Can anyone tell me if they've had or heard of anyone developing liver problems because of the low carb diet?

Thanks.

hi SLN
 

There is no documented link between low carbohydrate diets and liver problems.

Eating a diet that's high in sugars and refined carbs will cause surges in the levels of insulin in the blood. Insulin stimulates the liver to produce cholesterol, in particular LDL. While this function is not harmful in any way to the liver, after all, that's what it's designed to do, we all know the serious health consequences of elevated LDL, the so-called "bad" cholesterol.

Are you perhaps worried that ketosis might be harmful to the liver?? First, ketones are normal by-products of fat metabolism used for fuel by muscles and tissues in the body. They are removed from the system via the kidneys in the urine, and a small amount is lost via the lungs in our breath. Ketones are not in any way harmful to the liver or kidneys. Second, not all low carbohydrate programs are ketogenic.

Hope this has been helpful,

Doreen

Doreen, most of the literature I've read indicates that the low carb diet may stress the liver and the kidney and could cause complications. The key words are may and could, but my husband is prone to kidney stones and was close to cirhossis. We've been trying to do the diet for about 2 months. There has been no sign of problems though.

Thanks for your reply.

hi SLN,
 

I understand your worries. There has been a great media effort to refute the health benefits of low carbohydrate eating, especially after decades of health "experts" telling us that lowFAT, highCARB is the way to live. Yet we are getting fatter, and diabetes and heart disease on the rise, not the opposite as they predicted. High blood sugar, surges and dips in insulin levels, and high blood pressure are more likely to have negative impact on the liver and kidneys, and lowcarb diets have been shown to CORRECT all of these problems.

But I will repeat emphatically, there is NO scientific, clinical evidence that following a lowcarb program will cause or worsen kidney or liver problems. The folks who claim there is a risk do not provide references or data, and there is often a conflict of interest. For example, many popular health magazines and websites are financially sponsored by Wheat and Cereal marketing boards, processed food manufacturers and pharmaceutical industries, who all stand to lose a great deal if people use real whole foods like meats and vegetables to improve health, rather than their highly-refined, expensive products.

There may be some risk to liver health from chemicals and food additives. I'm thinking of nitrates in smoked and processed meats, and also of artificial sweeteners, in particular aspartame/Nutrasweet/Equal, which contains phenylalinine. This has nothing to do with lowcarb diet, but you may wish to consider avoiding these ... :) .. Milk Thistle herb (silymarin) has shown impressive results in clinical studies both in the US and Europe for improving liver health and actually repairing previously damaged liver cells.

Kidney stones are prevented by ensuring adequate fluid intake to keep the kidneys flushed out. Here is an article from CBS Healthwatch, August 2000, explaining this -Click here if you wish to read the whole article.

I'm glad you've experienced no adverse effects from lowcarbing. What program are you following, if you don't mind my asking?? As I stated earlier, there are lowcarb plans that do not result in ketosis, if this is still a concern for you. I'm certain that the weight loss from lowcarbing will result in improved health for both you and your husband. Weight loss alone has been proven to lower blood pressure. Next to diabetes, high blood pressure is one of the greatest risk factors for kidney disease.

Take care, and happy lowcarbing.

Doreen

Thanks again Doreen,

We're trying to stick with the Atkins plan. I'm fine with it. My husband is just concerned with the liver. But sounds to me like he'll be fine.

thanks again

milk thistle
 

Hi, SLN!

I can second Doreen on the milk thistle. This evidence is anecdotal, so do what you will with it, but my sister has had a chronic liver problem for some years. She's been on all sorts of medication, but things really started to improve when she started taking B-vitamins and milk thistle. She's off meds, and on the vitamin and milk thistle therapy, and is doing fine - much better than before.

Rachel

Low Carb Affect on the Liver
 

Thanks for the second. My husband has been doing quite a bit of research himself and started taking milk thistle about a month ago. He hasn't been back for blood tests yet, but we'll see.

Thanks again.

The husband of a colleague developed Hepatitis (don't know which kind) and was quite ill. She got him to take Milk Thistle and he is recovering well. His doctor is amazed at how fast his liver is recovering and both think it is the thistle.

BarB

Since 1993, the liver function portion of my blood tests have always been out of the normal range. This led to ultrasounds to make sure my liver was ok and regular follow-up monitoring to make sure the numbers weren't getting worse. The conlcusion was that I had a fatty liver and would just need to keep an eye on it to make sure it wasn't getting worse. After six weeks of LC eating, my blood test yesterday had my first normal liver function test in 9 years. While I wouldn't go as far as to say LC is unconditionally not bad for the liver...for me, it has resulted in a turnaround.

