Liver Transplantation

Your liver is the largest organ inside your body. It helps your body digest food, store energy, and remove poisons. You cannot live without a liver that works. If your liver fails, your doctor may put you on a waiting list for a liver transplant. Doctors do liver transplants when other treatment cannot keep a damaged liver working.

During a liver transplantation, the surgeon removes the diseased liver and replaces it with a healthy one. Most transplant livers come from a donor who has died. Sometimes there is a living donor. This is when a healthy person donates part of his or her liver for a specific patient.

The most common reason for a transplant in adults is cirrhosis. This is scarring of the liver, caused by injury or long-term disease. The most common reason in children is biliary atresia, a disease of the bile ducts.

If you have a transplant, you must take drugs the rest of your life to help keep your body from rejecting the new liver.

NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Metabolic Disorders

Metabolism is the process your body uses to get or make energy from the food you eat. Food is made up of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Chemicals in your digestive system break the food parts down into sugars and acids, your body's fuel. Your body can use this fuel right away, or it can store the energy in your body tissues, such as your liver, muscles, and body fat.

A metabolic disorder occurs when abnormal chemical reactions in your body disrupt this process. When this happens, you might have too much of some substances or too little of other ones that you need to stay healthy. There are different groups of disorders. Some affect the breakdown of amino acids, carbohydrates, or lipids. Another group, mitochondrial diseases, affects the parts of the cells that produce the energy.

You can develop a metabolic disorder when some organs, such as your liver or pancreas, become diseased or do not function normally. Diabetes is an example.

Nutrition

What is nutrition?

Good nutrition means choosing foods and drinks that support your health. It involves regularly eating healthy foods that give your body the energy and nutrients it needs every day. Nutrients include proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water. Healthy eating can look different depending on your preferences, cultural traditions, and budget.

Good nutrition helps keep you healthy throughout your life, whether you are a baby, toddler, child, adult, or older adult. It can help you:

• Stay at a healthy weight. Choosing balanced foods and drinks can help you reach and stay at a healthy weight.
• Lower your risk of serious health problems. Healthy eating reduces the risk of health problems such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and some cancers.
• Keep your heart healthy. Eating heart-healthy foods can help reduce blood pressure and heart disease.
• Improve your mood. Nutritious foods can help improve your mood and help you feel better.
• Support growth and keep your body working well. That's because nutrients are essential for your body to grow, repair tissues, and stay healthy.

You don't need a strict diet to eat well. You can enjoy a wide variety of foods, including some favorites that may be less healthy. The key is not to eat too much of those foods or have them too often. You can balance them with healthier choices and regular physical activity.

Good nutrition isn't one-size-fits all. There's no single diet or calorie amount that works for everyone. Your needs depend on your age, sex, activity level, health conditions, and health goals. You can ask your health care provider about a diet that works for you. They may refer you to a dietician for specialized recommendations.

In general, a healthy eating plan includes:

• Eating a variety of foods, including lots of vegetables, fruits, and whole-grain products
• Choosing lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, and low-fat dairy products
• Getting enough fiber
• Drinking plenty of water
• Limiting salt, added sugars, alcohol, and saturated fat
• Making sure that you get enough nutrients, especially calcium, vitamin D, and potassium
• Using dietary supplements to complement, not replace, a healthy diet

Planning before you shop for food can make it easier to stick to healthy eating. Here are a few tips:

• Shop for fresh, frozen, and minimally processed foods
• Use online recipes or cookbooks to plan healthy meals
• Follow safe food handling, cooking, and storage steps to prevent foodborne illness
• Read food labels

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Ostomy

An ostomy is surgery to create an opening (stoma) from an area inside the body to the outside. It treats certain diseases of the digestive or urinary systems. It can be permanent, when an organ must be removed. It can be temporary, when the organ needs time to heal. The organ could be the small intestine, colon, rectum, or bladder. With an ostomy, there must be a new way for wastes to leave the body.

There are many different types of ostomy. Some examples are:

• Ileostomy - the bottom of the small intestine (ileum) is attached to the stoma. This bypasses the colon, rectum and anus.
• Colostomy - the colon is attached to the stoma. This bypasses the rectum and the anus.
• Urostomy - the tubes that carry urine to the bladder are attached to the stoma. This bypasses the bladder.

NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Overactive Bladder

Overactive bladder is a condition in which the bladder squeezes urine out at the wrong time. You may have overactive bladder if you have two or more of these symptoms:

• You urinate eight or more times a day or two or more times at night
• You have the sudden, strong need to urinate immediately
• You leak urine after a sudden, strong urge to urinate

You also may have incontinence, a loss of bladder control. Nerve problems, too much fluid, or too much caffeine can cause it. Often the cause is unknown.

Your doctor may prescribe a medicine that can calm muscles and nerves. The medicine may come as a pill, a liquid, or a patch. The medicines can cause your eyes to become dry. They can also cause dry mouth and constipation. To deal with these effects, use eye drops to keep your eyes moist, chew sugarless gum or suck on sugarless hard candy if dry mouth bothers you, and take small sips of water throughout the day.

NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases