Acai Berry, Resveratrol safe for HepC patients?

[ChrisDDD]

Hello, my fellow dragon-fighting friends.  I haven't been on this board for so long I was surprised it remembered my user name and password.  I've seen all of this excitement about Acai Berry and Colon Cleanse, etc. with regard to weight loss, much more energy and improved memory.  I haven't taken any yet because I wanted to do some research on it first, as any good HepC patient should do.  It appears that the Acai Berry product or Resveratrol products contain the equivalent of 1500 glasses of red wine in one dose?  Holy ****!  Not good for the liver!  I searched the HepC boards for any mention of it and don't see any comments.  Does anyone know if it's okay to take?

I've had chronic HepC for 33 years now, genotype 1b, Stage 2, Grade 3 or Stage 3, Grade 2, failed treatment in '98, 2000, and '05.  I would think a colon cleanse would be a good idea, which one of these products is for.  Another is an anti-oxidant.  I have such terrible fatigue and memory loss, and can't get rid of 20 of the pounds I gained last year when I quit smoking.  I would love to lose the weight and have my energy back.

[evangelin]

GSD-Joe doesn't drink it.  It is in capsule form.  We used to just by it from Swanson Vit., but now it is in our supplements form Hepatitis Technologies.  None of it seems to cause heartburn for Joe.
  We have to keep pointing out that there is a big difference in what supplements are potentially good to take while not and TX and what has been tested safe while on TX.  


James-
IBS-  "Irritable Brain Syndrome" LOL...that is the kind I suffer from too :>)
Ev

[James10500]

Thanks I was thinking it was more of a " during tx" issue.  I was taking it for about a 6 months pre tx and I stumbled on that study yesterday as I was planning on starting up again post tx.  Thanks for posting the study.


GSD- I have IBS too "irritable brain syndrome"...........lol, hoping that goes away post tx

[GSDgirl]

Since we are answering a very old thread I am putting in my experience.  I was taking / drinking it after TX.  I guess it is OK unless one has gastrointestinal problems, it about killed (not really) me with heartburn.  Between IBS, gastritis and whatnot I had to quit.

Good Luck to those who can drink it,

[evangelin]

The post was easy to find. It is on page 2 of the posts listed on HR's profile.  I will paste in his main comment but it was a lengthy thread and you would get a better view of the whole thing if you read it all. Goofydad posted at the end of the thread and did a better job than I did of explaining the goal of keeping your immune system calm.
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by Hepatitis Researcher, Apr 15, 2010 07:49PM
To: dointimeBest thing to actually rread the above paper, it is free in full text to everyone.  This paper studies the replication of an artificial HCV construct on cultured hepatocytes, in the presence of various concentrations of Resveratrol. it proves nicely that even high doses of RSV are unlikely to have any effect on HCV replication in vivo in man.  How so?

On page 187 Fig 2 you will see the effect of increasing micromols of RSV on fold replication of the HCV construct, readout by the luciferase assay.
On page 188 similarlily in fig 4 the effect on the subgenomic replicon cells. RSV in micromols/Liter vs fold replication enhancement. Good work, we assume.
Now there are a few papers that have actually measured, in a reliable well documented HPLC fashion,  the achieved RSV concentration in the blood of human subjects after exposure to 250 and 500mg of 99% transResveratrol. In the paper in the American Journal for Clinical Nutrition , published ahead of print March 31st 2010 you find on the forth page in fig 2 the graph of plasma concentrations of RSV as a function of time in these humans to be dose dependent and having for 500mg (quite a high dose!) found the peak concentration of original RSV at 90min after dosing to be 14.4 nanograms/ml or 14.4 micrograms/liter. Knowing the molecular weight of RSV to be 228g/Mol this translates into 14.4/228 micromolar max achievable concentration ,so approx 0.06 micromolar.

If you place this result in the almost linear dependence of replication enhancement foldness of the above paper (see fig 2 AND 4) you will see that the enhancement at this in vivo micromolarity is somewhere between 1 and 5% of starting value, a totally irrelevant phenomenon, if we take everything at face value. In summary, if we trust both papers, there should be no relevant influence by RSV on HCV replication in vivo in man by doses as high as 500mg.

These papers have to be studies in fine details to arrive at realistic conclusions.

[evangelin]

Joe takes the resveratrol but only when not on TX.  From what I understand, as long as you aren't on TX, you don't really want to take anything that ramps up your immune system because it isn't enough to eradicate the virus and the constant fight going on in your liver is what causes the inflammation and fibrosis to take place.  That is a totally nonscientific explanation and is all I can offer but that is the way I understand it.  HR came and commented on the resveratrol/replication issue and I don't remember his explanation but the bottom line is that he said it would still be best to take it if you are a nonresponder waiting for another drug that can kill the virus.  He has advised not to take anti inflammatory supplements while on TX. While not treating the goal is to calm down the battle and live as peaceably with the virus as you can.  I don't know anything about the astaxanthan.
I might be able to find HR's post on this subject when I get some time.;
Ev

[James10500]

Any on using this stuff ?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20066737


Display Settings:AbstractSend to:
World J Gastroenterol. 2010 Jan 14;16(2):184-92.
An antioxidant resveratrol significantly enhanced replication of hepatitis C virus.
Nakamura M, Saito H, Ikeda M, Hokari R, Kato N, Hibi T, Miura S.

Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Keio University, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 1608582, Japan.
Comment in:

World J Gastroenterol. 2010 Apr 21;16(15):1937-8.
Abstract
AIM: To elucidate the effect of antioxidants, resveratrol (RVT) and astaxanthin (AXN), on hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication.

METHODS: We investigated the effect of recent popular antioxidant supplements on replication of the HCV replicon system OR6. RVT is a strong antioxidant and a kind of polyphenol that inhibits replication of various viruses. AXN is also a strong antioxidant. The replication of HCV RNA was assessed by the luciferase reporter assay. An additive effect of antioxidants on antiviral effects of interferon (IFN) and ribavirin (RBV) was investigated.

RESULTS: This is the first report to investigate the effect of RVT and AXN on HCV replication. In contrast to other reported viruses, RVT significantly enhanced HCV RNA replication. Vitamin E also enhanced HCV RNA replication as reported previously, although AXN did not affect replication. IFN and RBV significantly reduced HCV RNA replication, but these effects were dose-dependently hampered and attenuated by the addition of RVT. AXN did not affect antiviral effects of IFN or RBV.

CONCLUSION: These results suggested that RVT is not suitable as an antioxidant therapy for chronic hepatitis C.

PMID: 20066737 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]PMCID: PMC2806556Free PMC Article

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[Bill1954]

Wow, what a hangover that’d be! 1500 glasses in one shot! I think any way you slice it, weight loss is still calories in, calories out. Do more, eat less, it’s said. There does seem to be some support for resveratrol with allopathic practitioners; check with the doc, and see what they say.

Best to you,

Bill

[Isobella]

Resveratrol is not like drinking 1500 glasses of wine....it just contains the flavanoid (sp) equivalent of that much wine.

I took it prior to tx and plan on taking it as soon as I am done.

Check with your doc, tho.

[evangelin]

Don't know about acai berry but a hepatitis researcher that used to visit this board, highly recommended the resveratrol for Hep c/liver damage.