02 : Are there traces of Hepatophilic Virus in Your Body
– Body Type and Skin Color ?
Clinical practice proves that in case you find one of the following signs, you must be vigilant. This is because you might have possibly been infected with chronic "viral hepatitis."
(1) Body type: Infection of viral hepatitis may occur to infants and children and affect their body type in the course of their growth:
(a) Malnutrition:
When an infant or child is infected by a hepatophilic virus to fall a victim of "viral hepatitis", resulting in malabsorption and endocrine dyscrasia caused by metabolism disorder. That may cause the rise of the level of growth hormone and a decrease of the growth agents. A decrease of growth agents and nutrition deficiency, in particular, may retard the body growth and lead to a body type of under-nutrition when grown up. As for a female, it may cause a deficiency of the female hormone which may lead to an underdevelopment of the feminine secondary sex characters, pathologic leanness, disproportionately long limbs, hirsutism, acne, irregular menstruation, menorrhagia, dysmenorrhea and sterility.
(b) Anemia:
The rate of anemia caused by chronic hepatitis may reach 70%, mainly because of the disorder of the digestive system that affects the assimilation of nutrients. That, plus the deficiency of the hematopoietic factors of the liver, may lead to a chronic loss of blood, hemolysis, the thinning of blood, and the hematopoietic disorder of the bone. Clinical appearance may show a paleness of the skin and membrane, dizziness, palpitation, leanness and an anemic countenance.
In addition, a hepatic patient may also suffer from Rubin's disease (an aplastic disorder caused by hepatitis found by Dr. Rubin in 1968), which may take place within a year after hepatitis is found among 90% of the patients and of them 88.5% after suffering from jaundice. The incidence is found higher among youngsters and the main clinical symptoms are anemia, a marked loss of blood platelets, bleeding, low resistance to infection, particularly in the mouth, throat and lungs, and the most serious cases may result in death from sepsis.
(c) Secondary obesity:
Chronic hepatitis often leads to "hepatic obesity" which is often mixed up with common obesity. In fact, the liver as the metabolic center for the synthesis and storage of fat is capable of turning carbohydrates and protein into fat through the regulation of the process by the cholic acid from gall. When the liver functions normally, the fat acid is assimilated by the liver by enzyme and transformed into triglyceride lipase whereas inflammation, intoxication and alcoholic drinking may cause an over stock of triglyceride lipase in the liver to make it fatty. In clinical observations, the patient may suffer from obesity, over body weight and hyperlipemia, thus forming an unhealthy body type characteristic of secondary obesity. If children and male patients before maturity suffer a deficiency of male hormone and an increase of female hormone, they tend to suffer from obesity and their exterior genitalia generally appear below the normal growth, which may affect their sex and reproductive ability.
(2) Skin Color:
(a) Yellowish pale:
Statistics show that 50%~60% of chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis patients will find their skin dull and yellowish pale in color. This sign is particularly obvious for those parts covered by clothes.
(b) Dark skin:
Hepatitis is closely related to the metabolism of the pigments in the human body. The pathological mechanism of chronic hepatitis causes an imbalance of the Yin (the vital essence) and Yang (the vital function) in the traditional Chinese medicine theory, resulting in the overheat in the heart, liver and lungs as well as in the large intestines, the waste of the kidney water -- a sign of a weak Yin and overactive Yang. Because the dysfunction of adrenal cordex causes pigment metabolism disorder, a patient suffering from a weakness of the liver and kidneys at the second phase will show a dark skin which people term as "black jaundice", or melanicterus, as an indication of the weakness of the kidneys.
(c) Pale skin:
Hepatitis may lead to a disorder in the digestive system for the normal assimilation of nutrition and the hemotopoietic function of the liver or chronic hepatitis may lead to chronic anemia, hemolysis, the thinning of blood and the lowering of the hemotopoietic function of the bone. Clinical appearances tend to show pale skin and membrane (inside of the eyelids, lips and the tongue). If the patient lies flat on his back, his face and lips will regain a rosy color which indicates he may suffer from postural hypotension. The patient may often suffer from dizziness, palpitation, short breath and insomnia. Female patients may suffer from periodic headache and weakness after each menstruation.
