Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!

If you are still wondering when you should make your donation, why not do it now?
The race is about a month away now. Erica is hard at training, even with this rainy weather.  Show her your support by donating to the ALF.

A huge thank you to everyone who has donated! Your donations have helped to make a major difference. We would also like to thank all of our viewers to the site. If you like what you see, why not donate a couple of dollars to the ALF? A major shout out to all of our twitter followers! In the end every donation, big or small helps the American Liver Foundation.

Feel free to comment, donate, and participate in our site. You tell us what you would like to see on here!
Don't forget to visit our twitter as well!

Cold Weather Running is da bomb ...and Happy Holidays

One week til Christmas...AND It's finals week?! Sorry everyone, I'll be back on track soon with updates for the website later on this week. Til then, Seasons Greetings from San Diego :)

Hmmm....Which one is yours ???

According to UK researchers, long-term daily drinking, rather than weekly binge drinking, is by far the biggest risk factor in serious liver disease.

The study concludes that increases in UK liver deaths are a result of daily or near daily heavy drinking, not episodic or binge drinking, and this regular drinking pattern is often discernable at an early age. It also recommends that several alcohol-free days a week is a healthier drinking pattern.
In the study of drinking patterns, dependency and lifetime drinking history in 234 subjects with liver disease, 106 had alcohol liver disease, 80 of whom had evidence of cirrhosis or progressive fibrosis, the team found that 71 per cent of alcohol liver disease patients drank on a daily basis.
In contrast to the patients with alcohol-related cirrhosis or fibrosis, patients with other forms of liver disease tended to drink sparingly with only 10 subjects (8 per cent) drinking moderately on four or more days each week.
The study also explored lifetime drinking histories of 105 subjects and found that alcohol liver disease patients started drinking at a significantly younger age (on average at 15 years old) than other subjects and had significantly more drinking days and units than non- alcohol liver disease patients from the age of 20 onwards.
Lead author of the study Dr Nick Sheron says “If we are to turn the tide of liver deaths, then along with an overall reduction in alcohol consumption, which means tackling cheap booze and unregulated marketing, we need to find a way to identify those people who are most likely to develop alcohol-related illnesses at a much earlier stage, and perhaps we need to pay as much attention to the frequency of drinking occasions as we do to binge drinking.
“The transition from a late teenage and early 20′s binge drinking pattern to a more frequent pattern of increased intake may prove to be a useful point of intervention in the future, and the importance of three alcohol-free days each week should receive more prominence.”


References:
1. Nick Sheron, et al. Addiction journal. Wiley-Blackwell.



Medicines and your liver...

Why is managing medications important to my liver?
Everything we eat, drink, and breathe is processed by the liver, including all the medicines we take:

* Over-the-counter medicines
* Prescription medicines
* Vitamins
* Dietary supplements
* Alternative medicines

Learn as much as you can about your medicines and how they affect your liver. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist often. They can help you keep your liver healthy and manage your medications.

When you take medicines, it is important to:

*Follow dosing instructions.
*Take medicine as directed.
*Read the label.
*KNOW your medicines.
*Learn as much as you can about the medicines you take.

How can I manage my medications?
It is important to know what medicines you take and learn how they affect you. Whether you are someone living with chronic liver disease, a college student making health decisions for the first time, a parent caring for your children, or anyone taking an active role in their health--taking medication correctly means more than just taking the right amount at the right time. It also means learning about the medicines you take and how they mix with each other.

What about alcohol and medicines?
Talk to your doctor about how alcohol affects your liver. Mixing alcohol and medicines can be harmful, even if they are not taken at the same time.

DID YOU KNOW?
A damaged liver may not process medicines as well as a healthy liver.  Alcohol has been shown to cause many liver diseases to progress faster.  A damaged liver can make side effects of medicines worse.

To find more information on how to safely take medications and protect your liver at the same, click link below.

click here for a healthy prescription for your liver

Sincerely,


Erica Castillo                      Lucy Vega             Bryanna Parra