Soybean Extract Found Protective in Alcoholic Liver Disease
Liver disease is a disorder that is managed poorly by Western medicine. Many patients who have been diagnosed with liver disease are basically given a “watch and wait” therapy plan. Luckily, the liver is a primary focus of functional/alternative medicine. Milk thistle, B vitamins, SAMe and N-acetyl cysteine are all well known and researched for their hepato-protective properties. Now we have another tool to use–soybeans. And remember, the liver can actually begin to destroy itself if the two phases of detoxification are not in harmony (termed metabolic activation), and a detox liver profile (NOT the supposed “liver function tests” commonly run–these check for actual structural liver damage, NOT function) can help identify areas that need work.
(article) An extract from soybeans has been found to halt, or perhaps even reverse, progression of liver fibrosis in alcoholics in a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled trial. Eighteen alcoholic patients were randomized to receive either placebo or the extract polyenylphosphatidylcholine (PPC). Five of the nine on placebo showed fibrotic progression on liver biopsies 2 years later. For the nine on PPC, liver histology was unchanged or slightly improved, reported Dr. Charles S. Lieber, of the VA Medical Center and Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Bronx, New York. Dr. Lieber described his group’s study at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. There is a need for an effective therapy in these patients because their current prognosis is dismal. “In patients with alcoholic cirrhosis who are over 60 years old, there is a 50% mortality at 1 year,” Dr. Lieber said. “Much of this toxicity is because alcohol is metabolized preferentially in the liver.” The extract PPC is a 95% pure mixture of polyunsaturated phosphatidylcholines, about half of which is dilinoleoylphosphatidylcholine (DLPC). Dr. Lieber’s earlier work in nonhuman primates suggested that DLPC opposes oxidative stress, one of several mechanisms thought responsible for alcohol’s hepatotoxicity. Patients who were taking PPC had higher plasma levels of DLPC than controls, further suggesting that DLPC may be the active, antioxidant ingredient, he said.
Additional reading: Entrez-PubMed