Fatty Liver Disease: Treatment with Folk Remedies #9

Fatty Liver Disease: Treatment with Folk Remedies

Among gastrointestinal diseases, a significant portion of problems stem from liver dysfunction. The liver is the largest gland in our body, and even severe damage to its cells can be treated.

Fatty Liver Disease – Development Mechanism and Symptoms

• Our liver serves as the main biochemical laboratory responsible for detoxifying the blood and maintaining normal metabolism. It is often referred to as the “second heart” of the human body. This is why even a slight increase in triglycerides in the blood and more than 5% fat in liver cells poses a real threat to the entire body.
• Gradually, the accumulated fat in the liver begins to oxidize, leading to inflammation and its associated consequences. However, fatty liver disease is a reversible process. The danger of this “silent” ailment lies in its lack of symptoms. We often ignore early signs like nausea, general discomfort, malaise, and weakness.
• Fatty liver disease is usually detected during routine examinations for other conditions. To confirm the diagnosis and identify the initial signs of fat deposition in liver cells, it’s sufficient to undergo an abdominal ultrasound and specific blood tests, along with additional investigations.

Causes of Fatty Liver Disease

• Fatty liver disease can occur in people of different ages but is most common in women aged 40-60. The reasons for the disease are numerous, including dietary imbalances with excessive consumption of fatty foods, alcohol abuse, smoking, and chronic conditions that increase “bad” cholesterol levels in the blood.
• Typically, disturbances in carbohydrate, lipid, and uric acid metabolism start when there are fatty deposits in liver cells (hepatocytes). These pathological changes are often accompanied by high blood pressure, obesity, or diabetes.
• Therefore, it’s important to know that fatty liver disease is often a direct cause of cardiovascular diseases, stroke, and myocardial infarction. Diabetics should be under regular supervision by an endocrinologist, adhere to the prescribed diet, and take medications that maintain acceptable blood sugar levels.
• With high cholesterol levels, it’s necessary to regulate lipid metabolism.

Conservative Therapy for Fatty Liver Disease

• Doctors usually prescribe medications that reduce cholesterol production in the liver for “fatty” livers, such as Crestor and Liprimar. However, these medications should be taken cautiously, with individualized dosing, to avoid worsening the liver’s fat content.
• Clinical trials have shown that treating fatty liver disease with essential phospholipids, which restore liver cell membrane structure by embedding into damaged areas and halting fibrosis development, is effective. These include soy-based medications like Phosphogliv, Essliver Forte, and fungal-based Floravit.
• These medications also contain licorice, amino acids, and vitamins. The doctor prescribes 1-2 capsules during meals three times a day for three months, with one or two courses per year. Floravit is taken twice a year: the water-based form for 30 days before dinner (one tablespoon), and the oil-based form before breakfast (one teaspoon). Contraindications include gallstones.
• Currently, the most effective treatment for fatty liver disease and other liver conditions is considered to be milk thistle, thanks to its active ingredient, silymarin. The pharmaceutical industry produces medications like Silymarin Sedeko, Silymar, Karsil, Sibektan, and Legalon, based on this “miracle herb.” These help regenerate damaged liver cells and protect healthy ones.
• Silymarin neutralizes toxins that have damaged liver cells, preventing them from penetrating the cell membrane. For fatty liver disease, milk thistle-based medications are typically prescribed at one tablet (or capsule) 2-3 times a day, half an hour before or after meals, with water. The treatment course lasts 30 days, and after 2-3 months, the course is repeated.
• Among dietary supplements, there’s Mariol (milk thistle seed meal), taken 3-4 times a day by one teaspoon with porridge, salad, or half a glass of boiled water half an hour before meals. The course lasts a month.
• Other natural-based medications include Tykveol and Ovesol, as well as bee pollen, a “bread” produced by worker bees from flower pollen to feed larvae. These products are rich in flavonoids, trace elements, vitamins, and unsaturated fatty acids, helping the liver recover its former state and are beneficial for prevention.

Fatty Liver Disease – Preventive Measures

• If you’ve been diagnosed with fatty liver disease, it’s crucial to make significant lifestyle changes. The simplest yet most effective method for addressing metabolic disorders is increasing physical activity. Exercise generally has no contraindications and doesn’t cause side effects.
• This includes aerobics, dancing, morning exercises, swimming, and daily walking for at least an hour. Another important aspect of improving health is avoiding alcohol and smoking. By following these simple rules, you won’t need to take pills daily for months or visit medical facilities.
• Exclude from your diet foods rich in cholesterol, such as sausages, liver, canned foods, and products with preservatives. Diabetics and heart patients should avoid excessive fats and carbohydrates, and fried and spicy foods should be excluded from the diet. The liver “loves” fish, even fatty varieties, cheese, seafood, honey, porridge, and pumpkin juice with pulp. Those with excess weight should consider effective measures against obesity.

Folk Remedies for Fatty Liver Disease

• Drink a warm infusion of milk thistle seeds (200 ml of boiling water, one teaspoon of seeds, steep for 20 minutes) in small sips 30 minutes before meals and before bedtime for 30 days. You can enhance the effect by mixing the infusion with peppermint tea.
• Drink one tablespoon of milk thistle seed powder decoction every hour for a month (boil 30 grams of seed powder in half a liter of water until the liquid is reduced by half).
• Mix equal parts of milk thistle seeds, chamomile flowers, immortelle, St. John’s wort, and birch buds. Infuse one tablespoon of the mixture in half a liter of boiling water for one hour. Take one glass of the decoction, adding one teaspoon of honey, twice a day, half an hour before or two hours after meals. The course lasts 60 days, with 3-4 courses per year.
• Consume three to four glasses of oat grain and dried pear decoction daily (boil one glass of dried pears and four tablespoons of oat grains in one liter of water, steep for three hours).
• Mix equal parts of rosehip roots and berries, motherwort, St. John’s wort, violet, and field horsetail. Boil one tablespoon of the mixture in a glass of boiling water for 10 minutes, cool, and strain. Take ¼ cup four times a day.