A rare inherited disorder of copper metabolism that can destroy the liver or the nervous system — and often progresses silently until damage is done. Volume 5 of the Secrets of a Healthy Liver series makes the case for recognising it early.
Secrets of a Healthy Liver — Volume 5
Wilson’s Disease: The Liver and Brain Under Siege by Copper
A rare inherited disorder of copper metabolism that can cause liver failure or irreversible neurological damage — and which typically advances in silence until the harm is done. Prof. Seyed-Moayed Alavian argues that wider recognition of this disease would prevent much of that damage.
Publisher
Publication date
September 22, 2025
Print length
187 pages
Language
English
Format
Kindle edition
Series
Secrets of a Healthy Liver, Volume 5
Audience
Patients, families, GPs, and medical students
Get the book
Published by Brieflands and available worldwide as a Kindle edition on Amazon. For institutional orders, bulk copies, or translation rights, contact the publisher directly.
About this book
Wilson's disease is rare, and it is dangerous out of proportion to its rarity. It can threaten life through liver failure or through irreversible neurological injury, and in its early stages it advances silently and invisibly. In many cases, significant damage has already occurred by the time a diagnosis is made.
The author writes from clinical experience: adolescents and young adults arriving at medical centres with unexpected psychiatric or movement symptoms, whose underlying cause proved to be a genetic disorder of copper metabolism. Those presentations are exactly why the disease is missed — the first doctor to see the patient is often not a hepatologist.
This volume sets out symptoms, diagnostic methods, effective treatments, and the importance of long-term follow-up, aimed at the general public, families, and non-specialist physicians alike. Its premise is straightforward: greater awareness produces earlier diagnosis, and earlier diagnosis prevents complications that cannot be undone.
If awareness of Wilson's disease increases in society, many of its irreversible complications can be prevented through early diagnosis.Prof. Seyed-Moayed Alavian — from the introduction
What the book covers
Copper metabolism
The genetic defect behind the disease, and why copper accumulates where it does.
How it presents
Hepatic, neurological, and psychiatric presentations — and why young patients are often misread.
Diagnosis
The tests that confirm or exclude Wilson's disease, and when to think of ordering them.
Treatment
Established therapies and what they can achieve when started in time.
Long-term follow-up
Why lifelong monitoring is part of the treatment rather than an optional extra.
For non-specialists
Written so that GPs, students, and families can recognise the pattern early.
Important. Wilson's disease is treatable, and treatment is lifelong — stopping therapy can precipitate acute liver failure. It is also inherited, so siblings and close relatives of a diagnosed patient should be screened. This book is education, not a substitute for specialist care: diagnosis and management belong with a hepatologist or neurologist experienced in the condition.