Y’know, the downside of discovering that there are avoidable behaviors that greatly increase your chances of contracting a certain disease is that if you get that disease, people assume you have been engaging in that behavior. While smoking causes lung cancer, and alcohol and drug use cause cirrhosis, it is not necessarily true that if you have lung cancer, you must have been a smoker, and if you have cirrhosis, you must have been a drinker or drug user. Sometimes, there is nothing that you DID, you just got sick despite not having many risk factors.
One look at that Ezra website was enough to convince me it was one of the worst sort of scams…those that prey on people dealing with serious illness.
I’m sorry you’re dealing with this G_H.
Exercise, eating less sugar, drinking less alcohol, and eating more fruits and vegetables are natural and inexpensive things you can do to help with many health conditions. If your doctor is anything like any of the ones I’ve ever been to, he or she tells you about these things. Insurance companies also push these things in newsletters and radio and billboard ads. There is hardly a cover-up going on here.
Why would doctors and insurance companies be willing to recommend those natural remedies and not the Ezra protocol, unless it’s that those work and the Ezra protocol is not proven to work? If the Ezra protocol worked for cirrhosis, why would insurance companies be willing to pay for liver transplants and the associated anti-rejection medicines, which are not cheap, without having tried that protocol first? Your insurance company is not going to pay for an expensive treatment for a condition without trying the cheaper one first, unless the cheaper one simply doesn’t work.
Even if this was caused by previous drinking, what’s he supposed to do about that now? He doesn’t drink now. Unless he has access to a time machine, he can’t do anything now about his drinking in the past.
IANAD.
You don’t have to drink to get cirrhosis - it helps, yes, but cirrhosis can hit anyone.
http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/nash/
Two things I’m not understanding, OP … and like I said IANAD:
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How did your doctor NOT know about your enlarged spleen before the procedure?!?! Most people who are being worked up for bariatric surgery have all sorts of tests ran on them beforehand - an ultrasound could easily have found something going on.
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Why did open you up for your surgery? I realize this is still done sometimes but most gastric bypass surgeries these days are done via lap. Were you having some other kind of procedure?
Thanks LV and to everyone else for their kind sentiments.
It was heart-breaking because I was looking forward to this surgery for almost 2 years and when I finally thought I was on my way to being healthy, I hit a brick wall; it really knocked the heck out of me mentally.
Up until 1997 I was a very healthy and active guy, which is when I was diagnosed with Sarcoidosis. Apparently in most cases this is a disease that hangs around for a while and eventually leaves, unfortunately for me, it’s been chronic and I’ve been on massive doses of prednisone more times than I care to remember.
So the weight started piling on, it led to a thyroid condition, then diabetes, sleep apnea, etc etc, it was like a domino falling and causing a chain reaction.
I’ve never been a drinker, well, maybe a dozen drinks in a year while on vacation, but that’s it.
My weight got so out of hand I was all set for the bypass surgery, and right while I was on the table that’s when the surgeon found my liver to be in the shape its in.
I really didn’t understand the gravity of my situation until I starting reading about it on Google, not sure if what I read is true, so maybe some of you medical professionals can shed some light on this, but what I’ve read is that from diagnosis, only 30% of the people with Cirrhosis reach the 5 year mark.
Trying to wrap my head around that is really tough.
Do you guys know if anyone with this condition has lived for a long time? Anything which could give me some hope would be appreciated.
Thanks
Gus
There are a whole host of causes of liver disease (which can then lead to cirrhosis). Given the OP’s weight problem, one possibility might be so-called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
Sulfasalazine is most assuredly an FDA approved drug and used widely in the US.
Maggie’s Rule of Systems:
Anytime someone is trying to sell you a “system” for doing something, whether that be for making money, losing weight, increasing your health, picking stocks, picking ponies, regrowing your hair, or ANYTHING, they are in fact selling snake oil.
Do not ever give them your money. “System” is a code word meaning RUN AWAY.
Do your blood tests show any hint of what caused your cirrhosis? I am a 35-year-old woman and I have an autoimmune liver disease called primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). I am not yet in the “cirrhosis” stage, and will be taking medication for the rest of my life (ursodiol) but it does not cure it, the only cure is a transplant. Have you asked your doctor about autoimmune disease? There is also something called autoimmune hepatitis and some others. I was diagnosed when I developed joint pain which turned out to be rheumatoid arthritis, and the blood tests to diagnose that diagnosed my liver dysfunction, which led to a CT scan and biopsy, and finally my PBC diagnosis. Best of luck to you and keep us updated.
Sometimes cirrhosis is at least partially reversable. Cirrhosis is graded in stages; sometimes
1-4 or 1-5. People who amend what’s causing the stress on the liver can go from a say a stage
3 (worse) to a stage 2 (better). This happens to people who clear the Hep C virus fairly frequently.
When alcoholics stop drinking and start eating right the cirrhosis can regress a little. And sometimes
when weight is lost in a healthy way, the fatty liver can function better.
