How to take vitamin E for fatty liver?
Therapy with this nutrient can reduce the level of liver damage associated with hepatitis and cirrhosis in children and adults with this condition.
Recently, Professor Ken Sato, who works in the Department of Internal Medicine, Aichi Medical University, Nagakute, Japan, and his team conducted a meta-analysis to examine the beneficial effect of vitamin E in fatty liver disease. nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NAFLD), including nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NAFLD).
The aim of that study was to assess the efficacy of vitamin E in improving liver function. Professor Sato concludes in his report that “this meta-analysis indicates that vitamin E treatment improves serum biochemical parameters and liver histology in NAFLD/NASH ; in adult NASH patients; especially, vitamin E also improves fibrosis, inflammation and hepatic ballooning”.
It should be noted that fatty liver caused by lifestyle and not by alcohol consumption is a growing problem throughout the world. Also, in its early stages, it often has no symptoms.
NAFLD is often associated with the usual effects of metabolic syndrome, ie obesity, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, NAFLD, which encompasses several disorders, has become a major health problem and is the most common liver disease worldwide. It is estimated that its prevalence is around 20-30% of the general population and up to 70-80% of obese people, but only between 16 and 20% of people with normal weight.
On the other hand, the histological pattern of NAFLD can degenerate into NAFLD, liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, and also hepatocellular carcinoma. Antioxidant therapy in the form of vitamin E has been considered beneficial in the treatment of NASH, but further work was needed to fully understand the data.
Therefore, this analysis could have a significant impact on public health, since NAFLD is also considered a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, T2D, and chronic kidney failure.
However, although vitamin E has often been used in the treatment of NAFLD/NASH, the magnitude of the response associated with vitamin E in improving liver function and histology in these conditions has not been systematically quantified.
However, in the study, Professor Sato used very strict inclusion and exclusion criteria to avoid possible inaccuracies. For this reason, the list of relevant publications included in the meta-analysis was reduced to five. The meta-analysis concluded that vitamin E therapy can reduce the level of liver damage associated with hepatitis and cirrhosis in children and adults with NAFLD and NASH.
Specifically, treatment with vitamin E significantly reduced the level of certain liver enzymes, elevated in people with NAFLD and NASH. From the point of view of cell pathology, vitamin E has been shown to reduce steatosis (abnormal retention of lipids in the cell that alters the nucleus), lobar inflammation and even hepatocellular ballooning of the liver.
On the other hand, in 2010, Sanyal et al documented a 96-week randomized, double-blind, multicenter trial to determine the effect of vitamin E and pioglitazone (a thiazolidinedione that increases insulin sensitivity) on the liver histology of patients non-diabetics with NASH (PIVENS trial).
For this, the vitamin E trial group received a daily dose of 800 IU/day. As a result, liver histology improved in 43% of the cohort, with a reduction in hepatic steatosis and lobular inflammation. Pioglitazone only produced an improvement in 34% of cases.
In conclusion, no benefit was observed with the combination of both treatments. In addition, serum alanine and aspartate aminotransferase levels were decreased in the vitamin E study group. Professor Sato and his team then concluded that: “Vitamin E significantly improved liver function and histological changes in NAFLD patients / NASH”.