Cirrhosis Skin And Cirrhosis Diet

Cirrhosis skin and cirrhosis diet

        When looking for cirrhosis symptoms, you must keep in mind that while this disease destroys the liver cells, turning them from smooth and filled with detoxified blood into scarred and petrified, incapable of fulfilling their duties, it can degenerate into a systemic illness. Sometimes, the signs are showing up a lot earlier than normally expected, but you might not see them. For example, one of the earliest symptoms of what will soon be a deadly liver condition is cirrhosis skin.

       Cirrhosis skin is composed out of several epidermal afflictions, each of them appearing in other diseases, making them harder to identify as cirrhosis symptoms. The two most specific and often seen in patients are spider veins and palmer erythema. There is a third one, but that is not a sign of cirrhosis, rather being caused by it: jaundice.

       Known as the primary cirrhosis skin condition in the world, helping with diagnosing the disease, spider veins are a mystery all of their own. While it is postulated by researchers and medical doctors that heredity, local trauma and hormonal levels are essential factors in the apparition of the affliction, its real cause, proved and irrefutable is still as much of a secret as it was 50 or 60 years ago.

       However, there are certain harsh truths about spider veins: they increase in number with the passing of the years and they seem to fancy twice the number of women than of men.

       If you are wondering how this problem proves its relation to the liver disease in question, the answer is simple: you have to understand the mechanism of its forming. Spider veins are, in fact, the venules (smallest of veins) under the surface of the skin. Due to the poor detoxifying of the blood by the liver, the harmful substances that are not filtered are sent back into the blood stream.

        These toxins act like tiny, minute needles that try to pierce the vein wall. Sometimes, they succeed in passing through it, but most of the times they just irritate it, thus inflaming the venules and making them visible through the skin.

       A secondary and slightly not specific form of cirrhosis skin is palmer erythema, also known as "liver palms". It can appear on the soles of your feet, as well (plantar erythema). It manifests on the skin of your palms, reddening them and even deadening the nervous terminations in some cases. The cause is only hypothesized about, since palmer erythema is a usual manifestation for so many diseases that have almost nothing in common.

Cirrhosis skin as an effect of cirrhosis

       The only one of these afflictions that is visible only after the liver is already damaged is jaundice. It is caused by the accumulation of bilirubin, a pigment from the bile, in the sub epidermal tissue due to the malfunctioning of the digestive part of the liver. Jaundice can also modify the aspect and composition of the part of the skin it affects, changing it from soft and smooth to scaly and clammy.

       However, you have to keep in mind that jaundice does not indicate only cirrhosis, appearing as a symptom, this time, for gallstones (if the yellowing of your skin is sudden and painful) or carcinoma (if the jaundice is slow in forming).

Cirrhosis diet

       One of the first and most efficient treatments in cirrhosis is the dieting. Maybe you think that the cirrhosis diet requires some sort of special effort or extra time. Well, it does not. It is a normal diet, introducing you and your body to a new kind of life - style, in which the needs of your organism are truly met and satisfied.
The cirrhosis diet has three main components or steps:

• limiting salt: a vast majority of cirrhosis patients tend to hold onto water and therefore suffering from swelling in their ankles, joints and even abdominal cavity. Salt is known for its water - retaining qualities and needs to be almost completely eliminated for a successful first step in a cirrhosis diet;
• eating more calories and proteins: if your liver stops working properly, the food you ingest does not get digested correctly and the necessary substances are eliminated without ever making contact with the blood stream. Thus, you need to introduce more calories and proteins into your system to make sure some of it gets to its designated location.
• eliminating alcohol: alcohol excess is one of the main causes of cirrhosis. Quite simply put, there is no safe drinking level for this liver disease and you should quit immediately.