Cirrhosis of the liver 'killed Arafat'

[Freddie Stubbs]

November 19, 2004

PALESTINIAN leader Yasser Arafat died of cirrhosis of the liver, but French doctors were loath to say so because of a common public belief that the disease is the result of alcoholism, reports indicated yesterday.

Doctors described Mr Arafat as "a true water drinker" and not an alcoholic, according to the paper, Le Canard Enchaine. The weekly is well known for political satire and accurate investigations.

Allegations that Mr Arafat was a heavy drinker, which is forbidden in Islam, would have clouded the mourning that began on November 11, when he died.

The report that Mr Arafat, 75, was suffering from cirrhosis was bolstered by an article in Le Monde, which said he had suffered from "intravascular coagulation", a blood clotting condition that can be a sign of late-stage liver failure and can be consistent with cirrhosis.

more: http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1268&storyid=2252003

[Trajan]

1. Isnt the Telegraph ...

a part of the Richard Perle Empire, well known for it's scorn of all things arab ? ..

[Tempest]

12. Telegraph is a Conrad Black publication

Believe it at your own risk.

[daleo]

32. I think Conrad Black lost the Telegraph in his recent troubles

But, it is still not a source I would believe without verification. They seem to be a bit better than they were, though. I don't know if it will last. I think Galloway is suing them for libel right now (the relevant stories were printed during the Conrad Black era).

[Tempest]

41. You're right

The Telegraph changed hands recently.

But I'm willing to bet the staff hasn't changed much yet.

[truthisfreedom]

2. okay, any doctors in the house? name some other things that can cause

cirrhosis. slow poisoning, perhaps?

[bicentennial_baby]

3. Here's a list

Alcoholic liver disease. To many people, cirrhosis of the liver is synonymous with chronic alcoholism, but in fact, alcoholism is only one of the causes. Alcoholic cirrhosis usually develops after more than a decade of heavy drinking. The amount of alcohol that can injure the liver varies greatly from person to person. In women, as few as two to three drinks per day have been linked with cirrhosis and in men, as few as three to four drinks per day. Alcohol seems to injure the liver by blocking the normal metabolism of protein, fats, and carbohydrates.

Chronic hepatitis C. The hepatitis C virus ranks with alcohol as a major cause of chronic liver disease and cirrhosis in the United States. Infection with this virus causes inflammation of and low grade damage to the liver that over several decades can lead to cirrhosis.

Chronic hepatitis B and D. The hepatitis B virus is probably the most common cause of cirrhosis worldwide, but it is less common in the United States and the Western world. Hepatitis B, like hepatitis C, causes liver inflammation and injury that over several decades can lead to cirrhosis. Hepatitis D is another virus that infects the liver, but only in people who already have hepatitis B.

Autoimmune hepatitis. This disease appears to be caused by the immune system attacking the liver and causing inflammation, damage, and eventually scarring and cirrhosis.

Inherited diseases. Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, hemochromatosis, Wilson's disease, galactosemia, and glycogen storage diseases are among the inherited diseases that interfere with the way the liver produces, processes, and stores enzymes, proteins, metals, and other substances the body needs to function properly.

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). In NASH, fat builds up in the liver and eventually causes scar tissue. This type of hepatitis appears to be associated with diabetes, protein malnutrition, obesity, coronary artery disease, and treatment with corticosteroid medications.

Blocked bile ducts. When the ducts that carry bile out of the liver are blocked, bile backs up and damages liver tissue. In babies, blocked bile ducts are most commonly caused by biliary atresia, a disease in which the bile ducts are absent or injured. In adults, the most common cause is primary biliary cirrhosis, a disease in which the ducts become inflamed, blocked, and scarred. Secondary biliary cirrhosis can happen after gallbladder surgery if the ducts are inadvertently tied off or injured.

Drugs, toxins, and infections. Severe reactions to prescription drugs, prolonged exposure to environmental toxins, the parasitic infection schistosomiasis, and repeated bouts of heart failure with liver congestion can all lead to cirrhosis.

http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/cirrhosis/

[Maple]

4. Yes, and the French

haven't revealed anything about his medical condition. It is private to the family.

This is just more speculation.