It’s liver fibrosis, not cirrhosis that has different stages (with possibility for improvement/reversal at lower levels). There are various systems for staging liver fibrosis (including alternate systems for different diseases that cause it); cirrhosis gets the highest score in any of these systems.
Worse, than snake oil in fact, [Chinese] snake oil is actually very healthy.
So has anyone heard of someone with cirrhosis living for 20+ years?
I’ll have to ask my doctor at my next appointment, I was too shell shocked to ask last time.
I haven’t heard of someone living with it 20+ years, Gus, but I don’t think that necessarily means anything.
It takes TIME to get cirrhosis to begin with. If you’re really, really motivated and a RAGING alcoholic I suppose one could get it in their 20s or 30s but it’d take a hell of a lot of effort.
I would think that by the time someone gets diagnosed with cirrhosis, they’re already at least middle aged and afflicted with more than JUST cirrhosis - diabetes, heart problems, etc., and any of these could kill you well before the cirrhosis did.
My mom had cirrhosis, actually (medication induced). Her MD told her that she’d die of something else before the cirrhosis killed her, and he was right. To be fair, her cirrhosis wasn’t that bad - the only reason they even found it is they noticed her liver looked weird while they were taking out her gall bladder so they snipped a piece of her liver while they were in there and biopsied it.
My dad (raging alcoholic) had cirrhosis for years - at least 10 and God knows how long he had it before he was actually diagnosed. Had a near-miss in 2003 and then died in 2007 of liver cancer (sometimes cirrhosis will progress to liver cancer). He pretty much drank until he was too weak to hold a drink, though.
Has your doctor told you what stage your cirrhosis is?
Sorry to hear about your parents PB 
I didn’t even know there were stages of ciirrhosis, and I was too shocked by the news to ask.
I’m making a list of questions to ask at my next appointment in December.
The doc has ordered 2 more CT scans for vein size maybe? I cant remember, and if it looks good, then they will recommend me for the weight loss surgery.
Apparently if I can get rid of a lot of weight quickly, that will inmprove my liver or at least stop it from getting worse.
The doc exaplined to me that not everyone who gets fat ends up with a bad liver but I was one of the unfortunate few. My head is like a whirlwind right now, even though I’m 45 yo, I still feel like a teenager; not ready to check out yet.
I wasnt a drinker anyway, maybe one cocktail every 2 weeks but ive given up all drinking as well as salt, sugar and processed food.
I’ve started drinking green smoothies every morning made with various greens and drinking only water.
I’m not sure what more I can do but if there’s any way for me to weazal out of a death sentence, I will find it 
Hmm.
If your follow up appointment isn’t until December, I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
If your cirrhosis was THAT bad currently, my guess is your MD would be getting you into the office a lot sooner. You’d probably also be leaking ascitic fluid and turning yellow.
Again – just my guess. IANAD, IANAD, IANAD.
They are scheduling me for 2 more CT scans in November and then I see the doc again in December.
I’ll book-mark this page and keep everyone posted.
Regards
Gus
I have a friend who was told he had cirrhosis (at least, that’s what he told me) nearly 30 years ago. He was pretty clearly an alcoholic; he would visit and bring a fifth of scotch on Friday evening and by Sunday morning it was empty. He didn’t binge, just drank steadily all day every day. Anyway, he dried out and stayed away from alcohol for at least ten years. Now he will have a glass of wine or a bottle of beer with dinner. And when we share a rental with him and his wife in Barbados he makes Daiquiris every evening and drinks a couple of small ones. But he limits his alcohol to that. Just saw him last weekend and he seems well. He is now 75.
So good luck. From what I know about prednisone, it is a bitch.
Hey Gus–
I just stumbled upon the Ezra Protocol book and this was the first site in the search engine that questioned it. I have had severe steatohepatitis (fatty liver with inflammation) for about 20 years or more, along with thyroid and polyglandular dysfunction, sjogrens syndrome (like lupus sort of), rheumatoid arthritic changes, skin problems, you name it. I went from exceedingly healthy and working out for an hour every day, tightbody, to trashed over a few years from this. Recently I tested positive for autoimmune hepatitis and pbc, which seems to run in my family and with certain ethnicities.
Diet and gi tract care is very important in people with severe liver disease so I would strongly urge you NOT to try anything in any of these books without the express consent of your hepatologist (liver doctor) and if you haven’t seen a hepatologist (not just a good gi doc, though you need them too) you should see a liver specialist, at least for a consult.
All blood is filtered through the liver, it all passes through there, so when the liver is inflamed or full of fat, it swells and blood vessels can become squished and blood flow not so good. This causes blood to back up in our blood vessels, causing spider veins, commonly on the face, little tiny squiggly things you can barely see, but eventually you get enough and your face is red, also you get these things in your gi tract.
