Cirrhosis is a chronic, degenerative disease in which normal liver cells are damaged and are then replaced by scar tissue. Cirrhosis changes the structure of the liver and the blood vessels that nourish it. The disease reduces the liver's ability to manufacture proteins and process hormones, nutrients, medications, and poisons.

Cirrhosis gets worse over time and can become potentially life threatening. It can cause excessive bleeding (hemorrhage),, impotence, liver cancer, coma due to accumulated ammonia and body wastes (liver failure), and death.

Cirrhosis is the seventh leading cause of disease-related death in the United States. It is twice as common in men as in women. The disease occurs in more than half of all malnourished chronic alcoholics and kills about 25,000 people a year. It is the third most common cause of death in adults between the ages of 45 and 65.

Portal or nutritional cirrhosis is the form of the...