Chinese medicine, as any other alternative treatments, can be very effective against many diseases. In the case of Chinese medicine as a treatment for fatty liver, it goes to the stages prior to the diseases itself, and tries to prevent it from happening at the first place. Although these methods were not proven to be effective in any official tests. many believe they could help dealing with and preventing fatty liver.

The correct Chinese treatment is based on the symptoms:

• Swelling of right side rib, fullness, and lack of comfort that is caused by depression, tension, stress and extreme emotional changes, that often go together with dry mouth and/or tongue redness. Correct treatment in this case is to overcome stress and depression.
• Eager thirst (polydipsia), strong yellow urine, constipation, becoming angry easily than normal, slow pulse, discomfort in the abdominal area. Treatment is Nourish yin (eating healthy food) and liver emollition.
• Abdominal stretchiness, weakness, dehydration, delicate pulse, dry mouth. Treatment in this case would be to strengthen the spleen and reconcile the stomach, and to disperse phlegm.
• Cooled limbs, diarrhea, stretching, fine pulse, drinking a lot of water but having no feeling o thirst. Treatment would by warming the spleen and the kidneys,  and by letting a more free and quick blood flow.

Again, this is just a general information on how the Chinese medicine is trying to fight fatty liver. There are still no evidence of any of these treatment to be effective. More research needs to be done on this subject.

This letter is from Mike, who was diagnosed to have a fatty liver few years ago:

A few years back I was diagnosed with fatty liver disease (ultimately by way of ultrasound after blood test revealed elevated enzymes). Since that time I have gained 30 pounds and am honestly overweight.

A recent blood test showed only one enzyme elevated, ALT, and the UL was 67.  My question is, is on ongoing ALT elevated above the normal limit of 45 to be expected since there is essentially no cure for fatty liver disease?

Said another way, from what I understand exercise and diet are used to “regulate” the disease as there is no cure.  Even with exercise and diet can it be expected that the ALT would go down to normal levels are still remain elevated above the limit of 45?  I have not exercised and my diet is not great. Thanks.

My answer to this question is short:

Even though fatty liver disease has no official “cure”, the fact is that with proper diet and exercise, fatty liver symptoms can be brought to minimum. Meaning, the ALT levels in the bloodstream would reach to normal if  a new life style is being adapted.

So yes, the ALT levels could be lowered to normal range if you are willing to take the necessary actions in your life.

In recent years, there are many indications that liver enzymes and exercise have some kind of association. For example, taking a blood test close to the time you exercised, could result elevated levels of liver enzymes in the results.

The act of exercising has an affect on the level of liver enzymes, and when taking a blood test timed closely with the exercise, it could result with misleading outcome. The physician will probably think the blood test results is because of viral infection, which is not true.

However, there is an easy workaround to this situation. Before taking any blood test, make sure you haven’t exercised beforehand. It will prevent any unnecessary conclusions regarding your conditions.

It is recommended to wait for about 3 hours after the initial exercise before going through a blood test; this will prevent any mistakes in the blood test related to liver enzymes and exercise.

The cells of our body produce many chemicals with antioxidizing activity against free radicals. A good example to such chemical is Taurine. Taurine detox can help protect important DNA, proteins, and lipit from free radical damage.

Few words about Taurine

Taurine is an amino acid, considered to play a vital role in enhancing cellular antioxidizing activity. It acts in concert with several antioxidants to provide increased protection against cancer and certain cardiovascular disorders. Taurine is used by the liver for conjugation with bile acids, and it has been shown to strengthen and stabilize cellular membranes.

If you suffer from a liver disease, such as fatty liver, Taurine detox can definitely help you fight it. It can be taken in a form of tablets, 200–500 mg. It’s always advisable to consult with your physician before deciding taking any supplements.

This is a letter I received few days ago from David, a 24 years old man, who was diagnosed to have a fatty liver:

Quote:

2 Months ago I was told I have Fatty Liver Disease. I am 24 years old, I weight at 260 pounds, 5′11″ tall. I am over weight and I have more fatty mass than muscle mass. Knowing that I have this disease is draining my mind and creating a lot of stress because I just don’t know how bad I have it.

What makes it more stressfull is the fact that I have lost 17 pounds since January of this year and I don’t know how I did it. I read that weight loss is a sign of advancement of the Diease. The only thing I have changed is that I have been eating a healthy breakfast in the morning that includes lots of fruit and no exercise. The other thing that I had done was take synthroid for my thyroid functions. I took the pill for 3 months or so and stopped taking it around january. I am stilling losing weight to this day and it is driving me nuts.

Can you tell me at my age should I be worried about the weight loss as a sign of advancement? I just pray that its not that far along so that I can have a chance to exercise and eat better to turn this disease around.  What can I do to see just how bad I really have it. Your prompt response would be greatly enjoyed.

Few hours later I sent him the following answer:

Before I can answer to your questions, I need to know some missing details.

First of all, which type of fatty liver disease do you have? Alcoholic or nonalcoholic fatty liver disease?
Have you performed any abdominal ultrasound test for fatty liver diagnosis?

Second, have you done any liver function blood tests? If so, what were the results? Specifically, the results of liver enzymes ALT and AST.

You are 24 years old; meaning the change the disease is already advanced is low. It takes decades for a fatty liver to advance to a much serious liver conditions.

Waiting for your reply.
Dr. Mark Bar-Gabel

David replied:

I have NAFLD.  A ultrasound was preformed on my liver to determine that I have NAFLD.  My blood test results were: AST = 82, ALT= 161. Tests were done 12/16/08.

