scholarly journals Vegan Diet Advice Might Benefit Liver Enzymes in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: an Open Observational Pilot Study

Author(s):  
Giuseppe Chiarioni ◽  
Stefan Lucian Popa ◽  
Andrea Dalbeni ◽  
Carlo Senore ◽  
Daniel Corneliu Leucuta ◽  
...  

Background and Aims: The Western diet is rich in saturated fats, refined sugars and meat consistent with a high-energy load and secondary risk of increased metabolic diseases including nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, no data are available on potential benefit of vegan diets in NAFLD and/or nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). We aimed to study prospectively the effect of a vegan diet, excluding all animal products on liver chemistry in a group of consecutive NAFLD patients. Methods: This was a prospective, pilot study run on 40 consecutive patients affected by NAFLD. Eight subjects refused to join the study for poor diet palatability, leaving 32 patients (19 males, mean age 50 years), with abnormal measures of liver function who agreed to adhere to a vegan diet for six months. The caloric intake was tailored by the dietitian to obtain a weight loss ≥5% of body weight in overweight patients [body-mass index (BMI) ≥25] and ranged from 1500 Kcal to 1800 Kcal. Patients were contacted monthly by phone to reinforce diet and lifestyle advice and were seen at the gastrointestinal clinic when doubtful about diet advice. Results: At six-month follow-up, 6 subjects did not attend the clinic leaving only 26 patients for data analysis. Initial anthropometric values were mean weight 78 kg (range 52-95), mean body mass index (BMI) 26.8 Kg/m2 (range 20.3-31.2). Liver function tests showed mean ALT value 99 U/L (SD±45), mean AST value 54 U/L (SD±44), mean GGT value 160 U/L (SD±122), pre-treatment. After six months mean body weight was 73 Kg (range 52-87), mean BMI was 25.2 Kg/m2 (range 20.3-29.7) (p<0.001 compared to baseline for both parameters). Liver enzymes improved to a mean of ALT value 36 U/L (SD±21), AST value 27 U/L (SD±10) and GGT value 55 U/L (SD±57), respectively (p<0.001 compared to baseline for all enzymes). Normalization of liver function tests as a whole was observed in 20/26 patients (76.9%). A loss of ≥ 5% of body weight was observed in 12 patients (46.1%), but it did not correlate with the normalization of liver function tests (p=0.5). Conclusions: Our data provide preliminary evidence of improved liver enzymes in NAFLD patients with a strict vegan diet and although our study sample is limited, decreased body weight did not seem critical to the outcome.

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 1060-1060
Author(s):  
Geraldine J. Ooi ◽  
Paul R. Burton ◽  
William W. Kemp ◽  
Stuart K. Roberts ◽  
Wendy A. Brown

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dor Shirin ◽  
Noam Peleg ◽  
Orly Sneh-Arbib ◽  
Michal Cohen-Naftaly ◽  
Marius Braun ◽  
...  

Background: Patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and with abnormal liver function tests (LFTs) most commonly present with elevated hepatocellular enzymes (H pattern), but a subset of patients is found to have elevated cholestatic enzymes (C pattern) or a mixed (M) pattern. Aims and Methods: To determine whether the epidemiologic background and comorbidities, as well as the degree of liver fibrosis, differ between NAFLD patients with different patterns of elevated LFTs by retrospectively analyzing data of 106 patients with a biopsy-proven diagnosis of NAFLD. The pattern of elevated LFTs was determined by adopting the “R-Ratio” formula commonly used for drug-induced liver injury. Results: Advanced fibrosis (F > 2) was found in 15 out of 48 (31.3%) patients with a C pattern of elevated LFTs as compared to 2 out of 44 (4.5%) in M patients and 2 out of 11 (18.2%) in H patients (p = 0.004). Group C patients are older and also had a higher prevalence of diabetes, a higher mean hemoglobin A1c, and a higher prevalence of hypertension, as well as a trend for a higher prevalence of hypertriglyceridemia. Conclusions: Using a simple formula incorporating routine LFTs can help to categorize NAFLD patients as low or high risk for advanced fibrosis stage and metabolic-associated comorbidities.


2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 1533-1542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geraldine J. Ooi ◽  
Paul R. Burton ◽  
Lisa Doyle ◽  
John M. Wentworth ◽  
Prithi S. Bhathal ◽  
...  

