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When we feel pain in the head, throat or joints, we first use a painkiller. However, we rarely wonder how our liver can handle it all.
The liver is one of the most important organs in the body: factory, warehouse, power plant and landfill all rolled into one. It produces blood serum proteins, enzymes and 1,5 liters of bile daily. Here glucose is produced from carbohydrates and fats from amino acids. It is also a storehouse for glycogen, fats, iron, vitamins A, D, E, B12 and albumin.
The liver also has thermoregulation processes so intense that the outflowing blood is 1 degree warmer than the flowing blood. It is she who finally removes unnecessary products of metabolism – toxic ammonia turns into urea, purines into uric acid, and also neutralizes toxins, ranging from alcohol to stimulants and drugs. Well, it is worth taking care of its efficient functioning.
Until time – it regenerates
The liver has a great ability to rebuild damaged or missing parts. For example, you can remove its entire flap, and this will regenerate and be recreated. However, when the structure of the liver is destroyed, it becomes inefficient and thus loses its regenerative abilities partially or even completely.
Such an extreme state may be a consequence of being overweight, a high supply of heavy fats in the daily diet, serious viral diseases (e.g. hepatitis B, D and A, herpetic hepatitis, mononucleosis), as well as poisoning with heavy metals, drugs and drugs .
Does this mean that in the case of the latter, all preparations that we take chronically should be thrown into the trash so as not to damage our liver? No, going to extremes doesn’t make any sense. If we only take the drug in accordance with the doctor’s recommendations and dose according to its indications and doses given on the leaflets, this important organ of our body can feel safe.
Don’t take your medication in moderation
It happens, however, that by scrupulously following the rules of taking prescription drugs, we do not control the amount of over-the-counter drugs that we can buy even in a hypermarket or gas station. We use them most often in the case of headache, abdominal pain, joint or toothache. However, it is worth remembering that, for example, paracetamol, often under different trade names (Acenol, Apap, Codipar, Efferalgan, Grippostad, Panadol, Coldrex, Gripex, MaxFlu, Tabcin), can easily damage our liver when we exceed the permissible daily dose and exhaust us reserves of glutathione, which is a natural antidote produced and stored in the liver.
In addition, we may not know that one of the metabolites of paracetamol formed in the liver (N-acetyl-4-benzo-quinonoimine) is a very strong oxidant and disturbs the free radical balance, leading to exceeding the dose of 4 g per day (only 8 tablets of 0,5 g) to irreversible damage to liver cells, i.e. hepatocytes. In long-term treatment (e.g. with chronic headaches), the maximum daily dose is even lower and amounts to only 2,5 g (e.g. 5 0,5 g Apapu tablets).
In Great Britain, Paradote was registered as a combination of paracetamol with the amino acid methionine, from which cysteine is produced in the liver, which in turn is a substrate for the synthesis of the glutathione. In this way, efforts were made to minimize the risk of overdose and paracetamol poisoning. In Poland, this preparation was not registered, but its function was performed by administering methionine in tablets (Methiovit). Currently, this has been discontinued due to the lack of studies on the effects of its long-term use.
For drug-induced liver damage, it is worth using natural dietary supplements, eg HepaDr. in tablets available on Medonet Market, which supports the work of the liver and helps restore its good condition.
Note – acute failure!
Each drug is a foreign substance for the liver, which it tries to metabolize and remove from the body at its own expense as quickly as possible. It becomes difficult when the dose exceeds its capacity. What happens then? Our factory may go on strike and suddenly find itself in a state of acute hepatic failure.
Apart from paracetamol, such insufficiency may be caused by incorrectly dosed and used chemotherapeutic agents and antibiotics from the sulfonamides and tetracyclines groups, as well as indomethacin (Elmetacin) used as NSAIDs in rheumatoid arthritis. Also when taking drugs from the groups of phenytoin (Phenytoin, Epanutin) or carbamazepine (Tegretol, Amizepin, Neurotop) prescribed in epilepsy, and even using statins lowering cholesterol levels in hypercholesterolaemia (Zocor, Vasilip, Tulip, Atoris, Sortis, Pravastatin), we must remember to pay special attention to the doses and times of taking drugs due to their “hepatic” metabolism.
To the rescue of hepatocytes
So, does modern medicine know how to neutralize the negative effects of certain drugs on the liver? What can we do to protect hepatocytes when the liver is already a little damaged, and we are doomed to constantly take medications that burden it? One of the possibilities is the use of natural herbal preparations available on the market containing silibinin derived from milk thistle extract (Sylimarol, Sylimarosol, Hepa-Bio, Legalon, Livmax, Silimax). Silibinin, acting inside hepatocytes, increases the content of two important enzymes: dismutase and peroxidase, thanks to which the level of antioxidant protection increases (the ability to catch harmful free radicals generated during the metabolism of many drugs and stimulants).
In addition, it strengthens cell membranes and promotes the production of new liver cells, stimulating protein synthesis inside hepatocytes. Finally, milk thistle extracts have protective properties documented by toxicologists against the harmful effects of fungal toxins (mycotoxins), ethanol, methanol, carbon tetrachloride, carbon disulfide, petroleum hydrocarbons and many plant drugs and poisons.
Silibinin achieves an even stronger effect (the so-called synergistic effect) when it is combined with cynarin extracted from artichoke (Cynara scolymus). Then, the protective effect of such a drug on hepatocytes and the lowering effect of cholesterol and blood lipids is much greater than when each of these substances was administered separately. Such two-component preparations are: Sylicynar, Hepato Protect, Amichol and Hepatobon.
Although many doctors take a serious look at herbal preparations, claiming that they do not work at all or their influence is so weak that they have to be taken for weeks, it is enough to ask insiders who specialize in toxicology or oncology to find out what effect they have on internal organs has silibinin.
With silibinin for the stinkhorn
Dr. Karl Hruby, a toxicologist in the Viennese clinic, says that silibinin is the best antidote to amatoxins of amatobacteria because it inhibits the penetration of these poisons into the liver cells, if administered within 36 hours after ingesting the mushrooms. It is so important because patients poisoned with phlegmon come to the hospital usually only when gastrointestinal symptoms appear, i.e. 10-12 hours after eating. Then it is too late to remove the toxins using an artificial kidney or forced dialysis, because amatoxins have already entered the organs and are no longer in the blood, and even less in the stomach. In this case, none of the known antidotes to prevent liver damage, apart from silibinin, are of therapeutic value.
Toxicologists have documented the salvation of many patients who were already in a hepatic coma and recovered thanks to silibinin.
Text: Rafał Jabłoński, MA in pharmacy
Source: Żyjmy życia longer, 6/2009