Liver Transplantation

Your liver is the largest organ inside your body. It helps your body digest food, store energy, and remove poisons. You cannot live without a liver that works. If your liver fails, your doctor may put you on a waiting list for a liver transplant. Doctors do liver transplants when other treatment cannot keep a damaged liver working.

During a liver transplantation, the surgeon removes the diseased liver and replaces it with a healthy one. Most transplant livers come from a donor who has died. Sometimes there is a living donor. This is when a healthy person donates part of his or her liver for a specific patient.

The most common reason for a transplant in adults is cirrhosis. This is scarring of the liver, caused by injury or long-term disease. The most common reason in children is biliary atresia, a disease of the bile ducts.

If you have a transplant, you must take drugs the rest of your life to help keep your body from rejecting the new liver.

NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Metabolic Disorders

Metabolism is the process your body uses to get or make energy from the food you eat. Food is made up of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Chemicals in your digestive system break the food parts down into sugars and acids, your body's fuel. Your body can use this fuel right away, or it can store the energy in your body tissues, such as your liver, muscles, and body fat.

A metabolic disorder occurs when abnormal chemical reactions in your body disrupt this process. When this happens, you might have too much of some substances or too little of other ones that you need to stay healthy. There are different groups of disorders. Some affect the breakdown of amino acids, carbohydrates, or lipids. Another group, mitochondrial diseases, affects the parts of the cells that produce the energy.

You can develop a metabolic disorder when some organs, such as your liver or pancreas, become diseased or do not function normally. Diabetes is an example.

Nutrition

Good nutrition is important in keeping people healthy throughout their lives - when they are babies, toddlers, children, adults, and then older adults. It can help people live longer and lower their risk of health problems like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and more.

Good nutrition is about healthy eating. This means regularly choosing healthy foods and beverages. A healthy eating plan should give your body the energy and nutrients that you need every day. Nutrients include proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water. The plan should also take into account your preferences, cultural traditions, and budget.

Healthy eating does not mean that you have to follow a very strict diet or eat only a few specific types of food. It doesn't mean that you can never eat your favorite foods. You can eat a variety of foods, including less healthy favorites. But it's important not to eat too much of those foods or have them too often. You can balance those foods with healthier foods and regular physical activity.

The keys to a healthy eating plan include:

• Eating a variety of foods, including vegetables, fruits, and whole-grain products
• Eating lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, and low-fat dairy products
• Getting enough fiber
• Drinking lots of water
• Limiting salt, added sugars, alcohol, and saturated fat
• Making sure that you get enough nutrients, especially calcium, vitamin D, and potassium

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Obesity in Children

Obesity means having too much body fat. It is different from being overweight, which means weighing too much. Both terms mean that a person's weight is greater than what's considered healthy for his or her height. Children grow at different rates, so it isn't always easy to know when a child has obesity or is overweight. Ask your health care provider to check whether your child's weight and height are in a healthy range.

If a weight-loss program is necessary, involve the whole family in healthy habits so your child doesn't feel singled out. Encourage healthy eating by:

• Serving more fruits and vegetables
• Buying fewer soft drinks and high-fat, high-calorie snack foods
• Making sure your child eats breakfast every day
• Eating fast food less often
• Not using food as a reward

Physical activity is also very important. Kids need about 60 minutes each day. It does not have to happen all at once. Several short periods of activity during the day are just as good.

NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Ostomy

An ostomy is surgery to create an opening (stoma) from an area inside the body to the outside. It treats certain diseases of the digestive or urinary systems. It can be permanent, when an organ must be removed. It can be temporary, when the organ needs time to heal. The organ could be the small intestine, colon, rectum, or bladder. With an ostomy, there must be a new way for wastes to leave the body.

There are many different types of ostomy. Some examples are:

• Ileostomy - the bottom of the small intestine (ileum) is attached to the stoma. This bypasses the colon, rectum and anus.
• Colostomy - the colon is attached to the stoma. This bypasses the rectum and the anus.
• Urostomy - the tubes that carry urine to the bladder are attached to the stoma. This bypasses the bladder.

NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases