Vitamin E is effective treatment for "silent" liver disease

(NaturalNews) Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a common, "silent" liver disease. Although it occurs in people who drink little or no alcohol, it causes damage that resembles alcoholic liver disease, including inflammation. According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the condition is marked by fat in the liver and is associated with the growing number of overweight Americans. In all, about 2 to 5 percent of people in the US have NASH. And while many feel fine and aren't aware they have a liver problem, they actually have a disease that can eventually cause cirrhosis, liver cancer, and death.

There's been no effective treatment for NASH -- until now. Results from a new multi-center study organized by the Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Clinical Research Network of NIDDK show vitamin E is a successful treatment for the disease. The findings of this largest ever placebo-controlled randomized trial of NASH therapies were just published in the April 28 online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

"There is an increasing prevalence of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in this country, something that is directly related to the obesity epidemic," Dr. Joel Lavine, faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and chief of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at New York-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, said in a statement to the press. "The good news is that this study showed that cheap and readily available vitamin E can help many of those with the condition."

Dr. Lavine, who was a leader of the research team, pointed out that the drug pioglitazone was also studied alongside daily doses of 800 IU of vitamin E. Although the medication showed some benefits, they were minimal compared to the dramatic effectiveness of vitamin E.

For the Pioglitazone or Vitamin E for NASH Study (PIVENS), the researchers randomly assigned 247 non-diabetic adults with biopsy-confirmed NASH to three groups receiving either vitamin E, pioglitazone (a drug that improves the sensitivity of cells to insulin) or a placebo. After 96 weeks of treatment, liver enzyme tests, which are commonly used to measure liver injury, improved in those who received either pioglitazone or vitamin E.

Unlike vitamin E, however, pioglitazone treatment had an unwelcome side effect -- it caused an average weight gain of 10 pounds over the duration of this study. What's more, although pioglitazone improved many features of NASH, it fell short of statistical significance. However, except for the amount of scar tissue in the liver, vitamin E improved all features of NASH and clearly emerged as effective, natural therapy for this potentially fatal liver disease.

For more information:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...

Alzheimer’s can be prevented through anti-aging therapies, study says

(NaturalNews) Researchers from the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences have come to the conclusion that studying the way people age rather than the diseases they develop is the key to preventing disease. Particularly with Alzheimer's Disease, the group believes that the toxic clumps of beta amyloid plagues that build up in the brain are slow to develop and can be prevented through anti-aging therapies.

Dr. Ehud Cohen, author of the study, explained that the IGF-1 growth hormone that is present in all people can be slowed down to prevent aging and the onset of Alzheimer's. Utilizing this approach, Cohen and his team claim that life can be extended by 35 percent or more when IGF-1 signaling is properly limited.

Beta amyloid plaques are said to be present in everyone's brain, however healthy cells are able to control them and regulate their growth when a person is young. It is when a person becomes old that the plaques take over and lead to severe neurological disorders like Alzheimer's.

What was found as a result of the study was that mice whose IGF-1 hormones were reduced remained biologically young even in their old age. The mice who aged normally didn't get Alzheimer's until late in their lives but, unlike the treated group, their brains slowly became overridden with plaques.

Researchers consider the findings breakthrough as they give further understanding to the aging process and how the growth of amyloid plaques is able to take place. Prevention of the normal degenerative results of aging was found to be both possible and effective for preventing Alzheimer's.

Comments by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

I'm always fascinated by western medicine's fixation on "amyloid plaques" to explain Alzheimer's disease. The preoccupation of western medicine with physical explanations of disease seems childish and ignorant. The real truth about Alzheimer's disease is that amyloid plaques are just the side effect of the underlying cause which is inflammation of the brain.

This inflammation, in turn, is caused primarily by the consumption of a highly inflammatory diet of processed foods, processed dairy products, cooked foods and junk foods. If you do this over a lifetime, you'll experience all sorts of inflammatory diseases including Alzheimer's.

Remember this: Before the age of processed foods (from the 1950's on), Alzheimer's was an extremely rare condition. It was so rare that doctors traveled long distances just to study the brains of people who died with the condition. A century ago, Alzheimer's disease was an oddity; today it's the norm. And our processed food diets are largely to blame.

Sources for this story include:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_relea...