Metabolic Health
How to Reduce Liver Cancer Risks with Healthy Lifestyle Choices
Liver disorders are serious, causing mortality and suffering, but there are viable solutions to lower the risks.
Preventative health is my passion for empowering my loved ones, friends, and readers. My focus is on healthy lifestyle choices to improve our health.
Previously, I wrote about nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and reducing the risks of cancers with lifestyle choices such as exercise. Discerning readers requested me to write a piece about liver cancer, as fatty liver disease is one of the risk factors for liver cancer.
Without going into detail, I provide critical points for introducing liver cancer, its causes, and its symptoms. However, my primary focus is on reducing the risks via healthy lifestyle choices.
This is neither a prescriptive piece nor health advice. Instead, I aim to create awareness of the risks and offer viable lifestyle choices to address them based on the literature review. Gratefully, I have no experience with liver diseases, assuming my lifestyle choices protect me.
The Importance of the Liver for Health
The liver is the second largest organ (after the skin), having critical functions in the body. As the busiest organ, the liver filters all waste products and clears the blood.
As documented in this paper:
“All the blood leaving the stomach and intestines passes through the liver. The liver processes this blood and breaks down balances, and creates the nutrients and also metabolizes drugs into forms that are easier to use for the rest of the body or that are nontoxic.”
In addition, the liver metabolizes sugar and stores it as glycogen. Glycogen stores allow us to access energy quickly. When these stores run out of energy, the liver starts creating ketone bodies as alternative energy.
I try to keep my glycogen stores empty with daily workouts, time-restricted eating, and a ketogenic diet to remain in ketosis for physical and mental health reasons, e.g., BDNF creation.
In short, we cannot survive and thrive without a functioning liver, like all other organs.
Common Liver Diseases
There are multiple liver diseases.
Some are complex, causing severe health issues.
Apart from liver cancer as the most severe condition, the major ones are caused by viral diseases such as hepatitis A, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, alcohol, and obesity.
The most common ones are nonalcoholic liver disease and cirrhosis.
In addition, there are genetic liver diseases such as Wilson disease and hemochromatosis.
I covered nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in a previous article.
In this article, I only focus on liver cancer.
An Introduction to Liver Cancer
This section highlights the global impact, briefly introduces liver cancer, and mentions risk factors, causes, and symptoms.
1 — The Global Impact of Liver Cancer
World Cancer Research Fund International (WCRFI) states, “Liver cancer is the 6th most common cancer worldwide. It is the 5th most common cancer in men and the 9th most common in women.”
Unfortunately, as informed by WCRFI, there were more than 900,000 new cases of liver cancer in 2020. The top ten countries are Mongolia, Egypt, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Guinea, China, The Gambia, and Ghana.
According to CDC, “Each year in the United States, about 25,000 men and 11,000 women get liver cancer, and about 19,000 men and 9,000 women die from the disease.”
CDC informs that “The percentage of Americans who get liver cancer rose for several decades, but is now declining. Liver cancer is more common in other parts of the world than in the United States.”
According Cancer Council, around 2,800 people got liver cancer in Australia, where I live. The Council informs that men are three times more likely to be diagnosed than women. In addition, the five-year survival rate for liver cancer is 19%.”
2 — What is liver cancer?
According to the Cancer Council, “primary liver cancer is a malignant tumor that begins in the liver.”
The Council informs that there are different types:
“Hepatocellular carcinoma, (HCC), or hepatoma
Cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer)
Angiosarcoma starts in the blood vessels (usually happens after 70).”
Cancer Council informs that:
“Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common type of primary liver cancer. It starts in the main cell type in the liver, the hepatocytes.”
The Cancer Council also mentions:
“Secondary cancer in the liver is cancer that started in another part of the body but has spread to the liver. If you have secondary cancer in the liver, it may be useful to read information about primary cancer in conjunction with this information or about cancer of unknown primary.”
3 — Causes and Risk Factors for Liver Cancer
According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), nine conditions increase the risk of liver cancer in the United States. I list them below for awareness.
“1 — Being overweight or having obesity
2 — Having a long-term hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus infection
3 — Smoking cigarettes
4 — Drinking alcohol
5 — Having cirrhosis (liver scarring, which can also be caused by hepatitis and alcohol use).
6 — Having nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (extra fat in the liver that is not caused by alcohol)
7 — Having diabetes
8 — Having hemochromatosis (a condition where the body takes up and stores more iron than it needs)
9 — Eating foods that have aflatoxin (a fungus that can grow on foods, such as grains and nuts that have not been stored properly).”
