More people today will choose natural, herbal and alternative therapies to treat the Hepatitis C virus. Many sufferers want to avoid the horrible side effects of interferon and liver transplants that may not show a complete cure by eliminating the virus. In these later stages the solution is usually a liver transplant. â€â€According to WebMD.com the Hepatitis C virus is the number one cause of liver transplants and kills about 10,000 people a year. Even if the transplant is successful, the virus in their body will infect the new liver while they are simultaneously receiving the interferon treatment. Eventually, time and the virus will ravage the new liver. It is a vicious cycle, especially when you look at the cost.â€â€The following shows that the cost of a liver transplant is well over a half a million dollars. Transplantliving.org shows a breakdown; hospitalization costs average $248,000, procurement is over $59,000, the physicians fee is over $66,000, follow-up and evaluation runs about $100,000 and with the immune-suppressants and other related charges the cost totals over $520,000. That is a lot of money; or as a friend of mine says, "that's big business." Unfortunately most Americans cannot afford this mainly because they do they have insurance to pay for it. And even if they could pay for it, more than half would go bankrupt when they go on the treatment; a vicious cycle; death or life with bankruptcy. Autoimmune hepatitis is a nightmare going on inside your body and your liver! â€â€ On June 2, 2009, Yahoo.com published an article from Reuters that highlights this tragic fact. In that article "Medical bills underlie 60% of U.S. bankruptcies: study", 62.1 percent of all bankruptcies in 2007 were caused by medical bills that are past due. Another astonishing fact is "most of these medical debtors were well-educated and owned homes and had middle-class occupations". One of the researchers in the study said it does not offer the average American much hope for coverage. I begin to wonder if the average American can get over the Hepatitis C virus using the conventional treatment; get well and not go bankrupt. The chances are very slim. Again it's a vicious cycle for the Hepatitus sufferer in the late stages of the disease.â€â€So let us look at the ideal situation where someone with the Hepatitis C virus has the insurance and the finances and is not in the late stages of the disease. What are their options? The doctors will put them on interferon treatment. Those costs are well over $60,000 even with the minimal treatment; but does this really work? Some new breakthroughs in drug therapy show promise, but are always non responders and interferon may not be effective for a long term remission of autoimmune hepatitis.â€â€The American Liver Foundation has shown that "the initial course of treatment is 4 to 6 months and in many cases the patients relapse and require retreatment". What this means is four to six more months of feeling like you have the flu every day and another $60,000. Many of the studies say that higher doses of interferon are not necessarily effective for eradicating the hepatitis c virus. To make matters worse, many patients under the treatment experience "breakthrough". This occurs in patients who normalized their serum ALT levels in the first few weeks of treatment, but show raised levels occurring shortly thereafter, which means they are essentially having a relapse during the treatment itself. Is interferon a valid agent of proven efficacy for treatment of hepatitus? Is transplantation of the liver really an effective course of action if the chances are nearly certain that the new liver will later get the hepatitis c virus from body? The patient is just going to get sick again, it is just a matter of time. Moreover, if you are one of the lucky 3% who are well in the first 4 years after treatment are you able to work? The doctors say you will always have the virus so you could relapse again within a short period of time. More to the point, could it be that by pursuing the medical solution to hepatitus by ignoring natural therapies is a sure road to bankruptcy for over 60% of Americans, that it will only bring continued treatment and relapse of the Hepatitis C virus? There are holistic, herbal and alternative therapies that many people have used to recover naturally from Cancer, AIDs and autoimmune hepatitis. Doctors say the risks are too great and there is not enough research to support these natural therapies. It seems in reality, that the risks are too great with their conventional treatment; at best there is little chance of real recovery or survival. Alternative and natural therapy is a great choice and provides the best chance that many Americans are willing to take to avoid the conventional vicious cycle of modern hepatitus treatments.
Please Rate this Article 5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5
Not yet Rated
