Review finds Vitamin E Beneficial for Liver Health

by | Apr 19, 2016 | 2015, Liver Health, Vitamin E

Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. In a review of five studies on nonalcoholic liver disease, those given 100 mg vitamin E per day had better liver enzyme levels by 40.6% and 47.7% in two enzymes.  

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is a condition that results from Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome (1) but can also result from abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, and abnormal lipid levels (called dyslipidemia) even before diabetes and metabolic syndrome are officially diagnosed (2). Despite the “tremendous” economic burden that comes with treating nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in type 2 diabetics ($245 billion in 2012 (3) and metabolic syndrome (60% higher costs compared to those without metabolic syndrome ($5,732 vs. $3,581) (4), few treatment options are available that specifically target the liver disease (5).

Now a new research review (6) suggests that vitamin E may help maintain liver health. In the study, researchers reviewed five studies analyzing vitamin E on liver health. They found significant benefits of vitamin E supplementation in lowering and helping maintain healthy levels of 2 liver enzymes, AST (p < 0.03) and ALT (p < 0.03). The study regarded as the strongest among the five was conducted in 2008 (7) and involved 76 obese children (48 males, 24 females) in China aged 6 to 17 with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Those who were given 100 milligrams per day of vitamin E saw a 41.7% decrease in AST (78.55 to 45.80, p = 0.04) and a 47.7% decrease in ALT (139.97 to 73.28 U/L, p = 0.04) compared to a decrease of 1.1% and 0.03% in the control groups, respectively (86.63 to 85.73 U/L for AST,144.77 to 144.82 for ALT).

In addition, vitamin E also showed a beneficial effect on liver inflammation (p = 0.008). A 2010 study (8) involved 247 adults (99 men, 148 women) aged 34 to 58 with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Those who were given 800 IU per day of vitamin E saw a 0.6 decrease in the “lobular inflammation score” used in previous research (9) compared to 0.2 in the placebo group (p = 0.008) and 0.7 in the medication group (p < 0.001).

For the researchers, “Vitamin E significantly improved liver function and [cellular] changes in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.”

Source: Sato, Ken, et al. “Vitamin E has a beneficial effect on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.” Nutrition 31.7 (2015): 923-930.

© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted February 9, 2015.

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY.  You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com

References:

  1. Marchesini, G., Brizi, M., Bianchi, G. et al. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: a feature of the metabolic syndrome. Diabetes 2001; 50: 1844–1850
  2. Marchesini, G., Bugianesi, E., Forlani, G. et al. Nonalcoholic fatty liver, steatohepatitis, and the metabolic syndrome. Hepatologyl 2003; 37: 917–923
  3. “The Cost of Diabetes” posted on the American Diabetes Association website
  4. Bourdreau DM. Health care utilization and costs by metabolic syndrome risk factors. Metabolic syndrome and related disorders.Metab Syndr Relat Disord. 2009 Aug;7(4):305-14. doi: 10.1089/met.2008.0070
  5. Lazo, M. & Clark, J.M. The epidemiology of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: a global perspective. Seminars in Liver Disease 2008; 28: 339–350
  6. Sato K. Vitamin E has a beneficial efficacy on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Nutrition, printed online December 14, 2014
  7. Wang CL, Liang L, Fu JF, et al. Effect of lifestyle intervention on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in Chinese obese children. World journal of gastroenterology : WJG 2008;14:1598-602
  8. Sanyal AJ, Chalasani N, Kowdley KV, et al. Pioglitazone, vitamin E, or placebo for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. The New England journal of medicine 2010;362:1675-8
  9. Kleiner DE, Brunt EM, Van Natta M, et al. Design and validation of a histological scoring system for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Hepatology 2005;41:1313–1321.