Recovering from hepatitis A

Food and alcohol

Alcohol

Hepatitis A is not caused by alcohol. But if you normally drink alcohol, you should avoid it until you are fully recovered.

Your liver must work hard to fight the virus and then to repair the damage it has caused. Drinking alcohol will put even more strain on it. This risks slowing down your recovery, or even doing more damage to your liver.

Once you feel completely better it should be safe to drink some alcohol again. Stick within the recommended limits to prevent any new damage.

Food

There are no specific foods that you need to eat or avoid while you recover from hepatitis A. Try to eat a well-balanced diet to help your liver to get better.

Supplements

Always talk to your doctor if you are thinking about taking supplements. Or other types of over the counter or complementary medicines. Your liver might not be able to deal with these in the normal way while you are recovering.

You can find out more about supplements and complementary and alternative medicine here.

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Support for you

Being told that you have any kind of liver condition can be very difficult. Even if you can expect to make a full recovery.

The British Liver Trust has a range of support on offer to anyone with a liver condition. We can help friends and loved ones too. You can find out more about our support, including our nurse led helpline, here.

The British Liver Trust helpline team

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Special thanks

All our publications are reviewed by medical experts.

We would like to thank:

Kathryn Jack, Lead nurse for research and innovation, Nottingham university hospitals NHS trust.

Dr. Ahmed Elsharkawy, Consultant transplant hepatologist, University hospitals Birmingham NHS foundation trust.

This information was published on July 12th 2023

It is due for review in July 2026