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Liver Disease

Your liver is as indispensable to your heath and very life as your heart or brain is. It is, in fact, a very compact sort of processing lab that is responsible for literally thousands of chemical activities and transformations that are critical to life, as well as detoxification of all kinds of toxins. It is also the sole organ in adults that regenerates itself when injured or damaged.

The liver’s role as chief detox lab brings it into contact with the drugs and “social lubricants” (alcohol) we ingest or smoke or chew (Tobacco). Normally the liver does a great job of neutralizing these compounds, but things can and do go awry.

The liver’s detox capacity can be overwhelmed or undermined. For example, regular binge or heavy drinking can overwhelm the liver’s ability to process alcohol, resulting in the development of fatty liver, inflammation (hepatitis) and even cirrhosis. Many statin drugs, some herbs, as well as the pain-killer acetaminophen (Tylenol®) and vitamin B3 (Niacin) can be toxic to the liver when consumed in excessive amounts or over long periods of time. Certain viral infections and certain states-of-being like pregnancy can also bring about liver damage and resultant disease.

The conventional or standard medical approach to treating liver disease is a logical, straightforward one: Match the intervention to the source of the problem. Obviously, assisted abstinence is often the order of the day with respect to alcohol abuse. Viral infections are dealt with using sophisticated immunomodulating therapies and antiviral drugs. Vitamin and herbal offenders are dropped, and prescription drugs either dropped or swapped out with a drug that doesn’t cause liver damage or at least much less so.  

Natural Medicine for What Ails You

There are a number of herbs and such in nature that has been shown to be of merit in ameliorating certain forms of liver disease. There is, however, one compound that is native to the human body and has shown considerable efficacy in terms of benefitting certain liver conditions in therapeutic doses: Namely, S-adenosylmethionine (SAM-e).   

In your body, SAM-e is created for use in converting or transforming certain chemicals to other chemicals. In various studies, SAM-e given orally in high enough doses was shown to have a positive impact on various liver diseases and conditions such as liver cirrhosis, viral hepatitis, toxicity associated with use of certain chemicals and drugs, and jaundice associated with pregnancy.

For example, in one 2-week, double-blind study of 220 people with cholestasis, SAM-e taken orally (1,600 mg daily) had significant benefit on liver symptoms as compared to placebo. Most of the people in this study had chronic viral hepatitis.

And in another double-blind, placebo-controlled study that ran for 2 years and involved 177 people, SAM-e was evaluated with respect to its impact on alcohol-induced cirrhosis.  This study did not find SAM-e helpful for all members of the group, but did reveal that SAM-e conferred benefits on people with less advanced cirrhosis. Many who would have surely progressed to the point of needing a liver transplant did not.

Consumers need to be aware of the fact that not all SAM-e products are equal. Many do not contain forms of SAM-e (called isomers) that are useable in the human body. One that does is SAMePLUS www.Samenhanced.com

References

1. Mato JM, Camara J, Fernandez de Paz J, et al. ‘S-adenosylmethionine in alcoholic cirrhosis: a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, multicenter clinical trial.’ J Hepatol. 1999;30:1081-1089.

2. Frezza M, Surrenti C, Manzillo G, et al. ‘Oral S-adenosylmethionine in the symptomatic treatment of intrahepatic cholestasis. A double-blind, placebo-controlled study.’ Gastroenterology. 1990;99:211-215.

3. Frezza M, Pozzato G, Pison G, et al. ‘S-adenosylmethionine counteracts oral contraceptive hepatotoxicity in women.’ Am J Med Sci. 1987;293:234-238.

4. Frezza M, Pozzato G, Chiesa L, et al. ‘Reversal of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy in women after high dose S-adenosyl-L-methionine administration.’ Hepatology. 1984;4:274-278.

5. Nicastri P, Diaferia A, Tartagni M, et al. ‘A randomised placebo-controlled trial of ursodeoxycholic acid and S-adenosylmethionine in the treatment of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy.’ Br J Obstet Gynaecol. 1998;105:1205-1207.

6. Binder T, Salaj P, Zima T, et al. ‘Ursodeoxycholic acid, S-adenosyl-L-methionine and their combinations in the treatment of gestational intrahepatic cholestasis (ICP)]’ Ceska Gynekol. 2006;71:92-98.

7. Burrows RF, Clavisi O, Burrows E. ‘Interventions for treating cholestasis in pregnancy.’ Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2001;CD000493.