD’s and indoor walking programs available on the internet that make wonderful alternatives to walking outside. In my experience, being physically active really makes a difference toward better health.

Controlling diabetes and reducing cholesterol

For those with diabetes, test your blood sugar often. Take your medication as your doctor recommends. Eat a healthy diet recommended for your condition. For those with high cholesterol, daily physical activity and eating a healthy balanced diet can help reduce high cholesterol.

Preventing liver damage

Ask your doctor about avoiding alcohol and recreational drugs. Also ask your doctor what prescriptions, over-the-counter medications, vitamins, and supplements are safe for you to take. Please note: Alternative treatments or supplements have not been proven to cure hepatitis C and liver disease. Various herbal supplements have been reported to harm the liver. Talk to your doctor before taking anything.