Herbal Bilberry, a Natural Treatment of Steatohepatitis with No Side Effects

By Kyle J. Norton


Steatohepatitis is a fatty liver disease caused by inflammation of the liver tissue accompanied by fat accumulation.

A most common form of steatohepatitis is non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), an advanced form of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) that is not caused by excessive alcohol drinking.

People with steatohepatitis have been associated with the increased risk of liver failure and liver cancer, due to excessive formation of liver scar tissues, epidemiologically.

According to the statistics, fatty liver affects approximately 25% of the general population worldwide. Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), is very common in overweight persons.

If you experience chronic symptoms of swollen belly enlarged blood vessels underneath your skin, larger-than-normal breasts in men, particularly chronic red palms, skin and eyes, and jaundice, you may have steatohepatitis.

Please make sure that you check with your doctor to rule out the possibility.

Researchers do not know the exact cause of steatohepatitis. However, they do know certain medical conditions such as diabetes, being overweight or obese and people with metabolic syndrome, including high blood cholesterol are some most prevalent risks of the disease.

Some researchers suggested that people who are viral hepatitis carriers are also at risk of steatohepatitis.

Dr. Anish Patel, the lead scientist in the evaluation of hepatitis C virus infection and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) wrote, "Hepatitis C virus infection is another common cause of liver disease worldwide. Up to 70% of patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) will have concomitant steatosis" and "Worldwide, chronic hepatitis C (CHC) affects up to 200 million individuals—3% of the world's population".

Bilberry is a species of low-growing shrubs in the genus Vaccinium, belonging to the family Ericaceae, native to Northern Europe.

The plant has been used as herbs in traditional medicine for the treatment of acute and chronic diarrhea, gastritis, gastric ulcer, and duodenal ulcer, enterocolitis, ulcerative colitis, anemia, cystitis, kidney disease, and psoriasis, diabetes, etc.

With an aim to discover a potential ingredient for the treatment of steatohepatitis, an inflammatory type of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, researchers examined the effects of anthocyanins found abundantly in bilberry on disorders related to NASH induced by a methionine-choline-deficient (MCD) diet in mice.

Treatment of anthocyanins not only showed a significantly alleviated inflammation, oxidative stress, steatosis but also inhibited the formation of fibrosis.

Anthocyanins improved depletion of mitochondrial content and damage of mitochondrial biogenesis and electron transfer chain developed concomitantly caused by overexpression of reactive oxygen species in the liver of mice fed the MCD diet.

In proteins perspectively, anthocyanins treatment promoted activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) in controlling energy balance and lipid metabolism against oxidation and expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1α (PGC-1α) against inflammation.

Researchers, at the end of the study, wrote, "anthocyanins protected the liver against the development of steatohepatitis by improving the antioxidants in the host defense against overexpression of free radicals by modulating the expression of the genes associated with oxidation and inflammation".

In ApoE(∗)3Leiden mice fed a Western-type cholesterol-containing diet without (HC) or with 0.1% (w/w) Mirtoselect (HCM) for 20weeks diet-induced non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), researchers found that Mirtoselect attenuated HC-induced hepatic steatosis, by decreasing the macro- and microvesicular hepatocellular lipid accumulation and hepatic cholesteryl ester content associated with lipid metabolism.

Mirtoselect (HCM) anti-NASH, accompanied by local anti-inflammatory effects in the liver was attributed to the levels of anthocyanin in reducing the inflammatory cell clusters and reduced neutrophil infiltration.

Genes associated with pro-fibrotic development such as Acta2 and Col1a1 were also inhibited by the injection of HCM.

Dr. Morrison MC, the lead scientist, wrote in the final report, "Mirtoselect significantly reduced accumulation and crystallization of intrahepatic free cholesterol, providing a possible mechanism for the observed hepatoprotective effects".

In other words, HCM protected the liver against fat accumulated caused by inflammation via its promotion of antioxidant production.

Taken altogether, bilberry processed abundantly bioactive compound anthocyanin may be considered a functioning remedy for the treatment of steatohepatitis, pending to the validation of larger sample size and multicenter human study.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

References
(1) Purified anthocyanins from bilberry and black currant attenuate hepatic mitochondrial dysfunction and steatohepatitis in mice with methionine and choline deficiency by Tang X1, Shen T, Jiang X, Xia M, Sun X, Guo H, Ling W. (PubMed)
(2) Mirtoselect, an anthocyanin-rich bilberry extract, attenuates non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and associated fibrosis in ApoE(∗)3Leiden mice by Morrison MC1, Liang W2, Mulder P2, Verschuren L2, Pieterman E2, Toet K2, Heeringa P3, Wielinga PY2, Kooistra T2, Kleemann R. (PubMed)
(3) Hepatitis C Virus Infection and Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis by Anish Patel, DO and Stephen A. Harrison, MD. (PMC)