Hep B Blog

Monthly Archives: October 2015

Hepatitis B Diagnosis & Monitoring, Hepatitis B Treatment, Living with Hepatitis B

Shop Carefully for the Best Insurance Plan When You Have Hepatitis B

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Image courtesy of digitalart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of digitalart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

With the cost of health care and prescription drugs soaring, it’s important to choose health insurance carefully when you take hepatitis B medications and need frequent check-ups and lab tests.

In the next two months, Medicare recipients, people who get insurance through their jobs and consumers buying coverage through the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) will be selecting insurance plans during open enrollment.

If you take antivirals or interferon and have frequent lab tests and doctor visits, it’s important that you select the plan that:

  • Has your specialist or primary care doctor and lab in its network,
  • And offers the lowest copay for the drugs you need.

Continue reading "Shop Carefully for the Best Insurance Plan When You Have Hepatitis B" →

Hepatitis B Diagnosis & Monitoring, Liver Cancer, Living with Hepatitis B

Want to Avoid Liver Cancer? There Are Things You Can Control

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Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We who live with hepatitis B know that avoiding alcohol and cigarettes go a long way toward reducing our risk of liver cancer. But there are new threats emerging. Researchers are finding that obesity, diabetes and developing fatty liver from unhealthy food and a sedentary lifestyle can be just as dangerous to our livers.

In a recent study, published in the Journal of Hepatology, researchers found:

  • If you have chronic hepatitis and are obese with a fatty liver, your liver cancer risk increases 1.5 to 4.5 times
  • And, if you have hepatitis B and diabetes, your liver cancer risk climbs two- to three-fold.

This is a sobering realization that our lifestyle and our weight matter a lot when it comes to how long we will live. We may like to think we won’t develop liver cancer because our viral load is low or our liver tests don’t show any damage, but sitting all day and over-eating are just as dangerous. Continue reading "Want to Avoid Liver Cancer? There Are Things You Can Control" →

Hepatitis B Diagnosis & Monitoring, Liver Cancer

Your Doctor Not Screening You for Liver Cancer? Time for a Talk

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Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The longer we have hepatitis B, the higher our risk of developing liver cancer. With every decade of life, our liver cancer risk increases 2.7-times, according to a report on Viral Hepatitis in the Elderly published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

But current medical guidelines don’t spell out exactly when liver cancer testing should begin in many hepatitis B patients who don’t have liver damage (cirrhosis) or a family history of liver cancer, and are not of Asian or African descent.

Age is clearly an important factor when it comes to liver cancer, “… but current guidelines only provide age-specific recommendations for (liver cancer) surveillance in hepatitis B carriers of Asian ethnicity (men over age 40 and women over age 50),” a team of University of Miami and Veterans Affairs researchers wrote in the journal article. Continue reading "Your Doctor Not Screening You for Liver Cancer? Time for a Talk" →

Liver Cancer

Join Us for a Twitter Chat- Liver Cancer is Preventable

Screen Shot 2015-10-07 at 5.24.25 PMOctober is Liver Cancer Awareness Month. Join the Hepatitis B Foundation and the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable for a twitter chat, featuring hepatitis and liver cancer expert Dr. Robert Gish, at 2p.m. EDT Tuesday, October 20.

Dr. Gish, professor consultant at Stanford University and medical director of the Hepatitis B Foundation and others will be chatting about liver cancer, hepatitis B and C prevention and treatment, health disparities, and resources for awareness and advocacy.

Below are the topics that will be discussed during the chat. Please consider how you might wish to contribute to the conversation! Got any resources you might like to share?

Q1 What is liver cancer and why is it so deadly
Q2 What are the specific risk factors for liver cancer?
Q3 What are some ways to help prevent liver cancer and hepatitis?
Q4 What can be done to help prevent liver cancer for people living with chronic hepatitis B or C?
Q5 What are the health disparities related to liver cancer and viral hepatitis?
Q6 What can we do to raise awareness of viral hepatitis and liver cancer?
Q7 What additional resources are available to learn more about viral hepatitis and liver cancer?

Join the conversation with the hashtag #Liverchat

Confirmed participants and handles for the chat include:

  • Hepatitis B Foundation – @hepbfoundation
  • National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable – @NVHR1
  • Dr. Robert Gish – tweeting from @LiverCancerConn
  • CDC’s, Division of Viral Hepatitis – @cdchep
  • CDC National Prevention Information Network – @CDCNPIN
  • Hep B United – @HepBUnited
  • American Liver Foundation –  @liverUSA
  • Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations – @HepBPolicy
  • Latino Commission on AIDS – @LatinoCommAIDS
  • Charles B Wang Community Health Center – @CBWCHC
  • Caring Ambassadors – @CAP_HepatitisC
  • Coalition Against Hepatitis For People of African Origin – @CHIPO_HBV
  • National Black Leadership Coalition on AIDS – @NBLCA
  • National Association of County & City Health Officials – @NACCHOalerts
  • Asian Health Coalition – @AAPInews
  • Asian American Community Health – @apcaaz
  • International Community Health Services – @supportichs
  • Prevent Cancer Foundation – @PreventCancer
  • Hep B United Philadelphia – @HepBUnitedPhila
  • Hep Free NYC – @HepFreeNYC

We’d love to hear from you at info@hepb.org if you plan to participate or have any questions about joining!

 

Hepatitis B Diagnosis & Monitoring, Liver Cancer, Living with Hepatitis B

Get Tested for Liver Cancer, Your Life May Depend on It

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Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

October is Liver Cancer Awareness Month. It may be a sleeper of a event when compared to other health campaigns, but for us who live with viral hepatitis, it’s an uncomfortable but critical reminder of the importance of monitoring our liver health to prevent cancer.

Viral hepatitis, especially B and C, are viral infections that can cause liver cancer  (also called hepatocellular carcinoma or HCC.) Researchers are still studying why some people are more prone to liver cancer, but we who live with chronic hepatitis B or C have a 25 to 40 percent lifetime risk of developing liver cancer. The infection, which hijacks our liver cells to manufacture more virus, causes inflammation, scarring and even cancer as the liver cells grow out of control.

The longer we are infected with viral hepatitis, the higher our risk of developing liver cancer. While liver cancer often occurs in people with cirrhosis (severe liver scarring), some of us develop cancer without cirrhosis. Continue reading "Get Tested for Liver Cancer, Your Life May Depend on It" →

Baruch S. Blumberg Institute