There is a huge range of things you can do about your hepatitis C. Those that loosely involve making lifestyle changes are covered in Caring For Yourself in the Wellness section and also worth looking at is the section on Mental and Emotional Attitude. This section looks at conventional (pegylated interferon and ribavirin) treatment.
Choosing between them is unlikely to be easy, particularly as there is so little hard evidence for the effectiveness of alternative therapies. The reason there is evidence for conventional treatment is that medicine requires a licence from the Government and this can only be obtained on the basis of evidence on effectiveness and safety collected from controlled trials.
The fact that there is no evidence, of course, does not mean that something does not work. There have been definite cases of people clearing hepatitis C while taking alternative therapies, notably chinese medicine, western herbs and supplements. However, the numbers have not been great and it is not certain that the results were entirely due to those treatments (people frequently try several alternative remedies at the same time, for example). Added to the lack of evidence, it appears that what works for some people does not work for others, and this also applies to conventional (pegylated interferon and ribavirin) treatment.
One approach is firstly to decide exactly what your priority is. Clearing the virus now is not necessarily the most important goal for everyone.
Some may want to
- be free from any of the effects of Hepatitis C
- address particular symptoms
- just keep the virus in check
- improve their overall quality of life
Once you have decided that, you then have to decide what you are prepared to pay for that, in terms of time, money, discomfort and risk.
If your priority is above all to clear the virus now, then there is no question that conventional treatment offers the best chance of doing so. You may dispute the figures from the drug company sponsored trials, but what you cannot dispute is that large numbers of people, particularly with genotypes 2 or 3, now have no detectable trace of the virus in their systems following treatment. There may be a price to pay for this and you can read a full discussion of the pros and cons in Considering treatment.
If your priority is not to clear the virus right now or you cannot afford the time, discomfort or risk (the treatment is free on the NHS in the UK), then there are many alternatives available. You can read about these alternatives and also about diet, herbs and lots more in the Wellness section.
