Hepatitis Forums
Hepatitis C Main Forums => Living with Hepatitis C => Topic started by: Sam1224 on January 12, 2015, 12:55:59 am
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I've read about cleansing the liver by different methods. Does anyone here cleanse the liver? And if so, what method? While on medication? I am into week 2 of Harvoni.
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Hi Sam
Personally this is coming from someone who does not put any faith in any so called herbal/ "natural" "treatments". None of those products will help you except to make your wallet a little lighter in my opinion.
But that being said while treating with Harvoni or any other treatment for hep c it is wisest to wait until you have finished your treatment. Some herbal ingredients are specifically not recommended while taking hep c meds. Personally I am not taking anything other than my diuretic prescribed for me to treat my edema. No vitamins, no Prilosec nothing. I don't want to risk having a negative effect on successfully treating hepatitis c this time.
So if you feel you must go to the supplement store wait until you have completed treatment is my recommendation.
But I believe a "liver cleanse" is a waste of your time and money.
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Best thing you can do for your liver is to eat healthy, drinks lots of water and get rid of the processed foods. Spend your money on a Vitamix and make some healthy smoothies, soups and froyo!
Absolutely no alcohol, no Over the counter or Prescription meds unless you HAVE to take them with a Dr's recommendation.
In my humble opinion we are way better off in the long run learning to eat a liver healthy diet then we are taking these so called "liver supplements"
Mel
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Both responses seem like very sound advice. Which I will take.
As an aside, I had a blood panel done which was scheduled before the OK for Harvoni. This was 1 week into the harvoni treatment. No VL done but the other results caused the Dr. to raise and eyebrow and say the Harvoni was indeed a miracle drug. All numbers in the right direction. Liver swelling down also.
Next check at the 4 week mark.
BTW I feel better. More energy and more clear headed. At first I thought it was psychological but it has now lasted for more than a week.
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Great news Sam!
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Congratulations, Sam, on the Harvoni! Any herbal preparations or drugs need to be approved by your doctor. To my mind, the fewer medicines including herbal, the better. But, do take the ones your doctor says are o.k.! Drink lots of water. Stay hydrated. Good Luck!
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Finished my Harvoni, am 2 weeks off. Did not take anything except my thyroid meds. Stopped everything else. No vitamins, no other meds that the dr prescribed for me because I figured I can go 3 months without them. These were monthly bone meds, harmones, vit. C and D. Things like that. Keep your bowels moving daily. That is how the hepatitis exits our bodies. Drink lots of water and exercise if you can. Everyone clears at 4 weeks, it is the 90 days after bloodwork that will tell us the truth. Good Luck to everyone. This was my 5 th tx. and the easiest. We now have a new beginning. No more emotional ups and downs while dating to tell the person you have hep. Thank you Lord and Gilead.
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Congrats Tucson!
Best wishes for an SVR12!
Mike
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Every time I hear the words "cleanse" in regards to dealing with a vital organ I have a picture in my mind of taking my liver out in the shower and rinsing it off and then putting it back. Over the years using herbal remedies have been about as useful as doing exactly that!
Yes there are some "natural" plants, fungus, and even places where minerals accumulate naturally that will effect your liver in different ways. For instance out west here we have a plant called Oregon Grape which produces berberine in the bark and was used by for many different purposes including food colouring and colouring sedges for basket weaving and as a part of traditional medicines. It is known to effect the liver in the same way as a tumeric which is an ingredient in some curries and other spices. However there are other unknown compounds in this plant which are toxic to bacteria and viruses and the liver but and I stress this we do not have a clue as to how toxic they are and at what level to use them!
Many spices are also known to effect liver function and some types of mushrooms are either deadly poisonous directly by attacking and killing liver cells and then staying in the liver until the victim goes into renal failure. Many compounds in plants all over the planet are known to effect the liver in different ways. I eat Cauliflower Mushrooms when ever I can because I know that they do have a slight beneficial effect on liver functions and this fact is well documented. Not to mention that they are absolutely delicious if prepared right!
