Hereditary Liver Disease

All your life some relative or friend has remarked how much you look just like your Dad, your Mom, your Great-Grandmother or Great Grandpa. They compare the color of your eyes, cleft in you chin, color of your hair, your height and often remark about how that it the family trait of one piece or another of your family tree.

All these common traits are embedded in your genetic inheritance. While you are uniquely you, there were things certainly passed along to you that make you look similar to people who have come before you.

While we have fun picking out the noticeable parts of us that compare to others in our family tree, there are some things that get passed along in those genes that are, well, not so great.

Embedded in some people’s genetic codes are Hereditary Hemochromatosis, Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency and a disease process called Wilson’s. Each of those are genetic inheritances that can impact the liver.