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The liver is a tough, resilient organ. We can flood it with toxins and expose it to nasty germs, and it still goes about its jobs of purifying blood, manufacturing bile, and keeping us alive. But even the liver has its limits. If it suffers too much damage over too many years, some of the cells will turn into scar tissue. This is called cirrhosis. If enough scar tissue forms, the liver will begin ...

What are clinical trials? Clinical trials are the means by which new drugs and treatments are tested to determine if they work. They are the engine that drives progress in medicine. For patients who have run out of other options, clinical trials offer a last chance at a potentially effective therapy. In some cases, they provide access to research treatments before they are made widely available. ...

If you've been diagnosed with hepatitis C, your doctor has probably advised you to give up alcoholic beverages. For some people, this can be one of the most difficult lifestyle adjustments to make. But it's also one of the most important. Several studies have shown that among people with hepatitis C, regular drinkers have higher levels of virus than nondrinkers, according to a report in the journ...

Hepatitis C viruses are so small that they can only been seen with the most powerful electron microscopes. Yet simple tests can reliably tell whether someone has been exposed to the virus. Other tests can show if someone still has an active infection. Still other tests are able to gauge the extent of damage to the liver. Often the first sign that something is wrong comes from a standard blood tes...

Unlike cold or flu viruses, the hepatitis C virus (HCV) does not spread easily. It is transmitted by direct contact with blood that carries the virus. Before screening donated blood for hepatitis C became mandatory in 1991, most transmission occurred through blood transfusions. Now that the blood supply is tested for the hepatitis C virus, this kind of transmission is extremely rare: It occurs le...

The rules are simple at Monday's lunchtime hepatitis C support group in the Oasis Clinic: Only one person speaks at a time, people's stories don't leave the room, and you can't have more than two slices of pizza. Larry Galindo, a 51-year-old former injection drug user, tells the group he's nervous about his upcoming yearlong course of treatment for hepatitis C. "Some people breeze through the tre...

If you've been diagnosed with hepatitis C, there is plenty you can do to stay healthy and lower your risk of developing serious liver disease. Like many diseases, hepatitis C is affected by the way we live -- what we eat, how much we exercise, even how we deal with stress. The healthier you are overall, the better your body can deal with the virus. The less strain you put on your liver, the health...

The symptoms of hepatitis C virus infection differ widely from one person to another. After being exposed to the virus, some people experience a short bout of symptoms that may include fever, loss of appetite, extreme fatigue, and pain on the right side of the abdomen. But most people carry the virus for years without ever noticing any symptoms. Many don't know they have HCV until they are tested....

Many people have heard of the type of hepatitis that is spread by water or food contaminated with the hepatitis A virus. A diagnosis of hepatitis C, however, is often more puzzling. Your doctor has probably given you some basic facts about hepatitis C, and these articles are designed to help you learn more. "Hepatitis" -- a term that means inflammation of the liver -- can have many causes. At lea...

Very understandably, almost everyone diagnosed with the hepatitis C virus asks the same question: "What's going to happen to me?" Unfortunately, with HCV infection, it's very hard for doctors to offer an answer. More than with most diseases, the course of HCV infection varies widely from person to person. In about 15 to 25 percent of people infected with the virus, their immune systems attack the...

Who gets hepatitis C? Anyone can get hepatitis C virus. But unlike a cold or flu virus, HCV isn't easy to catch. The virus is transmitted only by direct contact with human blood that contains the virus. There are several ways infection can occur. Those at risk of being infected with hepatitis C virus include:

It's natural for everyone to feel stress, but people with hepatitis C have additional concerns. There's the prospect of medical tests and procedures, worry over medical bills, and the fear of infecting others to name a few. Some people feel angry either at themselves or at someone else -- or simply at the rotten blow that life has handed them. That anger can lead to depression, which only adds to ...

Most people know him as bad guy JR Ewing on the TV show "Dallas." But lately the actor who played the part, Larry Hagman, has adopted a different role: champion for the cause of organ transplants. In 1995, Hagman, who had advanced cirrhosis, received a life-saving liver transplant. Since then, he has gone on to become honorary chairman of the U.S. Transplant Games, an Olympics-style competition h...

In 1968 Haight-Ashbury, in the afterglow of the Summer of Love, Steve Cochran* shot up heroin for the first time. He was 16, one of thousands of teens who poured into the symbolic center of the '60s to search for utopia and to sample free love and drugs. "I was hanging out in the most intense place in the most intense of times," he says. "I thought of myself as a drug adventurer. I experimented wi...

The word hepatitis is derived from Greek -- "hepar" meaning liver, and "-itis" meaning inflamed or diseased. The causes of hepatitis range from chronic alcoholism to chemical toxins. In addition, at least six different viruses that cause the disease have been identified. The most prevalent chronic infection in the United States is due to hepatitis C. Why do certain viruses target the liver? To be...

Dramatic advances have been made in the treatment of hepatitis C since the virus that caused it was first identified in 1989. The current treatment for most patients is a combination of two drugs: pegylated alpha interferon and ribavirin. Together, these two drugs have been shown to slow or stop the progress of hepatitis C in some, but not all, patients. Although far from perfect treatments, they ...

Hepatitis C has been called a silent epidemic for its stealthy progress and -- until recently -- incognito status. Though it's the most common cause of chronic hepatitis in the United States, many people -- including some health care professionals -- still connect hepatitis with type A, the treatable virus contracted by ingesting feces-tainted food or water. Some Americans first heard of hepatitis...

While outcomes with hepatitis C are uncertain, there's no doubt about transmission. Direct blood exposure is the most efficient mode. Fortunately, the advent of highly sensitive blood-screening tests in 1992 has pretty much eliminated the risk involved in blood transfusion. Health care workers still face some risk, but actual transmission of HCV is small. About 1 percent of health care workers ex...

Your liver keeps you alive by filtering dangerous toxins from your blood. So what are you doing to return the favor? It's up to you to protect your liver from viruses, poisons, and other serious threats. Take this short quiz to find out how much you know about keeping your liver healthy. 1. It won't hurt my liver to take more than the recommended amount of Tylenol if I have a really bad headach...

It has been only 20 years since the hepatitis C virus was first identified. In that time, an extraordinary amount of progress has been made in the fight against this virus. Still, much needs to be done. Improved diagnostic tests are needed to identify people infected with HCV more precisely and less expensively than is possible today. Better ways to prevent transmission are urgently needed. With ...

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