WCRFI (World Cancer Research Fund International) mentioned three major risk factors for liver cancer.
They are being overweight or obese, excessive alcohol consumption, and consuming foods containing aflatoxins produced by certain fungi. The source asserts strong evidence on these items.
Interestingly, WCRFI informs that drinking coffee DECREASES the risk of liver cancer. In addition, the resource indicates some evidence that consuming fish and being physically active might decrease the risk of liver cancer.
I introduced the importance of exercise for reducing the risks of various cancers in this article titled Exercise Can Lower Cancer Risks.
I also introduced essential omega-3 acids such as DHA and EPA in an article titled The Necessity of Omega-3 Fatty Acids for the Body and Brain.
4 — Symptoms of Liver Cancer
As informed by CDC, “In its early stages, liver cancer may not have symptoms that can be seen or felt. However, as cancer grows larger, people may notice one or more of these common symptoms. It’s important to remember that other health conditions could also cause these symptoms. If you have any of these symptoms, talk to your doctor.”
Here are the ten symptoms documented by CDC:
1 — Discomfort in the upper abdomen on the right side
2 — A swollen abdomen
3 — A hard lump on the right side just below the rib cage
4 — Pain near the right shoulder blade or in the back
5 — Jaundice (yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes)
6 — Easy bruising or bleeding
7 — Unusual tiredness
8 — Nausea and vomiting
9 — Loss of appetite
10 — Weight loss for no known reason
Lifestyle Factors to Lower Liver Cancer
Considering the nine CDC has documented risk factors, the first focus seems to be addressing obesity.
Unfortunately, obesity is also a risk factor for other cancers, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, fatty liver, type II diabetes, heart diseases, stroke, inflammation, and neurodegenerative diseases like dementia.
The key points to addressing obesity are making the body more insulin sensitive and leptin receptive to address metabolic syndrome risk factors, as I explained in a previous article. I also posted an article titled Prevent and Treat Obesity in 3 Steps.
As nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is a risk factor for liver disease, it is essential to get treated timely. Again, one of the major causes of fatty liver is obesity. I provided tips in a story titled Defeat Fatty Liver Disease with Lifestyle Choices.
Type II diabetes is also a risk factor for liver cancer related to metabolic disorders. Thus, defeating this condition can be invaluable. However, as I posted an article giving tips about type II diabetes (Why 442 Million People Live Diabetic and What We Can Do About It), I won’t repeat the details here.
As cigarette smoking and excessive alcohol toxicate the liver, quitting smoking cigarettes and reducing alcohol are wise options. In addition, cirrhosis caused by excessive alcohol use scars the liver.
I provided an article giving tips to quit smoking permanently. Unfortunately, smoking is also a risk factor for numerous diseases, including lung cancer.
We must be careful with iron (especially man) as the body stores more iron than it needs causing hemochromatosis. Thus, getting our iron levels checked by our family doctors is a preventative measure.
From a dietary perspective, we need to be careful about not consuming food, including aflatoxin, as it is a risk factor for liver cancer. These fungi usually exist in stale grains and nuts, as informed by CDC.
Last but not least, we must get checked for viral diseases such as hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. In many countries, there are vaccination options for these viruses.
Conclusions and Takeaways
Even though there is a genetic component to liver disease, most risk factors are related to lifestyle choices.
Addressing obesity and metabolic syndrome issues can significantly reduce risks. By refraining from excessive food intake, moving, and resting the body, we can reduce the stress on the liver. Reducing excess visceral fat via healthy lifestyle choices is a good start.
As one of the roles of the liver is to filter toxins, we need to reduce the amount as much as possible. Besides refraining from toxic foods and drinks, the low-hanging fruits seem to be quitting smoking and reducing alcohol intake.
Reducing toxins can also contribute to the health of other organs and overall well-being. However, cancers are highly complicated diseases, and the liver is a complex organ.
Despite all efforts, it is possible to have liver diseases from viruses, fungi, toxins, and other lifestyle choices such as overeating, a sedentary life, and chronic stress, making the body insulin-resistant.
Therefore, it is critical to get our liver checked by family doctors and obtain referrals to specialists such as hepatologists who diagnose and treat liver disease.
Here’s How a Mature-Age Couple Reversed Diabetes and Trimmed Their Bodies with Lifestyle Habits.
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