Keeping the liver healthy

Hi,

I think it would be good to share ideas on how to keep the liver healthy during harsh treatments.

Additionally, many infections, toxicities and sensitivities that we discuss on here come with their own injuries to the liver.

Here's a start of things we can discuss but I figured we can just add to this list as the discussion goes on:

• TUDCA and UDCA
  
• Ox Bile
  
• Milk Thistle/Silymarin
  
• Dandelion Root
  
• Treatment breaks
  
• Staying hydrated
  
• Artichoke leaf
  
• Yellow Dock Root
  
• Schisandra

And here's a non-definitive list of blood work to check for liver injury/stress. I'll also provide links to where you can read more about them:

• AST - Aspartate Aminotransferase https://www.testing.com/tests/aspartate-aminotransferase-ast/
  
  
• ALT - Alanine Aminotransferase https://www.testing.com/tests/alanine-aminotransferase-alt/
  
  
• ALP - Alkaline Phosphatase https://medlineplus.gov/lab-tests/alkaline-phosphatase/
  
  
• GGT - Gamma-Glutamyl Transferase https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diagnostics/22055-gamma-glutamyl-transferase-ggt-test
  
  
• Total Bilirubin - https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?contenttypeid=167&contentid=total_bilirubin_blood

I'll start with Dandelion Root in the next comment.

Take care 🙂

My favorite way to encourage biliary tract (including liver) health is to make sure to have complete bowel movements every day. Any slowing in the GI tract is stressful for the liver and keeps toxins from being removed.

I like group brainstorm threads!

RC,

I've been using a Sundown brand of Milk Thistle with Fennel, Dandelion Root, and Licorice for almost as long as I've been treating lyme and co's aggressively with abx. Liver AST and ALT have pretty much been manageable, except for a rare spike with treatment protocol changes.

D-limonine Is s not very well known liver phase 1 and 2 detox pathway improver. And also coats the stomach and esophagus with a protective citrus oil protecting it from stomach acid.

It came in a very strong 500 mg gel tab now it comes in a smaller 250 mg gel tab from Jarrow. Very affordable too.

It’s best to take in the evening when you’re not gonna be moving around much. If you take it and moving around a lot you just might burp up a strong orange flavor. This freaks out some people but it’s absolutely harmless Because citrus oil coats and protects the esophagus and the lower esophagus sphincter- it will actually heal an acid burned LES valve making it seal again.

There are genes directly associated with these detox pathways. 23andme picks these but you need a decent gene deciphering upload to show it. Not a free one.

Post Edited (astroman) : 8/27/2022 9:35:17 PM (GMT-7)

astroman thank you for posting that !!, I remember you had mentioned it before but had forgotten about it. Might give that a try too!

TUDCA and UDCA

From: https://bodybio.com/blogs/blog/what-is-tudca

What is TUDCA?

"Tauroursodeoxycholic acid, or TUDCA, is a bile acid derivative that occurs naturally in the body. It’s been used therapeutically in traditional Chinese medicine for millennia, for hepatic and biliary disorders. We only make small amounts of this health-giving compound in our body, but this bile salt actually influences many bodily functions, from the brain to the kidneys to eye health and more. "

[...]

"Firstly, bile salts are released into your intestines through the liver bile duct. Microbes in your large intestine then metabolize the bile salts into ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA). Next, it gets conjugated to a taurine molecule in order to create TUDCA. This whole process happens naturally in your body and is supported when you have a healthy amount of bile salts."

[...]

"Primary bile acids are made in the liver, using cholesterol as the base. As bile acids circulate (via enterohepatic circulation), UDCA is returned to the liver and conjugated with taurine to form TUDCA. Besides mitigating endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, this process also prevents cell death (aka apoptosis).

TUDCA stands for tauroursodeoxycholic acid while UDCA stands for ursodeoxycholic acid. They are both bile salts, but UDCA is a more common form. When the intestinal microbiota (the gut flora) produces the “secondary bile acids,” they make UDCA first. When UDCA metabolizes in the lower intestine, it binds to taurine to become TUDCA "

Efficacy

From: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc5134868/

"At week 24, 75.97% of patients in the TUDCA group and 80.88% of patients in the UDCA group achieved a serum ALP reduction of more than 25% from baseline (P = 0.453). The percentage of patients with serum ALP levels declined more than 40% following 24 weeks of treatment was 55.81% in the TUDCA group and 52.94% in the UDCA group (P = 0.699). Both groups showed similar improvement in serum levels of ALP, aspartate aminotransferase, and total bilirubin (P > 0.05). The proportion of patients with pruritus/scratch increased from 1.43% to 10.00% in UDCA group, while there's no change in TUDCA group (P = 0.023). Both drugs were well tolerated, with comparable adverse event rates between the 2 groups."

..... Very impressive!