Liver nutritional effects

Alcohol indirectly affects hematopoiesis through metabolic and nutritional effects and may also directly inhibit the proliferation of all cellular elements in bone marrow. The most common hematologic disorder seen in chronic drinkers is mild anemia resulting from alcohol-related folic acid deficiency. Iron deficiency anemia may result from gastrointestinal bleeding. Alcohol has also been implicated as a cause of several hemolytic syndromes, some of which are associated with hyperlipidemia and severe liver disease. 

Chronic heavy use of alcohol may have numerous physiological and psychological effects. All the effects involve increased dysfunction, and some may be fatal. Some chronic alcohol effects are caused directly by alcohol s toxicity to the body, such as damage to the liver. Other effects are indirectly related to long-term abusive drinking. For example, Wernicke s disease, which involves impaired cognitive functioning, is caused by nutritional deficiencies that tend to occur in people who are dependent on alcohol (Brands et al., 1998). 

Liver The effect of weaning patients off PN and its relationship to liver histology has been evaluated in a study including 38 patients with paediatric intestinal failure. Abnormal histology was foxmd in 77% of patients weaned of parenteral nutrition. Portal inflammation and fibrosis were also observed [117 ]. In a prospective cohort study to determine the incidence and risk factors for development of abnormal LFTs in patients on short-term PN (8-54 days mean 15.9 days), 57.5% of 80 patients had abnormal LFTs [118 ]. Septic shock, hyperglycaemia, soybean lipid and absolute diet were associated with an increased risk of abnormal LFTs. 

Phytochemicals have little nutritional value and do not get absorbed in the body, but they seem to turn on certain switches in the biochemical mechanisms, which signal the beneficial pathways to maintain health, and to turn off the switches which proceed to adverse biochemical pathways. Rice bran products have demonstrated significant benefits as nutritional therapies in diabetes, hyperlipidemia, cancer, fatty liver, hypercalcuria and heart disease. There is experimental and clinical evidence for the beneficial health effects of the following bioactives of rice bran ... 

Squalene is an isoprenoid compound that is found in large quantities in shark liver and in smaller quantities in olives, rice bran and wheat germ. It is a bactericidal compound and an antioxidant and it aids in skin nutrition. Several cosmetic applications of rice bran and rice bran oil arise from the biological effects of their squalene, vitamin E and y-oryzanol content. Since these compounds are fat-soluble, rice bran oil is used for all these preparations. 

Methylcobalamin is the coenzyme form of vitamin It is neurologically active, most bioavailable and best utilized. Unlike cyanocobalamin, it does not require any conversion after absorption by the body and is better retained by the liver and other tissues. It has exhibited beneficial effects against brain aging, irregular sleep patterns. It supports immune function and promote normal cell growth. It represents one of the best values in nutritional products, given its comparably low cost and its wide range of potential benefits. 

The dose and frequency of administration required to achieve effective therapeutic blood and tissue levels vary in different patients because of individual differences in drug distribution and rates of drug metabolism and elimination. These differences are determined by genetic factors and nongenetic variables, such as age, sex, liver size, liver function, circadian rhythm, body temperature, and nutritional and environmental factors such as concomitant exposure to inducers or inhibitors of drug metabolism. The discussion that follows summarizes the most important of these variables. 

Early applications of crystalline fructose focused on foods for special dietary applications, primarily calorie reduction and diabetes control. The latter application sought to capitalize on a significantly lower serum glucose level and insulin response in subjects with noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (21,22) and insulin-dependent diabetes (23). However, because fructose is a nutritive sweetener and because dietary fmctose conversion to glucose in the liver requires insulin in the same way as dietary glucose or sucrose, recommendations for its use are the same as for other nutritive sugars (24). Review of the health effects of dietary fmctose is available (25). 

In 1957, Schwartz and associates showed that the toxic element selenium was also a nutritional factor essential for prevention of the death of liver cells in rats.527 Liver necrosis would be prevented by as little as 0.1 ppm of selenium in the diet. Similar amounts of selenium were shown to prevent a muscular dystrophy called "white muscle disease" in cattle and sheep grazing on selenium-deficient soil. Sodium selenite and other inorganic selenium compounds were more effective than organic compounds in which Se had replaced sulfur. Keshan disease, an often fatal heart condition that is prevalent among childen in Se-deficient regions of China, can be prevented by supplementation of the diet with NaSe03.528 Even the little crustacean "water flea" Daphnia needs 0.1 part per billion of Se in its water.529... 

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