Thanks Doreen!
 

Doreen,

I am pretty new to this site (found you on the weekend), but I have replaced my carb addiciton with surfing here!

Just wanted to say that I have read lots of your posts..... Thanks for the good info in ALL of them.

Had to respond to this thread..... I have HCV and was a little worried about telling my specialist (I see him in June) about low carbing because of what I had heard and read about the stress on the liver. I wasn't going to ask about going on the 'plan' cause I was going to do it anyway! Thanks for your reassurance. I don't think I will even mention it now!

Also, in recent weeks I have been doing a lot of research re Milk Thistle and actually bought some a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't going to take any until talking to the Doc, but again, I feel pretty assured that its certainly not likely to 'hurt' anything...... but in fact may be a real benefit.

I am part of the 'Health Care Team' and I am pretty disappointed in how skeptical and ignorant the allied professionals are (especially MD's) when it comes to holisitic medicine etc.

Keep up the great work! I'll be reading!!!

Pat

I am reading Fats that Heal and Fats that Kill at this time and I quote from page 36. On the subject of sugar and refined carbs .

"If our body is unable to use all of the extra fats and cholesterol produced from sugar , it must dump the additional load. Fats can be deposited in cells of our liver, heart, arteries, fat tissues, kidneys, muscles, and other organs.

One aspect of fatty degeneration is the deposition of visible fats in places where it is not normally found in healthy people. Atherosclerosis, fatty liver and kidneys, some tumors, obesity, and some form of diabetes belong in this group."

So from this reading, for good liver health, cut out the sugar and refined carbs, isn't that just what we are doing ??

The web site for this book is here.
http://www.udoerasmus.com/fatsmain.htm

What's the daily dosage for milk thistle? :help:

Bumped. ;)

I would suggest taking it according to the label. The capsules I have are 200 mg of 80% silymarin, and are taken 1-2 times per day.

Thanks, Kristine. :wave:

NAC as well
 

I live in an area with very high environmental levels of formadehyde, in addition to regular exposure to two-stroke engine exhaust. I take Silymarin as per the higher end of my bottle's recommendations, and NAC-N Acetyl Cysteine--as well. NAC is a source for glutathione, and glutathione is one of the rate-limiting proteins in the clearance process for toxic substances in the liver.

Silymarin makes liver cells more resistant to absorbing toxins, and I think it does something about how efficiently they use glutathione??, but it doesn't actually make more glutathione.

It's funny--my anatomy book has a whole chapter on kidney function, and only three paragraphs on liver function. You can live a long time on no kidneys (assuming dialysis), but you won't get to the end of three days on no liver.

I've been taking milk thistle for many years, maybe 20 years ago was the first time. About once a year, I get a bottle and take it according to the directions until it's gone. And, believe it or not, I notice a change in my eye color when I've taken it for awhile. My eyes are usually a murky green/blue, but when I'm on milk thistle they get more clear and are more blue. That's the only "side effect" I've ever noticed. I figure something good must be happening, and it shows up in my eyes, so I keep taking it.

A low-carb diet means higher protein and fats. This increase in percentage requires more bile be produced by the liver and stored in the gallbladder to properly digest. So yes there is a miniscule increase in stress on th liver, but of course nothing to worry about. Now some people will react to a low carb, higher protein/fat diet because they went into it with liver/gallbladder issues and the minor increase in workload brought out the symptoms of the problem.

So low carb may cause you to become aware of a liver problem earlier but high lean protein, moderate good fats, and healthy low complex carb diets is how we evolved through time. It is the food we had to eat. It just doesn't make sense that this lifestyle could be detrimental.

Two anecdotes that may interest some of you.

My late wife passed away 7 years ago from BC. She ate what was then regarded as a healthy diet; lots of unsaturated oils, veg, and flour products. When her BC was first detected he liver was found to be fatty and the physicians thought she was a closeted alcoholic but she wasn't. She did however have a penchant for soft drinks. You'll need to draw your own conclusions.

About 5 weeks ago I read on one of the postings of someone who had a glycometer to read their blood-sugar levels. Consequently I purchased one to discover that my fasting BS readings were in the high prediabetic range and overlapped into the diabetic. Knowing of the benefits of milk thistle I took some and within 3 days my fasting BS dropped to within the normal range and has remained there.