New home liver test set to throw lifeline to drinking masses
| Author: Irene Robertson | Published: 26th October 2007 16:19 |
Amid a consumption crisis for the booze nation of Britain, a new home liver blood test is being launched today (Tuesday 30th October) which is set to throw a vital lifeline to the millions of drinkers who are potentially at risk from liver disease. With over 4,000 deaths a year through alcohol related liver disease, the test, called LiverCheck, has arrived at a time of serious health dangers for the UK's adult drinkers.
LiverCheck is the first home blood liver test available in the UK, and aims to identify liver damage, at the same time handing over responsibility for alcohol consumption to the people most at risk.
Despite Government guidelines, most drinkers have varying levels of safe limits based on gender, weight, height and genetic predisposition. LiverCheck, irrespective of unit capacity, will assess if there is any liver damage, from a simple pinprick amount of blood. Easy to understand results with a full support pack allow customers to make the changes to improve the health of their liver.
Dr Ravij Jalan is from University College London and one of UK's leading liver experts. "There is no doubt in my mind that it will save lives. If someone knew they were going to get liver disease, they would do something about it. LiverCheck could avoid them getting to the stage where they are doing themselves real harm."
Liver disease is essentially a silent process which costs the NHS £1.7 billion. In many cases, people are blind to its onset. The LiverCheck test, which is only currently available in hospitals and private clinics, will act as an early warning signal, to give the middle-class ‘vinos' (a group of middle-class thirty somethings who have been identified as regular home wine drinkers), plus the worried and interested, an indication as to the state of their liver.
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