• About
  • Blog
    • All Contributors
    • MEN
      • Daniel Archibald | HEALTH & FITNESS
      • David Bink | ANATOMY & HEALTH
      • David Loiseau | FITNESS & HEALTH
      • Dean Brandt | FITNESS & NUTRITION
      • Eric Morrison | NUTRITION & WEIGHT LOSS
      • Evan Ward | HUMAN KINETICS & NUTRITION
      • Gregory Lalonde | PERSONAL STYLE CONSULTANT
      • James Barry | CULINARY ARTS
      • Jay Zuccato | FITNESS & NUTRITION
      • John Pedulla | HAIR & BEAUTY
      • Mark McKoy | FITNESS
      • Dr. Mike Carragher | AGE MANAGEMENT & WELLNESS
      • Steven J. Wong
      • Dr. Terrence Lemay | CHIROPRACTIC & ACUPUNTURE
    • WOMEN
      • Amanda Kotel | EXERCISE SCIENCE & NUTRITION
      • Anne Day | LIFE CHANGE
      • C S Bromley | HOLISTIC HEALTH & BEAUTY
      • Carmelia Ray | DATING & RELATIONSHIPS
      • Caroline Cowan-Mujkic | HOLISTIC NUTRITION
      • Catherine Garceau | WELLNESS & LIFE CHANGE
      • Che Marville | MEDITATION
      • Cherry Villanos | HEALTH & BEAUTY
      • Dayna Stoddart | FITNESS & WELLNESS
      • Denise Pala | YOGA
      • Diana Todd | WEIGHT LOSS & FITNESS
      • Elena Spina | AGING WITH POWER
      • Fay Chapple | LIFE CHANGE
      • Gillian Mandich | HEALTH & WELLNESS
      • Giselle Curcio | SKINCARE & COSMETICS
      • Gorretti Francisco | HEALTH & FITNESS
      • Jasmin Chase | HEALTH & BEAUTY
      • Jennifer Van Barneveld | ONLINE TRAINER & DIET COACH
      • Joelle Malette | FITNESS & WELLNESS
      • Krista Banik | MASSAGE THERAPY
      • Kristin Cavarzan | FITNESS & NUTRITION
      • Lauren Jacobsen | SPORTS SUPPLEMENTATION
      • Leigh Brandt | FITNESS & HEALTH
      • Liz Martino | YOUTH HEALTH & FITNESS
      • Margaret Floyd | NUTRITION
      • Monika Kovacs | YOGA & WELLNESS
      • Nichelle Laus | FITNESS & WEIGHT LOSS
      • Dr. Sara Solomon | THE FAT BLASTING DOCTOR
      • Spenser Chapple | THE YOUTH PERSPECTIVE
      • Stacey Macdonald | ENERGY HEALING & REIKI
      • Stephanie Joanne | FITNESS & PRO-ACTIVE HEALTH
  • Episodes
  • Topics
  • Contact

ANTI-AGE ME | Revealing the Secrets to Living the Highest Quality of Life

REVEALING THE SECRETS TO LIVING LONGER & LIVING BETTER

  • Blog
  • All Contributors
  • Sponsors

Progress Against Hepatitis C, a Sneaky Virus

0
  • by Guest Blogger
  • in Blogs · Health
  • — 23 Feb, 2014

By Jane Brody

Forty years ago, a beloved neighbor was bedridden for weeks at a time with a mysterious ailment. She knew only that it involved her liver and that she must never drink alcohol, which would make things worse.

It was decades before the cause of these debilitating flare-ups was discovered: a viral infection at first called non-A, non-B hepatitis, then properly identified in 1989 as hepatitis C. The apparent source of her infection was a blood transfusion she had received decades earlier.

A screening test was soon developed, making it possible to check all blood products for the hepatitis C virus. But that by no means put an end to the infection. Transmission persists today, commonly the result of intravenous drug abuse with shared needles, sexual and especially anal intercourse, and, among health care workers, accidental needlesticks or other contact with infected blood.

“An estimated 3.2 million people in the United States are infected, but the vast majority of them don’t know it,” Dr. Mark S. Sulkowski, a liver specialist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in an interview.

For several decades, only people at high risk for the infection were advised to be screened for it. That meant anyone who had ever injected illegal drugs; recipients of blood transfusions or organ transplants before 1992, or of clotting factor concentrates made before 1987; children born to infected mothers; patients who underwent long-term kidney dialysis; anyone infected with H.I.V.or with symptoms of liver disease or an abnormal liver enzyme test; organ transplant recipients whose donors were later found to have the virus; and health care workers possibly exposed to infected blood.

But even this wide net has missed huge numbers of infected individuals, Dr. Sulkowski said.

