Lifestyle changes, nutrition, and supplements for hep b

[iamjen]

Thank you sir @ThomasTu .Lately I have been thinking of buying supplements/herbal that could boost immune system. So i think now, I will not consider it as part of my medication. More power to all virologist, hepatologist, immunologist, and all the health and science expert, who are working really hard to give us comfort and possible cure that we are all waiting for. God bless you all

Jen

[senhour]

Hi everyone

I do some research on supplement and found that there some recommendations for helping liver function and prevent liver damage such as

1. Choline ( supplement)
2. Sulphoraphan ( supplement)
3. Glutathione ( found in cruciferous vegetables)
4. Nutritional Yeast ( supplement which high in Vitamin B )
5. Wheat Germ Oil ( supplement which high in Vitamin E )

Do you have experience taking these supplement? Is that safe for Hepatitis B patient?

Hope to get some experience from people here

Thank

[ThomasTu]

Hi @senhour,

As mentioned in the posts above, supplements in generally have not been shown to improve health significantly (unless you are malnourished). I’m not aware of any studies showing these particular ones help.

Supplements are difficult to recommend because there is usually no testing to make sure what is inside really is what it says on the packaging.

Thomas

[Labu]

I am thing about beginning to eat more of these for protein and body building purposes. Is there anything you think I need to know or be careful of based on personal experience or evidence you read somewhere?

1. Hemp seeds
2. Brown Eggs (someone told egg not good for hb liver patient)
3. Wild Salmon fish
4. Chicken Breast
5. Pumpkin seeds

Drink Pomegranate juice
Almond milk

[ThomasTu]

Hi @Labu,

While I am not a nutritionist or medical doctor, these sound fine to eat for most people.

Thomas

[IWillBeCured]

Hello dear all,

I was diagnosed two months ago, apparently with inactive phase. I used to drink alcohol and smoke some cigarettes. After I found my hbv, I immediately quit smoking and drinking, and changed my diet by limiting fat, sodium and sugar, carbo( decreased to half or less than half of before). I started drinking 2.5 or 3 liters of water per day and using at least one fruit everyday.

My previous Alt was normal with 27 , and this month it was 18.

I want to ask you, do you miss burgers? Or cokes?
How can you deal with it, sometimes thinking of never can we have it annoys me.

Can we occasionally drink a beer?What about non-alcoholic beer? Or some other foods or other things? Please if occasionally is ok explain how often do you mean? For example each 3months?

I really liked many foods and used to eat them. but now, after two months, it’s really annoying and I cant imagine such a limitation forever.

I have an idea. Let’s think about our habits of eating(those are not very healthy) and what is the options to replace them. For example: I used to drink beer every week, now I try a non-alcoholic( it is a hypothtic case).

What do you think?

[ThomasTu]

Dear @IWillBeCured,

Great job with taking the steps to change your lifestyle for your health. I understand how this can feel limiting.

I think the amount that each type of food affects your health is different for each person, so it is difficult to answer questions like “can you occasionally drink a beer?”.

I myself drink the occasional (once every 2 months on average) beer, but am mainly drinking non-alcoholic beers now. There are a lot of options available now here in Australia, and some of them even taste good (not that different to the alcoholic kind)!

To me, it is better to make lifestyle changes you know that you can maintain and try to achieve your end goal with constant incremental improvements. Be kind to yourself as you are trying to change habits that have grown used to over years and maybe decades.

Your idea of suggesting alternates is a great one, happy for you to start a separate thread on this.

Thomas

[apatient]

Every doctor I’ve seen had prescribed some supplements along with the either antiviral. I wonder if any have been proven to be effective?
Do you take anything else other than the antiviral regularly?

[ThomasTu]

In general, I don’t think there is any hard evidence that supplements do anything, unless you have been diagnosed with a specific deficiency in something. One thing that seems to be linked with good liver health outcomes is coffee, though we still don’t understand why.

Hope this helps,
Thomas

[senhour]

I found an interesting research study about nutrition adding to HepB patient

I hope this study will help adding to our daily life to more conscious about nutrition while on treatment or for some people who don’t have budget support for treatment this can be beneficial.

Here is the link to the study.
https://www.elsevier.es/en-revista-annals-hepatology-16-avance-resumen-anti-hepatitis-b-virus-activity-food-S1665268122001089

[ThomasTu]

Thanks for the link to this @senhour,

As you can see, most of these studies are done in vitro (in cell culture), so may not transfer directly to humans. One possible issue with this is that once the food is digested, absorbed, and metabolised prior to getting to the liver, the effect may no longer hold.

Also, it may be impossible to eat enough of the particular food to get the antiviral effect necessary for any benefit.

Cheers,
Thomas

[senhour]

Hi @ThomasTu

Thank for adding clarification.

[senhour]

Hi @IWillBeCured

I am on strict diet too.

Burger, Pizza or any other deep fried fast food? I completely avoid. No missing

Beer or Wine? Personally I never miss at all. Except during social occasion that everyone drink except me. It really hard to deal in this situation. I need to quickly find excuse to leave the crowd.

I try to go for all whole food natural as much as I can.

Cheer

[Caraline]

There’s lots of no alcohol beer and wine available, that tastes and looks the same.
My son, who works in a bar said he had lots of people order non-alcoholic beer from a bottle, and they will pour into a glass, then no-one would know the difference.

[wml]

Thanks Thomas for this link. I was rather shocked to see it as tumeric is often hailed as having health benefits. As you said in one of your replies I’m assuming that this study gave the participants large doses of tumeric in supplement form? I too use fresh and powdered tumeric in my cooking almost daily with black pepper so I’m hoping this amount is not harmful.

[ThomasTu]

Dear @wml,

As mentioned (Lifestyle changes, nutrition, and supplements for hep b - #137 by ThomasTu) I also cook with turmeric and if used in appropriate quantities, it should be fine.

There have been no studies giving participants such high doses of turmeric, the descriptions of toxicity comes from case studies of people coming into hospital with liver damage after high doses of turmeric supplements.

Thomas

[wml]

Thanks Thomas! I will continue to use tumeric for cooking. I do not take it as a supplement so I will avoid high doses. It doesn’t sound like it would be safe to expose people to high doses in a study.

[Beinghealthy]

Hi, i used to drink Athletic Greens® - Official Site (athletic green), i tested positive for chronic Hep b can i still continue drinking athletic green?

[ThomasTu]

Dear @Beinghealthy,

There are multiple issues that stand out when I look at the supplement ingredients: one serving contains 467% your daily recommended dose of Vitamin C, 553% of your vitamin E, 250% of your Vitamin B1, etc. etc.

Taking high levels of vitamins when you’re not deficient can lead to some side-effects. For example, high levels of vitamin E can lead to nausea, diarrhoea, or even stroke (Vitamin E - Mayo Clinic). Persistently high B6 could lead to nerve damage (Vitamin B6 - Consumer)

I think most people get enough vitamins from a balanced diet, so that might be the best (and cheaper) way of maintaining health.

Cheers,
Thomas