[knitter4democracy]

5. I'm no doctor, but my hubby is . . .

If I remember right, cirrhosis can be caused by any infection of the liver (hepatitis of any sort) or anything that causes damage over the long-term (like drug or alcohol abuse). He could have had hep C or one of the hepatitises.

[hlthe2b]

7. Hepatitis C is a fair bet...

Egypt and parts of the Middle East have among the world's highest rates of HCV--20% of chronic HCV infected will develop cirrhosis in later life and it is severely exacerbated by even SMALL amounts of alcohol.

[carolinalady]

26. not to mention he was in an extremely malnourished state n/t

[leftchick]

9. Not a doctor but anyone should know about Hep. C....

it has become very common in the last ten years or so.

[nine23]

11. Hepatitis B can cause cirrhosis of the liver.

"Cirrhosis of the liver secondary to end-stage Hep B" would be a diagnosis.

That's one example.

[legin]

38. aflatoxin ?

if I remember right there was the Bulgarian (?) dissident killed by a pellet from an umbrella in britain, I think the poison was aflatoxin related.

a very quickly found link:
http://www.drthrasher.org/Aflatoxins_and_Aflatoxicosis.html

[legin]

39. on checking the Bulgarian dissident was ricin n/t

[maddezmom]

6. Hep C can cause cirrhosis

[maddezmom]

10. as well as prolonged exposure to toxins

Less common causes of cirrhosis include unusual reactions to certain drugs, prolonged exposure to toxins, as well as chronic heart failure (cardiac cirrhosis). In certain parts of the world (particularly Northern Africa), infection of the liver with a parasite (schistosomiasis), which causes cirrhosis, is the most common cause of all liver disease.

http://www.medicinenet.com/cirrhosis/article.htm

[baby_bear]

15. acetaminophen (tylenol) can exacerbate or even cause it

No one who drinks any alcohol at all, or who works with solvents, should take acetaminophen.

Many causes of cirrhosis. Slow poisoning over time?

Might be. But there are so many other possibilities.

s_m

[saracat]

8. No wonder they rumoured aids! Think he was an alcoholic?

But if I lived in Palestine, I guess I'd drink too!

[daleo]

33. Doubtful, but that's what they want you to think

Plenty of other things can cause liver damage, as posts higher up in the thread have noted.

[pelagius]

13. Malcolm Lowry...

...a truly prodigious drinker (he used to drink while on Antabuse) and author (_Under the Volcano_) had a teetotaling father who fretted unceasingly about his son's drinking. In one of life's strange reversals, the abstemious father died of cirrhosis while Malcolm merrily drank his way around the world.

Of course, Lowry himself later died from choking on his own vomit during a binge, so the story lacks a delightfully ironic finish.

[daleo]

34. Under the Volcano was a great book though

It probably required him being a boozer to write it. His loss was the world's gain.

[Warpy]

14. Uh, DIC isn't usually associated with cirrhosis

In DIC, large clots form in deep veins, depleting the rest of the body of clotting factors, and causing bleeding and bruising from suiperficial vasculature.

In end stage cirrhosis, the liver is no longer making clotting factors, period. Nothing clots, deep or superficially, unless you transfuse clotting factors.

In fact, a search of Medscape only turned up pregnancy related DIC being associated with any liver dysfunction at all.

So they're covering something up. Again.

[RhodaGrits]

19. No, it can be associated with hepatopathy but I agree that we

are probably still not getting the whole story.

"In DIC, the normal delicate homeostasis between clot formation and limitation is disrupted. Primary diseases, for example neoplasia, IMHA, trauma, acute pancreatitis, shock, uremia, cardiac arrest and successful resuscitation, bacterial sepsis, vasculitis, aspirin toxicity, hepatopathy, amyloidosis, and heat stroke induce widespread tissue/ vessel injury. These primary diseases are severely debilitating to the patient and may directly affect the systems necessary for coagulation or fibrinolysis such as platelet numbers or liver function. These primary diseases serve as a trigger for wide scale abnormal coagulation.