Many at high risk are reluctant to identify themselves for screening. Others are unaware that they might be infected, including those exposed as infants or children. In more than half of infected people, the abnormality does not show up in routine blood tests until serious damage has occurred. A chronic infection can cause cirrhosis and liver cancer, and often necessitates a liver transplant.

Recognizing that deaths from hepatitis C are rising and more than three-fourths of infections are being diagnosed in baby boomers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends that everyone born from 1945 through 1965 be screened for the virus.

But what about other people who are walking around with undiagnosed hepatitis C infections? Should they wait until their livers are seriously damaged?

“I would recommend that everyone who comes in for a checkup be screened for hepatitis C,” said Dr. Hillel Tobias, a liver specialist at New York University Medical Center. “It can be added to a blood test and is covered by insurance.” A test for the virus can also be done with a cheek swab.

Thomas Carley, a 39-year-old resident of Mahopac, N.Y., and father of 7-year-old twins, knows the value of early detection. Apparently infected with hepatitis C as a child, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 liver cirrhosis in his 20s and eventually needed a liver transplant.

He is now an enthusiastic volunteer for the American Liver Foundation, which, he said in an interview, “taught me everything I needed to know to fight this disease.”

In about 20 percent of cases, the virus disappears on its own within six months of the initial infection. But the remaining 80 percent develop into a chronic infection that can slowly destroy the liver.

“The younger you are when you’re infected, the longer it takes to develop cirrhosis,” Dr. Tobias said. “It could take 25 years or more in someone infected at age 20. But a 50-year-old can develop cirrhosis in just 10 to 15 years.”

The earlier an infection is diagnosed and treated, the less likely that liver damage will occur. But even in people who already have cirrhosis, eradicating a hepatitis C infection “markedly reduces the chances of it progressing or of developing liver cancer,” Dr. Tobias said. “Even with advanced cirrhosis, people can live longer lives if you get rid of the virus.”

Until late last year, the standard treatment for hepatitis C infection was a challenging 48-week regimen of weekly injections with interferon along with one or two oral antiviral drugs, ribavirin and a protease inhibitor. The treatment almost invariably caused fatigue, depression, irritability, nausea and other debilitating side effects, prompting many infected individuals to refuse it unless obvious liver damage had occurred.

But with two newly approved drugs and a few more in the pipeline, a new era in treatment of hepatitis C is at hand. These regimens are more effective at curing patients and generally work much more quickly than previous treatments.

Hepatitis C has a variety of genetic forms — at least six. Most American patients are infected with genotype 1. The new treatments must be carefully selected for each patient, because some drugs are more effective than others against particular genotypes.

The new drugs, sofosbuvir (Sovaldi) and simeprevir (Olysio), are each approved for use with interferon and ribavirin for treatment of genotype 1 infection. Sovaldi already can be used without injected interferon to treat people infected with genotypes 2 and 3 — about a quarter of all hepatitis C patients in this country.

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve an all-oral drug treatment for genotype 1 infection, without interferon, toward the end of this year. But many patients are already taking oral combinations of the newer antivirals, prescribed off-label by their doctors or obtained in clinical trials.

A major study of the new drugs, called the Cosmos trial, found them effective even in patients who could not be cured by previous treatments. One very grateful recipient, John DiFazio, 62, a Vietnam vet and retired firefighter living on Staten Island, said that since the late 1990s he had tried half a dozen different treatments for hepatitis C, all various combinations with interferon, and none had cleared his body of the virus.

He started the new drugs in January and within seven days, his viral count had dropped to 938 per milliliter from 2.8 million. Now six weeks out, it is 104 per milliliter.

“I’ve had no side effects,” Mr. DiFazio said. “I can do everything I want to do.”

FacebookEmailShare/Bookmark
Share
  • Previous story 25 Reasons You’re Not Losing Weight (part 5)
  • Next story Five events you can win in the retirement Olympics
  • SUBSCRIBE NOW FOR EXCLUSIVE NEWS & UPDATES

  • Facebook

  • Optimize your Health so you can Enjoy Life!

