Pharmacist's Antidote | How to use liver-protecting drugs correctly, you will understand after reading this article!

Regarding liver protection drugs, many people believe that they protect the liver, and the more the better. Not only can you take more, but you can even stack different types of drugs to take. In fact, doing so will not only fail to protect the liver, but will hurt the liver. This is because liver protection drugs also need to be metabolized and decomposed by the liver, and the burden of drug metabolism can easily aggravate liver disease. So, how to use liver protection drugs correctly? Yaowa will answer them for you one by one.

There are six major categories of liver protection drugs

Clinically, liver protection drugs are a class of drugs that have the functions of improving liver function, promoting the regeneration of damaged liver cells, and enhancing the liver's detoxification function. They are mainly divided into six categories: anti-inflammatory, enzyme lowering, detoxification, promoting liver cell repair and regeneration, choleretic and liver protection, and promoting energy metabolism.

1. The representative anti-inflammatory liver protection drugs are glycyrrhizic acid preparations. There are many varieties of this type of drugs, such as diammonium glycyrrhizinate and compound glycyrrhizic acid glycoside, which have strong anti-inflammatory and liver cell membrane protection effects.

2. Representative drugs of enzyme-lowering liver-protecting drugs are bifendate and bicyclol tablets. These drugs are clinically used in chronic hepatitis, drug-induced liver injury, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, alcoholic liver disease, etc.

3. Representative drugs for detoxification and liver protection are reduced glutathione, tiopronin, glucuronolactone, N-acetylcysteine, penicillamine, etc. These drugs mainly play the role of detoxification and promoting the repair and regeneration of necrotic cells.

4. Representative drugs for promoting liver cell repair and regeneration are hepatocyte growth factor and polyene phosphatidylcholine. These drugs are clinically used for acute and chronic hepatitis, drug-induced hepatitis, alcoholic liver disease, toxic hepatitis, etc.

5. Representative drugs of the choleretic and liver-protecting class include adenosylmethionine, ursodeoxycholic acid, etc. These drugs are clinically used in various cholestatic diseases such as autoimmune hepatitis, biliary cirrhosis, and sclerosing cholangitis.

6. Representative drugs for promoting energy metabolism include vitamins, coenzymes and aspartic acid, etc. These drugs are clinically used for vitamin deficiency, low material metabolism, low energy metabolism, coagulation dysfunction and hepatic encephalopathy caused by various liver diseases.

The essence of liver protection drugs is not to cure the root cause, but to be auxiliary treatment drugs. Whether choosing drugs or combining drugs, the use time should be determined according to the actual situation of the patient, combined with the cause of the disease and the effect of liver protection treatment. Remember not to use it on your own.

Principles for the rational use of liver protection drugs

1. The selection of drugs should follow the principle of simplicity and safety. Even if the condition requires the use of liver-protecting drugs, the types should not be too many, generally 2 to 3, and drugs with the same ingredients should not be used repeatedly.

2. Do not use it for a long time. Some patients are worried about the recurrence of the disease, so they continue to use it even if the condition has been alleviated. Long-term use of the drug will increase the burden on the liver.

3. Pay attention to gradual reduction. For example, some enzyme-lowering liver-protecting drugs may cause liver function indicators to rebound if they are suddenly discontinued. Therefore, it is recommended to stop the drug under the guidance of a doctor and reduce the dosage gradually, not too quickly.

When using liver-protecting drugs, we should not only focus on their therapeutic effects, but also closely observe the adverse reactions and reasonably evaluate the positive and negative effects. In addition to drug treatment, we should also pay attention to proper rest, a reasonable diet, develop a good lifestyle, and control or avoid various liver damage factors.