This systemic trigger causes coagulation to occur very vigorously throughout the body and results in excessive thrombin and fibrin production beyond the initial capacity of fibrinolysis. Micro clots form throughout the capillary network causing thrombosis and ischemia of organs. Those of primary concern are the kidneys, brain, heart and adrenals. Blood pools in the capillaries due to the thrombi, causing stagnant flow, increased viscosity, and allowing for local increases in the concentration of coagulation factors. This situation triggers further clot formation. Tissue necrosis and ensuing metabolic acidosis allow for the further stimulation of coagulation resulting in a vicious downward cycle."

[carolinalady]

27. yes it can

Disseminated intravascular coagulation or DIC occurs as a result of obstetric complications such as abruptio placenta, saline abortion, retained products of conception, amniotic fluid embolism or severe pre-eclampsia/eclampsia. Other causes of DIC are septicemia, malignancies, cirrhosis of the liver, sickle cell disease, trauma or crushing injuries, snake bite, extracorporeal bypass, and incompatible blood transfusions. DIC, also known as consumption coagulopathy, is the result of continuous production of thrombin. The abnormal production of thrombin consumes the other clotting factors, leading to uncontrolled bleeding. DIC is always secondary to some other disease process, and begins when widespread tissue injury triggers blood clotting.

source: http://www.rnceus.com/

[Catchawave]

16. Okay,

So how many years do I have left, without the arsnic of course:hippie:

[AmandaRuth]

17. who cares what Arafat died from ...

why won't our lazy weasel press tell us what the heck that box hump deformity boosh carries around on his back is and why won't he take his annual medical exam? Thats what i would like to know, thank you very much.

[montana_hazeleyes]

18. Thank you AmandaRuth!

Well said!

[UpInArms]

20. this made me remember an activist named Munir

http://www.laksamana.net/vnews.cfm?ncat=44&news_id=7476

Indonesia: Rights Champion Dies
Human Rights Watch
(New York, September 8, 2004) — Human Rights Watch today mourns the death of Munir, one of Indonesia’s most prominent human rights advocates. The 38-year-old lawyer died unexpectedly yesterday while en route from Indonesia to the Netherlands to pursue graduate studies.

Munir, best known as a founder and director of the highly effective Commission for “Disappeared” Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), was most recently the director of the Jakarta-based human rights group Imparsial.

“Munir was in a class by himself,” said Human Rights Watch deputy program director Joe Saunders. “He had an electric intelligence and an encyclopedic memory. In meetings, he was able to draw on a kaleidoscope of detailed fact and sharp analytical insight to present a clear image of what needed to be done.”

Munir’s legal aid career began in Surabaya in 1989 and included stints as director of the Semarang Legal Aid office and as chief of field operations for the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) in Jakarta. He represented many human rights victims and activists in high profile cases, and regularly spoke out for justice in the face of intimidation, including death threats. His work encompassed the full range of human rights concerns in Indonesia, from abuses by the Indonesian military and police, to attacks on labor activists, to impunity for human rights crimes in Aceh, East Timor and Papua (Irian Jaya) to the rights of the Chinese ethnic minority.

...more...

fast forward

Munir to be Buried Sunday
September 10, 2004 06:44 PM,

Laksamana.Net - Leading human rights activist Munir (38), who died earlier this week while on a flight to the Netherlands, will be buried Sunday (12/9/04) in his hometown of Malang, East Java province.

Detikcom online news portal reported the body of the founder of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) would arrive at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport at 4.40pm Saturday and then be flown to Malang.

Munir will be buried at 10am Sunday at the city’s Brawijaya University, where he gained his law degree in 1989.

On the night of September 6 he had departed Indonesia on a Garuda Indonesia flight for the Netherlands, where he intended to pursue a masters degree in law at Utrecht University. He died the following morning, about two hours before the plane landed at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.

The cause of death was unclear, although Munir’s associates said he had been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver last year. Dutch authorities ordered an autopsy, which was carried out in Amsterdam over Wednesday and Thursday. The results are yet to be publicly announced.

...more...

[Justathought]

21. Cirrhosis of the Liver

is what I was diagnosed with. They first tested me for Alcolhol abuse (although like Arafat..I am a water drinker to the point of addiction) then for Hepatitis C. Both were proved negative and at this time they are stating it is a result of a certain medication I have to take. The medication is essential and they have no alternative. It is a great misnomer to say cirrosis of the liver comes from alcohol abuse or hepatitis C. There are many factors that can cause the problem all though the prior reasons are the most common.