BUT this does not mean that I would create a product form dried Cauliflower mushrooms and sell it as a "liver cleanse".
In short eat healthy food stuff and eat them in a sensible way, that is all your liver needs to be healthy IMO, obviously other than to be free from diseases like HCV and the over consumption of things like alcohol.
And this is the whole point, unless the drugs obtained from so called natural sources are created and used in the same way that ones that have fda approval and they have been produced by experts with the right equipment and knowledge of how to create a safe and effective product you are taking a very great risk putting them into your body.
That is the whole problem with so called "cleansing remedies" their creation and use is as mysterious as the claims of some of the fly by night snake oil companies and so called "organic" people that sell them.
I am sorry and I know this will offend some but the truth about some of the companies in the growing "organic health supplements industry" and how they distort science makes me quite angry at times. >:(
EOR (end of rant)
Here is hoping all here reach SVR at EOT!
eric
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@eric, im laughing about washing my liver this am. thanks lol
kate
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My doctor has a cabinet full of "snake oil" liver cleanses his patients have brought in. He said that some of them can make a person with liver disease (and that is what we all have) quite sick.
I start my day with a bio K probiotic shot on an empty stomach. After a 15 minutes or so my harvoni.
Followed by at least 8 oz of water with lemon. Then COFFEE! This is all over the course of an hour or so.
I cleanse and keep a low PH with my juicer. My 2 favorites are my "Green Monster"
1 green apple, 1/2 inch fresh ginger, juice 1 whole peeled lemon, cucumber, spinach, parsley, kale. It tastes good, I swear. Add more apple if you need to get used to the green goodness taste.
#2 is Tumeric Tonic
1/2 a fresh turmeric root (or 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder but fresh is best), 1/2 inch fresh ginger, 3 carrots, 1 beet (I like golden beets), 1 or 2 whole oranges peeled.
I also copy Sun Life Organics Wolverine (google the recipe) for a meal replacement blender smoothy sweet and hearty, made with dates and coconut it is like a milk shake but much healthier.
Massive quantities of water. (I use a large mason jar filled to measure intake from my home water delivery of 5 gallon bottles and no mucking up the planet with a gajillion plastic bottles) I also drink a lot of coconut water and tart cherry juice with sparkling mineral water or ginger ale for mocktail hour.
Very little meat. Mostly fruit & veggies.No processed foods, fast food or salty fatty food in general. Raw almonds or apples and almond butter is a great snack.
Also Oatmeal with flaxseed and any dried fruit is my new comfort food.
No white foods, no white bread, salt, sugar, white rice or white potatoes.
Brown rice, sweet potatoes, raw sugar (for COFFEE, which is good for your liver!) thank goodness.
Just start with MEATLESS MONDAYS and see how easy it is to give that liver a break from animal fat and protein. All this seems new still to me. I found my old food had triggers to alcohol and it made me miserable. So I changed everything. This diet has no triggers because I never ate this way before.
I had no more excuses...
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Hi Tprop,
Thank you so much for your fabulous recipes and awesome info. I'm going to follow a lot of these suggestions. I'm on day 3 of Harvoni and a bit lost in changing my diet around. I'm also F-4 cirrhosis, A3 severe. I'm treatment naive and going for 12 weeks.
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Keanu
Are you taking ribaviron along with the Harvoni?
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Good morning Lynn,
No I'm not but I was hearing that they will sometimes add that to the treatment regimen for non responders. Just fyi Apparently the nuke part (Sofosbuvir) of Harvoni is superior out there but the Ledipasvir has been deemed inferior to Achillion's new NS5A inhibitor. Looks like you are taking Riba? Have you been feeling ok? I've heard good things about that combo with the exception of some tough side effects.
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Fine except my HGB went from 13 to 9.3 (11.1 min normal) in 3 weeks so we dose reduced to 1000 mg and see if that helps.
The riba has made me very anemic which makes you very tired and out of breath I guess riba doesn't hit everyone like this but is did me.