My report produced from the ultrasound is as follows:

FINDINGS: The liver is difficult to penetrate and has a coarsened echotexture.
No hepatic mass or intrahepatic biliary ductal dilatation is seen. The
pancreas appears normal. The gallbladder is normal. Right kidney is normal.
Common bile duct measures 3 mm. No free fluid is seen.

IMPRESSION: The appearance of the liver suggests hepatic steatosis. No focal
hepatic lesion or intrahepatic biliary ductal dilatation is seen.

I hope you can answer my questions with the information given above.  With that said, In general what can I eat to help my liver out?  I heard lemon juice is okay?  Is this true? What else if you have any other ideas.

My answer to him:

From the information you provided me, it is my honest though that your condition is reversible. I’m positive your weight loose is not an indication for advanced stage of the disease.
To reverse the condition, it will require from you to change your living style and eating habits.

Regarding lemon juice, the answer is yes. There are some indications that lemon juice is good for a fatty liver.
You can also read the foods for fatty liver article that gives a good guideline for what you should eat.

Weight loss is the key for curing a fatty liver. Losing body weight helped many patients to reverse a a non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH / NAFLD) fatty liver disease.

Why, are you asking?

The answer is to that is that when a body has excessive amounts of fat, the liver needs to work harder. And the more the liver needs to work harder, there is a more chance of inflammation of the liver, that in many cases leads to a fatty liver. The fatty tissues around the liver causes it to work less efficiently, and some of its daily routine is damaged. And when this happens, it releases excessive liver enzymes, such as ALT or AST (more details about liver enzymes can be found in Understanding liver function blood test results article).

Therefor, the more fat you loss, following a weight loss, the liver will simply work better, and will have to release decreased, and hopefully normal, amounts of liver enzymes into your blood stream.

Although a liver biopsy can confirm an existence of a fatty liver disease, for the majority of patients it is not required for NAFLD prognosis.

However, there are some specific purposes to a liver biopsy:

• A biopsy can exclude other liver disorders
• It can distinguish between simple fatty liver and acute fatty liver
• Can provide information about the stage of hepatic fibrosis in non-alcoholic fatty liver

Liver Biopsy

So when should you consider a liver biopsy?

There is no need to perform a liver biopsy on all non-alcoholic fatty liver patients. As for today, there are no specific rules on when a patient needs to take the biopsy or not.

However, a liver biopsy is sometimes considered if the patient is:

• At the age of 45 years or older
• Is diabetic and overweight (or obese)
• Suffers from hypertension and hypertriglyceridaemia

Most liver experts would recommend trying to lower the ALT enzyme levels before performing a liver biopsy.

When you going to have an ultrasound examination of your liver (abdominal), it is important to follow the following guidelines for accurate results:

• Do not drink or eat at least 6 hours before the test
• On the day before the test, do not eat – fresh fruits and vegetables, fried and oily food, milk, eggs, bread.
• What you should eat – cooked vegetables, puree, marmalade, honey, roasted bread, soup, rice.

The test is completely painless. Here is its estimated procedure:

• Lying onto an ultrasound table.
• A special gel will be spread upon your abdomen.
• The tester will move a tool called “transducer” (looks like a small wand) over the gel, that will create an capture the most relevant images.
• The tester will process and look at the images, and will enter his conclusions.

Total estimated time of the test: 20-30 minutes.

You can also take a look at pictures of fatty liver in ultrasound.

In a case of a fatty liver, where there is an extra, unwanted fat around the liver, it could lead to other, more complicated liver diseases. These disease are more severe, and usually take years until a fatty liver patient will develop them.

It is true that a fatty liver could have no complication at all, but the chance of developing a more severe liver disease, is around 30%, which considered a lot in medical terms.

The most common liver diseases developed as a result of a fatty liver are:

• Hepatitis – A viral virus that damages the liver.
• Cirrhosis – A severe liver condition, that kills liver cells, and leads to a liver failure.

This is why it is so important to treat a fatty liver as soon as possible, to avoid these kind of complications. A Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease treatment usually does not involve any kind of medications, but only involves a change of eating habits, and become more physically active, in order to loose weight. An alcoholic fatty liver disease treatment usually only includes a strong limit to the consumed amount of alcoholic drinks.

Fatty Liver Complications

Lemon juice has some benefits for your liver, mainly because it helps digesting of your food. The main reason for this is because lemon juice has certain components that stimulate your digestive juices to process your food better way. Further more, lemon juice can help to prevent entrance of undigested food into the blood stream.

The filtering of the undigested food is actually the job of the liver already, so that these food particles would not enter your blood stream. By doing it, the undigested food is termed as contaminates. Liver lemon juice can relieve the liver with its workload. For some patients with fatty liver disease, and other liver disease, this means that the liver can work more effectively to process the food you eat, especially fat.

Additionally, lemon juice is rich of Vitamin C, which is an excellent antioxidant. As an antioxidant, it can cleanse your blood from various toxins.

Another benefit of a lemon juice is that it can also help removing gallstones from the bladder. Every time you mix a lemon juice with Epsom salts and olive oil, the bile produced by the liver is not used anymore. The pileup of bile will pressure the gallstones outside of your bladder.

All in all, the only thing to say is that if you put a slice of lemon in a glass of water each morning, it could have a great affects on your liver. So get used for liver lemon!