[wicket]

22. My bf used to have to take a pill that was brutal on the liver

n/t

[DieDiebold]

29. It was Depakote... and I don't blame him for needing it.

[wicket]

40. yep that's the one

[Brand New Tico]

23. Israeli Intelligence had nothing to do with this report

Move along. Nothing to see here. Do not question the propaganda machine. You must simply accept what you are told in the newspaper and believe it without question. Of course Arafat died of Cirrhosis. He also had AIDS from random homosexual sexual encounters and he had herpes from imported Hungarian strippers and he also had a bizarre disease from molesting little boys and having sex with goats.

This is all true. If you don't believe it, just ask the Israelis - or better yet, ask Dougie Feith and Paulie Wolfowitz over at the Pentagon.

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[barb162]

28. LOL

[Nothing Without Hope]

45. Too true!

I didn't realize Israeli Intelligence posted on DU! How cleverly diabolical of them!
:evilgrin:

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[lojasmo]

30. cirrhosis causes bleeding, not coagulation. N/T

[Nothing Without Hope]

31. I have my doubts -- was it "assisted" death?

Arafat was blamed by many, at least in US, Israel and Western Europe, for obsructing their preferred version of the "road to peace." Everything about Arafat is controversial, but the fact is he was widely hated and blamed. I think it is possible that his death was not entirely natural. When I heard about his hospitalization, I expected to hear of his death after a "decent interval." He was seen as being in the way of what a lot of powerful people wanted, and I think it is possible that they took steps to speed his exit since they hadn't been able to get rid of him using other approaches.

No, of course I'm not saying this for sure, I'm just expressing some skepticism at the tidy news stories. Do any of you wonder about this too? A lot of poisons are virtually undetectable and many toxins-- hell, even over-the-counter pain medications -- damage the liver.
:tinfoilhat:

[Norquist Nemesis]

35. Tin-foil here too

and from the one who I LEAST expected it...hubby. The first thing he said was, "Moussad". Now, this is the guy that calls me out on "Well, you know they're saying" with "WHO says?!?!" and consistently waving off my thoughts from the get go with "conspiracy theory" disdain.

So...to hear him say this right away. Then, to hear him go on about why and how. Well, it was was my first thought. But that HE said it was stunning.

I'm with you all the way one this!

Welcome to DU, BTW!!! :hi:

[Nothing Without Hope]

42. Goes to show how suspicious this is

It's just all so tidy and convenient. The hospitalization could not be in the US (just forget Israel, of course), because even if the death WAS natural people would have been more ready to believe the worst.

I believe it anyway.

And thanks for the welcome!

[CHICKEN CAPITOL USA]

36. if Word got out -death due to POISONING- what do you think would happen?

The Middle East would errupt in utter turmoil and destruction.Israel would be nearly destroyed as bombers avenged.:nuke:
IF it were an assasination, the HUSH would be insisted upon by both sides.
Alot of people have an interest in not wanting Anarchy on such a large scale.

IF... hmmm
why are we suspiicious?
it's not like the media officially lied or covered up truths before or anything...:shrug:












:

[Nothing Without Hope]

43. I suspect a lot of Palestinians are suspicious anyway

But they can't be sure. This was carefully arranged -- it seems to me -- to take place in a highly hygenic, respected hospital in France. Couldn't have him breathing his last on the soil of The Great Satan. Remains to be seen whether rumors of murder take hold in the area anyway. They have a lot more reason for their suspicion than we do.

I wonder what steps Israel took to prepare for violent Palestinian reaction to Arafat's death, and when they arranged to take them? And what their "After Arafat" schedule is, and when that was finalized?

Very, very scary.

[radfringe]

37. I keep flashing to a Monty Python sketch

anyone else remember the "dead Parrot" sketch?

"the Parrot is dead"

"no, he's not, he's only sleeping."

fast forward to a couple of weeks ago....and call it the Dead Arafat Sketch......

"Arafat is Dead"

"No, he's not, he's only sleeping."

[Bread and Circus]

44. Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis is also a possibiltity.

It is ideopathic, it's cause is unknown. It's what
killed Walter Payton and he was practically super man.