What are the ways to prevent liver cancer? 9 major preventive measures to stay away from liver cancer

1. Lose weight by eating yogurt

Overeating and drinking will cause your intestines to store some undigested food. Bacteria ferment these undigested food and produce some harmful substances that remain in your colon. The result is that the liver will become enlarged due to digesting unhealthy food. The solution is to lose weight and eat more skim yogurt. Dr. Mae Diehl of Johns Hopkins University suggested: "It has been confirmed in animal experiments that eating a cup of yogurt every day has an antibacterial effect, which can reduce the chance of fatty liver in humans."

2. Stop after 6 cups

You know, if you give your liver more alcohol than it can digest, it will become hypertrophic. The alcohol filter in the liver will turn a sickly yellow color because it swallows too many fat globules. Dr. Raymond Koff, a liver pathologist at the University of Massachusetts, has found that this change can theoretically happen overnight. Of course, if you let your liver rest for a while, its function will recover, but if you continue to overload it, it will cause irreversible damage, and the scars will remain forever until you die of cirrhosis.

Don't want to die? Then drink less. "A man can digest about 70 to 80 grams of alcohol at a time, equivalent to 6 pints of beer," said Dr. Koff. "You should control your drinking. If you drink less than this amount, you won't get cirrhosis." Of course, past alcoholism is an unchangeable fact, so you have to take some remedial measures. Eating milk or protein drinks mixed with Chinese medicine will be helpful.

3. Take less medicine that damages the liver

Drugs like acetaminophen contain a byproduct called Tylenol, which is an active ingredient that is harmful to the body. Your body has limited ways to deal with them, and Tylenol that is not excreted will damage liver cells. William M. Lee, MD, a hepatologist at the University of Texas, pointed out, "The problem with this type of drug is that its side effects and efficacy complement each other. If you take it, it will be difficult to avoid this result. The only way is to reduce the dosage to a safe amount. If you take too much at one time, you must go to the hospital to see a doctor." For drugs like acetaminophen, please do not take it within 48 hours after drinking alcohol, as this will increase the burden on the liver. If you must take it, taking small amounts and multiple times can reduce side effects.

4. Check your regular medications

In addition to Tylenol, there are other drugs that will inevitably erode your liver. Because of the different pharmacological mechanisms of chemical drugs, their side effects are sometimes harmless, but sometimes they can cause serious damage to the body. Dr. Adrian DiBisceglie, medical director of the American Liver Foundation, said: "When you take erythromycin, antihypertensive drugs or other drugs that may damage the liver, don't forget to remind your doctor to check your liver function regularly."

5. Wash your hands before eating and brush your teeth before sex

Washing hands before meals is a seemingly simple action that can effectively prevent the spread of hepatitis A. In addition to this, unsafe sex is also a way of transmission. Dr. Miriam Alter, an expert in hepatitis virus research at the CDC, believes that sex is a very intimate behavior. Clinically, the risk of hepatitis transmission caused by oral sex is common. Of course, taking a bath together before sex can reduce this risk, or you can get a hepatitis A vaccine before you are infected.

6. Think twice before getting a tattoo

If you must follow this trend, then listen to the research results of the University of Texas Southwestern Research Institute. They found that the risk of hepatitis C transmission caused by tattoos is 9 times higher than the usual transmission channels. In the United States, the death caused by hepatitis C has exceeded AIDS. Robert W. Haley, the head of the research team, warned: Maybe some tattoo shops claim that their operating instruments are sterile, which makes no sense, because when the tattooer is operating, secondary contamination is very easy to occur.

7. Take some alpha-lipoic acid

This isn't some hallucinogenic drug. It's an antioxidant produced by glutathione, your liver's boss. It detoxifies toxic substances, turning them into water-soluble components that are excreted from the body through the kidneys. "For patients who have Tylenol poisoning, we give them a drug to stimulate their glutathione production," said Dr. Savant Mehta, director of the liver transplant center at the University of Massachusetts. To maximize the liver's detoxification function, they give patients 50 mg of alpha-lipoic acid tablets twice a day. This drug is also available in pharmacies.

8. Eat some milk thistle

Milk thistle is very popular in European countries. The active ingredient of this food is silymarin in its stem. A study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology showed that silymarin can help restore liver function damaged by alcohol, viruses, or chemicals. Dr. Mehta said that although the effectiveness of milk thistle needs further scientific proof, about half of the patients in my clinic are taking it. But if you want to try it, this drug is not available in China. In addition, the price of this drug in the United States is $23/60 pills.

9. A cup of protein powder

Some bodybuilding professionals often take protein powder to help them build up their biceps. But how does protein powder enhance liver function? A study published in the Journal of Nutrition showed that when mice were given a protein-rich diet, their damaged livers began to recover. Harihara Mehendale, a professor of toxicology at the University of Louisiana, believes that this treatment idea is also effective in humans because protein powder contains a lot of amino acids and glutamate components necessary for liver growth.