US Tele-Medicine Blog » liver illness

Cups of Coffee a Day May Help Fight Liver Disease

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:45:44 +0000

Researchers in the United States have found another good reason to go to the local espresso bar: several cups of coffee a day could halt the progression of liver disease, a study showed Wednesday.

Sufferers of chronic hepatitis C and advanced liver disease who drank three or more cups of coffee per day slashed their risk of the disease progressing by 53 percent compared to patients who drank no coffee, the study led by Neal Freedman of the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) showed.

For the study, 766 participants enrolled in the Hepatitis C Antiviral Long-Term Treatment against Cirrhosis (HALT-C) trial — all of whom had hepatitis C which had not responded to treatment with anti-viral drugs — were asked to report how many cups of coffee they drank every day.

The patients were seen every three months during the 3.8-year study and liver biopsies were taken at 1.5 and 3.5 five years to determine the progression of liver disease.

“We observed an inverse association between coffee intake and liver disease progression,” meaning patients who drank three or more cups of java were less likely to see their liver disease worsen than non-drinkers, wrote the authors of the study, which will be published in the November issue of Hepatology.

The researchers put forward several ways in which coffee intake might protect against liver disease, including by reducing the risk of type two diabetes, which has been associated with liver illness; or by reducing inflammation, which is thought to cause fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver.

Even caffeine, the chemical that gives a cup of coffee its oomph, came under the spotlight, having been found in previous studies to inhibit liver cancer in rats.

But drinking black or green tea, which also contain caffeine, had little impact on the progression of liver disease, although there were few tea drinkers in the study.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) three to four million people contract hepatitis C each year. Seventy percent of cases become chronic and can cause cirrhosis or liver cancer.

Vitamin E Effective For “Silent” Liver Disease

admin — Wed, 12 May 2010 07:58:54 +0000

Vitamin E has been shown effective in treating nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), an obesity-associated chronic liver disease that can lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer, and death. NASH also is related to or a part of type 2 diabetes, lipid disorders and cardiovascular disease.

The often asymptomatic condition affects 2 to 5 percent of Americans, although an additional 10 to 20 percent of the population has fat in their liver, but no inflammation or liver damage, a condition called “fatty liver” that is a precursor to NASH. There is no established treatment.

The government-funded multicenter study was organized by the Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Clinical Research Network of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and is the largest ever placebo-controlled randomized trial of treatment for NASH. Results are published in the April 28 online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Beginning in the late 1990s, study of vitamin E for NASH was pioneered in pilot trials by Dr. Joel Lavine, now a faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and chief of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital. Researchers followed patients at nine centers, including the University of California, San Diego, where Dr. Lavine was previously on faculty.

“There is an increasing prevalence of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis in this country, something that is directly related to the obesity epidemic,” says Dr. Lavine, co-chair of the Network’s steering committee and a co-author of the study. “The good news is that this study showed that cheap and readily available vitamin E can help many of those with the condition. We also looked at the drug pioglitazone, which showed some benefits, although not as dramatic as with vitamin E.”

Dr. Lavine cautions that there are risks with any therapy, even vitamin E, and all treatment should be done under medical supervision. “Individuals who are overweight or have a family history of liver disease should ask their doctor to be tested for the condition. In addition, physicians should be aware that liver enzyme levels considered normal are actually elevated. Healthy levels are <30 U/L for a man and <20 for a woman.”

In the Pioglitazone or Vitamin E for NASH Study (PIVENS), investigators randomly assigned 247 nondiabetic adults with biopsy-confirmed NASH to receive vitamin E, pioglitazone or placebo. Vitamin E functions as an antioxidant while pioglitazone improves the sensitivity of cells to insulin, a hormone that controls both sugar and fat metabolism.

After 96 weeks of treatment, vitamin E improved all features of NASH with the exception of the amount of scar tissue in the liver; 43 percent of those treated with vitamin E met the primary endpoint of the trial, which was a composite of the scores for several features of NASH indicative of disease activity, compared with only 19 percent of those who received a placebo. Pioglitazone also improved many features of NASH and met the primary endpoint in 34 percent of individuals who received it but fell short of statistical significance. Pioglitazone treatment led to an average weight gain of 10 pounds over the 96-week duration of this study. Liver enzyme tests, which are commonly used to assess liver injury, also improved in those who received either pioglitazone or vitamin E. However, upon stopping the medications, the liver enzymes worsened again suggesting the need for long-term treatment.

Coffee May Stop Liver Disease

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:41:43 +0000

Coffee May Stop Liver Disease

Researchers have found another good reason to go to the local espresso bar: Several cups of coffee a day could halt the progression of liver disease, a study showed Wednesday.

Sufferers of chronic hepatitis C and advanced liver disease who drank three or more cups of coffee per day slashed their risk of the disease progressing by 53 percent compared to patients who drank no coffee, according to the study, led by Neal Freedman of the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

For the study, 766 participants enrolled in the Hepatitis C Antiviral Long-Term Treatment against Cirrhosis (HALT-C) trial all of whom had hepatitis C which had not responded to treatment with anti-viral drugs were asked to report how many cups of coffee they drank every day.

The patients were seen every three months during the 3.8-year study, and liver biopsies were taken periodically to determine the progression of liver disease.

The researchers put forward several ways in which coffee intake might protect against liver disease, including reducing the risk of Type 2 diabetes, which has been associated with liver illness; or by reducing inflammation, which is thought to cause fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver.

Even caffeine, the chemical that gives a cup of coffee its oomph, came under the spotlight, having been found in previous studies to inhibit liver cancer in rats.

But drinking black or green tea, which also contain caffeine, had little impact on the progression of liver disease, although there were few tea drinkers in the study.

According to the World Health Organization, 3 million to 4 million people contract hepatitis C each year.

Seventy percent of cases become chronic and can cause cirrhosis or liver cancer.