    Energy Medicine
  • Archives

    • March 2016 (4)
    • February 2016 (8)
    • January 2016 (9)
    • December 2015 (11)
    • November 2015 (8)
    • October 2015 (8)
    • September 2015 (8)
    • August 2015 (8)
    • July 2015 (10)
    • June 2015 (7)
    • May 2015 (7)
    • April 2015 (12)
    • March 2015 (15)
    • February 2015 (13)
    • January 2015 (16)
    • December 2014 (21)
    • November 2014 (26)
    • October 2014 (26)
    • September 2014 (26)
    • August 2014 (27)
    • July 2014 (28)
    • June 2014 (28)
    • May 2014 (28)
    • April 2014 (26)
    • March 2014 (26)
    • February 2014 (24)
    • January 2014 (28)
    • December 2013 (27)
    • November 2013 (26)
    • October 2013 (26)
    • September 2013 (26)
    • August 2013 (27)
    • July 2013 (28)
    • June 2013 (28)
    • May 2013 (28)
    • April 2013 (29)
    • March 2013 (21)
  • Energy Medicine
  • Tags

    Age Management Medicine Anne Day Anti-Age Anti-AgeMe Anti-Aging Body Body Well Clinic Chakras Che Marville Clarity Centre Denise Pala Dr. Mike Carragher Exercise Fay Chapple Fitness Health HGH Hormones Life Change Life Coach Lifestyle Meditation Nichelle Laus Organization Reiki Revitalize Self-Healing Spenser Chapple Stacey MacDonald Steven J. Wong Strength training Testosterone Weight Lifting Welln Wellness Yoga
  • Recent Posts

    • How To Get A Six-Pack In One Month
    • I Wish I Knew These 15 Tricks To Waking Up Earlier
    • 10 Health Benefits Of Sex That Will Surprise You
    • 13 Gluten-Free Recipes That Will Make You Drool
    • Embrace the pain, avoid the injury.
  • ANTI-AGE ME is a gripping story that documents a number of universal themes – the fading of beauty, the realization of mortality, and the search for answers to living the highest quality of life – in STEVEN’s year and a half long journey. The film closely captures the scientific and tangible results of the program while examining any increase in quality of life – and any side effects. ANTI-AGE ME will juxtapose these new forms of anti-aging medicine with other methods of health and fitness.
  • About
  • Blog
    • All Contributors
    • MEN
      • Daniel Archibald | HEALTH & FITNESS
      • David Bink | ANATOMY & HEALTH
      • David Loiseau | FITNESS & HEALTH
      • Dean Brandt | FITNESS & NUTRITION
      • Eric Morrison | NUTRITION & WEIGHT LOSS
      • Evan Ward | HUMAN KINETICS & NUTRITION
      • Gregory Lalonde | PERSONAL STYLE CONSULTANT
      • James Barry | CULINARY ARTS
      • Jay Zuccato | FITNESS & NUTRITION
      • John Pedulla | HAIR & BEAUTY
      • Mark McKoy | FITNESS
      • Dr. Mike Carragher | AGE MANAGEMENT & WELLNESS
      • Steven J. Wong
      • Dr. Terrence Lemay | CHIROPRACTIC & ACUPUNTURE
    • WOMEN
      • Amanda Kotel | EXERCISE SCIENCE & NUTRITION
      • Anne Day | LIFE CHANGE
      • C S Bromley | HOLISTIC HEALTH & BEAUTY
      • Carmelia Ray | DATING & RELATIONSHIPS
      • Caroline Cowan-Mujkic | HOLISTIC NUTRITION
      • Catherine Garceau | WELLNESS & LIFE CHANGE
      • Che Marville | MEDITATION
      • Cherry Villanos | HEALTH & BEAUTY
      • Dayna Stoddart | FITNESS & WELLNESS
      • Denise Pala | YOGA
      • Diana Todd | WEIGHT LOSS & FITNESS
      • Elena Spina | AGING WITH POWER
      • Fay Chapple | LIFE CHANGE
      • Gillian Mandich | HEALTH & WELLNESS
      • Giselle Curcio | SKINCARE & COSMETICS
      • Gorretti Francisco | HEALTH & FITNESS
      • Jasmin Chase | HEALTH & BEAUTY
      • Jennifer Van Barneveld | ONLINE TRAINER & DIET COACH
      • Joelle Malette | FITNESS & WELLNESS
      • Krista Banik | MASSAGE THERAPY
      • Kristin Cavarzan | FITNESS & NUTRITION
      • Lauren Jacobsen | SPORTS SUPPLEMENTATION
      • Leigh Brandt | FITNESS & HEALTH
      • Liz Martino | YOUTH HEALTH & FITNESS
      • Margaret Floyd | NUTRITION
      • Monika Kovacs | YOGA & WELLNESS
      • Nichelle Laus | FITNESS & WEIGHT LOSS
      • Dr. Sara Solomon | THE FAT BLASTING DOCTOR
      • Spenser Chapple | THE YOUTH PERSPECTIVE
      • Stacey Macdonald | ENERGY HEALING & REIKI
      • Stephanie Joanne | FITNESS & PRO-ACTIVE HEALTH
  • Episodes
  • Topics
  • Contact

© Copyright 2021 ANTI-AGE ME | Revealing the Secrets to Living the Highest Quality of Life. Typegrid Theme by WPBandit.