Chronic viral hepatitis causes hepatic edema (secondary obesity) because contagious hepatophilic virus can induce a series of immunoreaction when it infects human body. Since immunity gets disorder, toxaemia and microcirculatory disturbance can damage liver cells and then affect the normal function of liver. When liver function is abnormal, function of body systems will get damnified, and this often results in the following six aspects
- Synthesization handicap of proteins (especially albumin)
Even if proteins are provided and ingested normally, when the ability of the liver declines, serum albumin will be thin and then osmotic pressure of plasm will also decline which will easily cause malnutrition edema. (It is valuable to examine the decline of albumin. It is generally accepted that 2.5%[w/v] is called critical density for edema. Severe edema usually has a density of albumin under 2%[w/v]).
- 2. Intestinal tract diseases caused by hepatitis
Intestinal tract diseases caused by hepatitis (anorexia, nausea, tympanites, stomachache, coprostasis, diarrhea, etc) usually affect the appetite and nutrition ingestion of a patient. The developing stage of chronic hepatitis always causes malnutrition edema.
- 3. Liver takes part in several cruor mechanisms
Liver takes part in synthesizing vitamin K, fibrinogen, prothrombin, and so on. When liver function declines, patient often gets rhinorrhagia, hemorrhoidal bleeding or superfluous menses. This is especially the case when liver function is blocked, woman patients usually get menses disorder, superfluous menses, dark menses with much gore, and often supervened with repeating dysmenorrhea. It is normal that excessive bleeding of menses, repeating and chronic bleeding cause hemorrhagic anemia and then result in edema. Nowadays, it is common that young woman should think carefully before reducing weight.
- Liver is the target organ of many important hormones
Liver is the target organ of many important hormones and it is also the main place where endogenous hormones degrade, interconvert, transform, store and excrete. As the liver is responsible for synthesizing hormone-like substances, such as ex-sodium factor, proangiotensin, erythropoitinogen, it is also an incretion organ. Hepatitis often causes abnormal hormone metabolism. And then the body secretes hormone abnormally. For example, hypothyroidism causes mucous edema. Because high density of growth hormone and insulin, or high glucagon blood disease causes hepatophilic diabetes or hypoglycemia, patient will feel hungry easily. But excessive diet results in hepatic edema (secondary obesity) very easily. In liver diseases, high female hormone and low male hormone is common, and this causes bubby of male hepatitis patient to develop and he may get a female body figure with male sex capability declines. At infancy stage, a boy becomes a fat child and his external sex organs developed incompletely.
- Fatty liver
Acute and chronic hepatitis patients are often supervened with fatty liver. Fatty liver has the following common characteristics:-
- Patients often have the obesity history when infected hepatitis and often they exceed the standard weight (generally a person may increase with 6 to 50 pounds with an average of 20 pounds);
- Body status is generally fit with no apparent symptoms;
- Good appetite and do not dislike grease;
- Serum aminotransferase often increases slightly or medium, but may also be normal;
- Approximately 70% to 80% patients, neutral fattiness increases apparently in blood. Besides after acute or chronic hepatitis, the other reasons that cause fatty liver, such as hunger, malnutrition (caused by short of protein and heat), incretion abnormity (include sugar diabetes, cortin, sex hormone, fatty liver at acute gestation) and drug toxicosis (include alcohol, acheomycin, carbon tetrachloride, yellow phosphorus) tightly relate to the disturbance of liver metabolism.
Therefore it can be seen that secondary obesity is not simply caused by super nutrition nor short of exercise. People can not select to reduce diet, eat diet pill or increase exercise blindly as the effective methods to reduce weight.
- Damage of brain and nerve systems
Acute and chronic hepatitis can cause damage to brain and nerve systems, and that can result in hepatophilic brain disease, hydrocephalus, meningitis, liverish neuropathy or chronic liverish brain denaturalization, falling sickness and hepatophilic myelitis.
Based on statistic, over 65% patients with hepatophilic hepatic insufficiency have central nerve damage, and 70-80% patients of viral hepatitis appear to have symptoms of brain nerve damage. In fact, there are two nerve nucleuses in hypothalamus that modulate ingestion activity. One is ventromedial nucleus (satiation center ?), and the other is ventral lateral nucleus (hunger center). Animal experiments prove that they will eat much more after the ventromedial nucleuses are damaged, and that results in obesity. In clinic, some sequela patients of cephalitis and meningitis appear to eat much and get obesity, which are the main symptoms. It’s still not reported if there is a relationship between supervened secondary obesity after acute hepatitis being completely cured or during the activity of chronic hepatitis and the hypothalamus damage caused by hepatitis virus.
The above six aspects are only some reasons that hepatophilic viral diseases can cause hepatic edema and secondary obesity.