Painkiller - the leading cause of acute liver failure

Recent research by the University of Edinburgh have gained new insight into how common painkiller paracetamol causes liver damage. The research studied the impact of paracetamol on liver cells in human and mouse tissue.

Toxicity liver damage is currently the leading cause of acute liver failure in the Western world. Long term or excessive use of paracetamol can damage the liver by harming vital structural connections between cells. One of the common result of toxicity liver damage is: Acute liver failure, others includes: high ALT level, liver inflammation, liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, or even liver cancer. This type of liver damage can be difficult to treat and may prove fatal.

Dr Leonard Nelson, of the University of Edinburgh's Hepatology Laboratory and Institute for Bioengineering, who co-lead the study, said: 

"Paracetamol is the world's preferred pain remedy - it is cheap, and considered safe and effective at therapeutic dose. However, drug-induced liver damage remains an important clinical problem and a challenge for developing safer drugs. Our findings reinforce the need for vigilance in paracetamol use, and could help discover how harm caused by its adverse use might be prevented.”

Prevent Liver Damage by Drugs

All drugs will causes different levels of toxic to the human body, we often judge the toxic by its obvious side effects, but damage to the liver is hard to notice until later stage, making toxicity liver disease hard to treat, and protection means is becoming more and more important.

Protection for liver cells is an effective measure to prevent toxicity liver damage, and both YHK Therapy and DTS can offer protection to liver cells. A study on the protective effect of DTS against paracetamol-induced liver damage found that DTS can effectively prevent the decline of liver tissue ATPase and protein thiol assay, thereby preventing the damage on the liver cell. This protective effect is valuable for people who uses long term medication, to prevent liver damages.

A Caution Reminder

Although the Paracetamol research has focus only on one single drug, but it is not the only drug the could damage to the liver and we should see the research as a caution reminder. We must look beyond the effects of drugs, and should fully understand the possible side effects before use.