My grandmother died from ruptured esophageal varices (blood vessels) and drown in her own blood as a result of severe cirrhosis with fatty liver. These blood vessels in the esophagus and throughout the gi tract swell from backed up blood and caustic foods like acidic or gastric reflux trigger foods, fumes (like bleach or cleaning solutions), and toxins which further inflame the liver to the breaking point, cause the tissues lining the esophagus and gi tract to erode and the blood vessels are no longer supported and protected, and they burst. You literally drown very quickly in your own blood.
This is just one of many complications to liver disease. It is critical to be very careful about what you eat, expose yourself to, put on your skin, and definitely what medications and supplements you take.
A simple colon cleanse could make you really really ill, not to mention all the fluid and sodium in these preparations. if your doc orders it, fine, but don’t do these things all over the internet that are supposed to help people. Your blood pressure could elevate (the backed up blood from liver disease already causes high blood pressure) and you could really get suddenly sick, your heart can be affected. These things are not safe for people with liver disease unless ordered by your hepatologist.
In addition, we are very susceptible to herbals and vitamins. You may need supplements since you are not metabolizing fat well, you should take what the doctor suggests (an MD preferably), and I do prefer whole food vitamins from organic sources, or to get my vitamins from food itself when I can. I prefer cod liver oil that is purified to taking vitamin a, d, e, and k. This works better for me. But these are things a doctor should test for and order.
Also, any diet, no matter how well meaning, is gonna be a problem for us. Restricting carbs can reek havock on our digestive tract and lead to low blood sugar, restricting protein too much will cause problems, fruits even organic do cause weight gain, worse than you would think, while vegetables contain phytoestrogens when eaten raw, which will drastically worsen thyroid disease, especially soy based products.
One thing that has been proven to help with hepatic encephalopathy, dementia/confusion caused by not digesting proteins and other foods well and not filtering out the ammonias and other toxins, is yogurt, especially probiotic yogurt. Lactic acid flushed toxins out of the cells, which is why milk is often a poison antidote.
The pancreas often doesn’t work well in fatty liver disease and cirrhosis, you might ask your doctor about taking extra pancreatic enzymes, I take them since my mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and I had some issues with digestion. If your food looks the same coming out as going in, you probably need some, but check with the doctor first before taking any vitamin or supplement. I believe pancreatic enzyme supplementation will be important in fighting disease simply because our pancreas was never designed to handle all the crappy food we eat.
I have found that as you go on with the disease, and your qualified and knowledgeable doctors treat you, you will eat smaller meals, eat more balanced meals and eating bad food simply won’t be worth the distress it causes you. Base your diet on what liver transplant patients are told, avoid alcohol and toxins on the skin and in your body, avoid excessive protein and bad fats, practice sensible good fat intake, avoid plastics and plastic wrapped foods which secrete hormones and toxins, buy organic fruits and vegetables and wash them thoroughly, cook cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, kale, greens, cauliflower, etc) to get rid of phytoestrogens, limit soy and sodium, eat good organic dairy, consider greek or probiotic organic yogurt, avoid sugar and artificial sweeteners too–limit sweets, and take up a distracting hobby because you will want to eat all this!!!
Eating organic is not a life choice for people with liver disease, it is necessary. In fact, it is possible we all have so much liver disease from environmental and food bourne causes, from not eating organic! I raise chickens for the eggs, rabbits for occasional meat and manure for the garden, and also garden. I forage for berries from the blackberryvines and blueberry bushes in my yard that my neighbors mowed down. I get organic buffalo meat from a friend sometimes, buy what I can afford. I lowered my meat consumption drastically and overall food consumption. My condition has been stable and no sign of worsening for the last ten years.
My dad is 75 and has had cirrhosis and fatty liver disease and his liver compensates, he has changed his diet–he is type II diabetic on pills–and metformin has kept both he and I going. The plaquenil for the sjogrens has kept my Autoimmune liver disease in check. I take ursodiol as well. I do everything I can to prevent gastric reflux disease by altering my diet and taking antacids and medications to prevent it worsening and to prevent erosion. I avoid all toxic !fumes, I go outside, someone else cleans or I use a citrus or other type of cleanser.
These meds keep me alive, my quality of life is not drastically affected as long as I take them and eat right. This is the advice that book will not give you. There are liver transplant forums, which is where I learn the most. I figure maybe if I eat and live right now, I won’t need one.
You can live a normal long life if you live right. Don’t worry, you will have ups and downs, but you do have some control over things. Be well!! And if you feel bad or are having problems reach for yogurt, if you can eat dairy!
My SO has a very serious liver condition - but they were able to use a shunt - a procedure called TIPS that has saved his life. Think of it as a kind of liver bypass surgery.
It has been about 10 years since he had that operation and yes, there are some side affects, but for the most part he has been just fine since then. You might want to ask if this is a procedure that could help you…doesn’t hurt to ask.
Best wishes, and be careful of reading too much on the Internet - some of it is helpful, but other sites are rather dire and don’t really match 100% of your specific condition - so don’t get caught up in that hysteria…I know you are in a bit of a panic, but just wait and see what options are out there from your doctors before driving yourself crazy with self-diagnostic websites!