Dietary taboos for hepatitis C patients

First, you must not drink any alcoholic beverages. Second, you must strictly control the intake of processed foods that are high in fat, sugar, and high additives. Third, you must be cautious in consuming health products with unknown ingredients, drugs with clear hepatotoxicity, and foods high in copper in special stages. In addition, the daily diet is not much different from that of healthy people. Excessive dietary restrictions may lead to malnutrition and slow down the pace of liver cell repair.

Don’t believe it. I have been in contact with a 38-year-old patient before. He has been negative for two years after taking pan-genotypic DAA drugs. The liver test has been stable at the normal level of 7.2 during the re-examination. Even though he couldn’t help drinking two beers with relatives during the holidays, the last time he was checked, it went up to 11, which is in the early stage of liver fibrosis. Why is it so serious? The hepatitis C virus itself will cause long-term inflammatory damage to liver cells. Even if it has turned negative, it will take 3-5 years to completely repair the damaged liver cells. Even if there is only 10g of alcohol (about half a bottle of beer, half a liter of liquor), it will add additional metabolic burden to the already fragile liver. Some patients have asked me before, saying on the Internet that drinking a small amount of red wine can soften blood vessels. Is it okay to drink less? This has to be said twice. There is indeed a small amount of research proving that resveratrol in red wine has antioxidant effects, but that is a conclusion for healthy people. For hepatitis C patients with a history of liver damage, the current mainstream consensus in the liver disease community is: no matter what kind of wine or how much you drink, it will do more harm than good. There is really no need to take this risk.

Many people think that if I don’t drink alcohol, everything will be fine. In fact, there are more invisible pitfalls of liver damage hidden in daily life. Aunt Zhang, who lives in the community downstairs of my home, always felt that she had lost her health after she became negative for hepatitis C last year. She made bone soup and stewed braised pork every day. She was afraid of waste and always ate leftovers from two or three days apart. Less than half a year later, she was diagnosed with moderate fatty liver disease and her transaminase was higher than before antiviral treatment. Of course, it doesn’t mean that you should not eat meat at all. I have seen another patient who was too extreme. I heard people said that liver disease should be light, and he only had white porridge with vegetables. He lost more than ten pounds in three months. His albumin was very low in the follow-up test, and his immunity could not keep up. He was in trouble after having a cold for half a month. When we talk about limiting high-fat and high-sugar foods, we mean fried chicken, milk tea, processed cakes, and repeatedly fried cooking oil. High-quality proteins like steamed fish, eggs, and lean beef should be eaten more to provide sufficient raw materials for liver cell repair.

There is also a blind spot that a lot of people take advantage of, which is random patching. I admitted a patient a while ago. I was afraid that hepatitis C would relapse. I heard from relatives that cordyceps and liver-protecting tablets can protect the liver. I bought a bunch of them online and took them for half a month. When I came here, my face was yellow, and my transaminase level soared to more than 300. To be fair here, not all health products cannot be eaten. If you do have problems such as low immunity, be sure to consult a doctor in a regular hospital for evaluation before taking them. Don’t buy them blindly by looking at advertisements on WeChat Moments. Especially the "ancestral secret recipes" and "liver-protecting miracle medicine" with unclear ingredient lists are likely to contain prohibited ingredients that damage the liver. There are also rumors on the Internet that patients with hepatitis C cannot eat seafood and animal livers. This depends on the situation: if the patient has developed liver cirrhosis and has reduced copper metabolism, it is indeed necessary to strictly limit high-copper foods such as shellfish, animal livers, and chocolate to prevent copper from accumulating in the liver and aggravating damage. ； But if it is just ordinary chronic hepatitis C and the liver function is normal, it is no problem to eat grilled oysters and smear the liver tip occasionally, and there is no need to kill him with a pole.

After all, hepatitis C is now a disease that can be completely cured by taking medicine for three months. There is really no need to put heavy shackles on oneself when it comes to eating. What I usually tell my patients the most is, don’t drink alcohol, eat less takeout that is heavy in oil and salt, don’t take medicine indiscriminately, take a few bites of the rest if you want something sweet, don’t hold back if you want to eat some meat, keep up with nutrition, be in a good mood, and get better quickly, right?