The recommended diet for anyone suffering from liver disease is high in carbohydrate, low in protein, low in fat diet, and low in sodium. Drugs are used to help control some of the complications of the ailing liver. Diuretics are often given to help relieve the edema and partially compensate for the patient's poor compliance to a low-salt diet. Drugs, such as lactulose, decrease the absorption of protein from the intestine, and thereby further reduce the protein load to be handled by the liver. Steroids are sometimes used to decrease inflammation.
Medications deal primarily with symptoms and fail to prolong the patient's life in most cases.
Survival is not improved with the use of steroids and other antiinflammatory drugs. Unfortunately, strict adherence to a healthy diet is rarely encouraged by the physician until liver disease is far advanced. By this time there is too little liver left to make much of a difference. A healthier diet will relieve much of the burden on the diseased liver, since a large part of the liver's function is to metabolize excess proteins, cholesterol, fats and additives from the diet. Progress can often be measured by reduction in the liver enzymes, SGOT and SGPT, seen by blood tests.