Biomedicine ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 781-786
Author(s):  
Avinash S. ◽  
Santhi Silambanan

Introduction and Aim: India has emerged as the diabetes capital in Southeast Asia having around 74 million with diabetes, with a prevalence of 9.8% in 18–99 years of age. In type 2 diabetes mellitus, triglycerides get deposited in liver thus altering its structure and function, which is the feature of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. This study was undertaken to study the alterations in liver function tests in obese and nonobese diabetic individuals.   Materials and Methods: The Department of Biochemistry at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research was chosen to conduct the retrospective study on 200 diabetic individuals from September 2019 to February 2020. The data obtained were serum liver function tests, HbA1c, plasma glucose and lipid profile. Before the study ethics approval was obtained from the Institutional Ethics Committee for studies involving human participants. The obtained data were subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS version 16 and a P value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.   Results: Transaminases and ALP were significantly altered in obese diabetics; were positively correlated with bilirubin. TGL was negatively correlated with AST/ALT ratio.   Conclusion: Liver enzymes and bilirubin were altered in obese diabetics. Measurement of liver function biomarkers are cost effective diagnostic markers of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luting Peng ◽  
Su Wu ◽  
Nan Zhou ◽  
Shanliang Zhu ◽  
Qianqi Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background With the increasing number of children with obesity worldwide, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become the most common liver disease among children. It is necessary to recognize the risk factors of NAFLD for prevention in childhood since NAFLD is asymptomatic in the early stage. Objectives. The objective of this study was to investigate possible risk factors of NAFLD in children with obesity, providing evidence for monitoring and prevention strategies at an early stage for obese children with NAFLD. Methods Data were collected from 428 children and adolescents aged 6-16 years recruited from the Children’s Hospital at Nanjing Medical University from September 2015 to April 2018 and analyzed. Based on a combination of ultrasound results and alanine transaminase levels, subjects were divided into three groups: simple obesity (SOB), simple steatosis (SS), and nonalcoholic fatty hepatitis (NASH). Blood biochemical examination included glucose, insulin, uric acid, lipid profile and liver enzymes. Results Among 428 children with obesity, 235 (54.9%) had SS and 45 (10.5%) had NASH. Body mass index, body mass index standard deviation score (BMI-SDS), waist circumference, body fat, liver enzymes, uric acid and HOMA-IR level were significantly higher in the NASH group than in the SS and SOB groups (p < 0.001). 53.3% of the SS group and 49.8% of the NASH group had metabolic syndrome, significantly more than in the SOB group (19.6%, p < 0.001). After adjustment for confounding factors, logistic regression models revealed that NASH was associated with BMI-SDS ≥ 3, gender, hyperuricemia and insulin resistance. Conclusions The prevalence of NASH in children with obesity is closely related to high BMI-SDS, gender, insulin resistance and hyperuricemia. These findings provide evidence that monitoring risk factors of childhood obesity can assist in developing prevention strategies for liver disease at an early stage.


2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 95-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Ebrahimi ◽  
Bahram Pourghassem Gargari ◽  
Fereshteh Aliasghari ◽  
Foad Asjodi ◽  
Azimeh Izadi

Abstract. Background: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a serious global health problem, thus the prevention and management of the disease is necessary. This study aimed to determine the effects of Ramadan Fasting (RF) on liver function, Visceral Adiposity Index (VAI) and Atherogenic Index of Plasma (AIP) in these patients. Methods: Eighty-three NAFLD patients (57 males and 26 females) were enrolled in the study, 42 patients who practiced RF, between Jun 18 through July 17, 2015 and 41 patients in non-fasting groups. Anthropometric parameters and Ultrasound grading were measured before and after Ramadan. The biochemical parameters including lipid profiles (total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides), liver enzymes (Aspartate aminotransferase, SGOT and Alanine aminotransferase, SGPT) were evaluated before and after Ramadan. AIP and VAI were calculated based on formula. Results: The mean decreases in anthropometric indices were significantly different between groups. Similarly, the mean decrease in the total cholesterol values in the fasting group was remarkably greater than in the control group (p = 0.02). The values of AIP and VAI decreased at the end of the study in both group and the mean of changes showed no differences between groups (p = 0.79 and p = 0.65 for AIP and VAI, respectively). The changes in the concentrations of liver enzymes, as well as the severity of hepatic steatosis, showed remarkable differences between groups (p = 0.03, p = 0.05, and p = 0.02 for SGOT and SGPT, and Liver steatosis, respectively). Conclusion: RF improved liver steatosis in NAFLD patients and might be useful in the management of NAFLD.


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