14 weeks down 10 to go
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Hi Lynn,
Oh geesh I'm sorry.. that's rough. I'm deathly afraid of Riba myself because there were several cases of Anemia in my last generation of family before me. My dad and my aunt had that. The headache and sleepiness took me over a bit today. Day 4 was not my best of them so far. Hope you will have better days on your way to the cure!
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Thanks Same to you!
I don't have any history of anemia just ribavirin induced anemia.
Just keep pushing forward till May 4th 2015!
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My doctor has a cabinet full of "snake oil" liver cleanses his patients have brought in. He said that some of them can make a person with liver disease (and that is what we all have) quite sick.
I start my day with a bio K probiotic shot on an empty stomach. After a 15 minutes or so my harvoni.
Followed by at least 8 oz of water with lemon. Then COFFEE! This is all over the course of an hour or so.
I cleanse and keep a low PH with my juicer. My 2 favorites are my "Green Monster"
1 green apple, 1/2 inch fresh ginger, juice 1 whole peeled lemon, cucumber, spinach, parsley, kale. It tastes good, I swear. Add more apple if you need to get used to the green goodness taste.
#2 is Tumeric Tonic
1/2 a fresh turmeric root (or 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder but fresh is best), 1/2 inch fresh ginger, 3 carrots, 1 beet (I like golden beets), 1 or 2 whole oranges peeled.
I also copy Sun Life Organics Wolverine (google the recipe) for a meal replacement blender smoothy sweet and hearty, made with dates and coconut it is like a milk shake but much healthier.
Massive quantities of water. (I use a large mason jar filled to measure intake from my home water delivery of 5 gallon bottles and no mucking up the planet with a gajillion plastic bottles) I also drink a lot of coconut water and tart cherry juice with sparkling mineral water or ginger ale for mocktail hour.
Very little meat. Mostly fruit & veggies.No processed foods, fast food or salty fatty food in general. Raw almonds or apples and almond butter is a great snack.
Also Oatmeal with flaxseed and any dried fruit is my new comfort food.
No white foods, no white bread, salt, sugar, white rice or white potatoes.
Brown rice, sweet potatoes, raw sugar (for COFFEE, which is good for your liver!) thank goodness.
Just start with MEATLESS MONDAYS and see how easy it is to give that liver a break from animal fat and protein. All this seems new still to me. I found my old food had triggers to alcohol and it made me miserable. So I changed everything. This diet has no triggers because I never ate this way before.
I had no more excuses...
Propane, that is awesome , I think i could get cured eating like that! Lol. Wow
I had to copy those recipes, I'm gonna try some of those smoothies!
Thanks
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Hi All.
Lynn K I agree with you that taking anything except clean food, clean water, etc. is the way to go. A couple of weeks ago I was reading a medical abstract of a paper that was looking at liver damage and early death directly related to herbal remedies and supplementation. The numbers have jumped over the last few years. I don't remember the name of the journal but it was very eye opening and really hit home the need to avoid supposed "remedies". Especially for anyone with a liver aliment...
One thing I have been incorporating right now as I wait to begin treatment for HVC is ginger. I do use a ginger tea with supper and make ginger carrots with oranges. The ginger seems to calm my system.
But before I begin Treatment I will definitely check with my MD and Rx Person.
~ Skycatcher
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Hey dear, if you want to cleanse your liver then you must try Green drink (http://greenenergydrink.ivlproducts.com/digestive-health/cucumber-strawberry-green-drink-smoothie/). Its natural ingredients will cleanse the liver within a few days. Also it is very healthy and energetic. I regularly drink it.
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You can't cleanse the liver with home remedies and so on.
A good diet can help with overall health, and avoiding things that are toxic to the liver is good. But eating healthy will not halt or stall the progression of HCV.
The reason the liver is "dirty" is because of an HCV infection.
HCV is a pernicious virus that doesn't discriminate against the healthy and unhealthy.
It's an equal opportunity virus and will damage the liver just as quick in an individual with a healthy diet as it will a person with a bad diet.
Best wishes, Mike