Liver disease is a national disease in Taiwan. With the emergence of liver B vaccine and new liver B and C drugs, the prevalence rate of hepatitis B and C types has begun to decline, but the number of patients with alcoholic hepatitis, fatty liver a...
Liver disease is a national disease in Taiwan. With the emergence of liver B vaccine and new liver B and C drugs, the prevalence rate of hepatitis B and C types has begun to decline, but the number of patients with alcoholic hepatitis, fatty liver and drug-induced hepatitis has been increasing. In the past 10 years, the prevalence rate has increased from 10% to 30%. In particular, Taiwan’s public generally has the misconception of taking medicine and eating health foods. It has caused drug-induced hepatitis, and even 1 person dies in every 25 patients.
A few days ago, there was a 34-year-old young woman who just wanted to use Chinese medicine to nourish her body. Unexpectedly, after taking it for many days, she suddenly developed nausea, abdominal distension, and brown urine for one week. After a medical examination, she found that her liver function was abnormal, but the screening showed that it was not ABC viral hepatitis. She diagnosed suspected drug hepatitis. After more than two months of supportive treatment, her liver function returned to normal.
{Wang Zhitang, director of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatitis of the 99}, said that 1 in every 10 patients with acute hepatitis in China is related to liver damage caused by drugs. In clinical practice, patients with drug-induced hepatitis of all ages were found to be clinically diagnosed with drug-induced hepatitis, but the most were 50 to 80 years old, and most of them were male patients than women. The incubation period of liver damage caused by drugs ranges from several hours to several months, and even 3 to 4 weeks after stopping the drug.
Wang Zhitang further explained that drug hepatitis may be related to factors such as the drug itself or its healing product, the dosage of the drug, the patient's own body quality, age, etc. In addition, taking inappropriate herbal medicines, Chinese medicines, food supplements that are known to be effective, healthy foods, etc. may also cause drug hepatitis. According to observation, 25% of drug-induced hepatitis in Taiwan are caused by Chinese herbal medicine.
Why do Chinese medicine easily cause liver damage? Wang Zhitang explained that because it is often a compound prescription when taken, it is more likely to buy unknown drugs, and some even take Western medicine. In addition, the preference for practical health foods among Chinese people is also one of the reasons for drug hepatitis, because it does not require prescriptions and does not require a strict evaluation of the efficacy and toxicity of the drug. It is believed that Chinese medicines and health products should be subject to high-standard testing and correctness, just like Western medicines.
Wang Zhitang said that most drug-induced hepatitis does not show any obvious symptoms, and symptoms may occur, such as brown urine, abdominal distension, easy fatigue, etc., and even about 3.7% of severe cases may die of explosive hepatitis or liver failure, which may cause people to find the corrective doctor and understand the necessary practices and side effects before taking the medicine. Currently, except for drug-induced hepatitis caused by pain, there are drugs for treatment, and no other drugs can be treated. Only by discontinuing the use of pathogenic drugs as early as possible, relying on the patient's own immunity, about 90% of them can recover within 3 months.
