Liver 肝臟

傷肝定護肝

肝臟是我們其中一個重要的器官、它為我們儲存能量，並在需要時釋放出來、它同時是排毒淨化中心。香港人的飲食習慣普遍並不健康、比較遍重高脂和高糖的食物如近年越來越多新品牌的burger和拉麵、女士至愛的甜品、含糖的飲料如汽水、奶茶等等。加上運動少、因工作應酬或去「蒲」飲酒多、增加患上脂肪肝的風險、更有機會導致肝硬化、衰竭等問題。

其實好多人都關注肝臟健康、近年常見一些護肝或保肝的保健產品或藥物、有些更聲清可防止酒精的傷害、更有些產品有明星代言人、但這些「保品」真有這麼神奇功效嗎！作為身體的排毒中心、多數藥物、草藥（包括中藥）、維生素和保健品都會經過肝臟分解、過程可對肝臟做成傷害。例如高劑量的維生素A,D,E和K對肝臟尤其有害。市面上可買到的草藥和中藥有幾萬種、每種藥又有不同產地、實在很難有一個完整的list告訴我們那種保健產品對肝臟有傷害。常見有雞骨草（病人常以為它護肝、其實每年都有由它引起急性肝炎的案例）、金不換、麻黃、赤芍等等。西藥當然也可以對肝臟有影響、如需長期服用、醫生會在服藥前、服藥後的一段時間和定期檢驗肝功能。

雖然保健品未必有「神奇」功效、但有些產品的確可以降低肝酵素如ALT。一般而言、ALT可反映肝臟的發炎程度、但假如保健品只令肝酵素下降而不減少肝臟的發炎程度、就可能掩蓋了病情、錯過了治療的時機。在80-90年代未有控制乙型肝炎藥物的時候、可用的治療就是這些降低肝酵素的產品、日子久了就知道其實無療效。

肝臟健康是需要投資時間(如運動）和規律（食物和酒精）的。如果說食保健產品就可以亂飲亂食、那帶helmet是否可以被人任打個頭？

Supplements for Liver: Damaging or revitalizing?

Liver is one of our most important organs, it stores energy for us and release it when needed, and it is also a detoxification and purification center. The food diet of most Hong Kong people generally unhealthy, the diet usually contains high-fat and high-sugar, such as new burger brands and ramen brands, women’s favorite desserts, sugary drinks such as sodas, milk tea and so on. Coupled with less exercise, increasing alcohol consumption due to work or partying, this will increase the risk of developing fatty liver, more likely to lead to liver cirrhosis, liver failure and other issues.

In fact, many people are concerned about liver health. In recent years, there are more supplements or medications which helps to increase your liver health and some even claimed they can prevent liver injury from alcohol. There are even celebrities becoming the spokesperson for these products. Are these products as magical as they claim? As the body’s detox center, most medications, herbal medicine (including Chinese medicine), vitamins and health care products will be broken down by liver, the process can cause damage to liver. For example, high doses of vitamins A, D, E and K are particularly harmful to liver. There are tens of thousands of herbal and Chinese medicines available in the market, and each of them has different origin, it is very difficult to have a complete list to tell us the kind of health care products which are harming the liver. The common ones are canton arbus (patients often think they are keeping your liver healthy, in fact every year it causes cases of acute hepatitis), Thai basil, ephedra, red peony and so on. Western medicine can of course also have an impact on the liver, for long-term usage, physicians will recommend taking liver function test before taking the medication treatment and regular liver function tests after taking the medication for a period of time.

Although health supplements may not have the “magical” effect, but some products can indeed reduce liver enzymes such as ALT. In general, ALT can reflect the degree of inflammation of the liver, but if health care products only cause hepatic enzymes to decrease without reducing the degree of inflammation of the liver, it may mask the diseased condition, and miss the opportunity for treatment. During the 80s and 90s, while there was not any effective hepatitis B drugs, the treatment were these products to reduce hepatic enzymes, and we know that treatment was ineffective over the time.

Good Liver health requires us to invest time (e.g. exercise) and regularity of diet (food and alcohol). If health care products can be taken without any precaution, you are risking yourselves even they are somewhat beneficial to you.