Antioxidants, blood analyses, and fibrosis update

[mike716]

Hello medhelpers, fellow sufferers of hep C, forum lurkers, people who got here by a wrong mouse click, and all victims of the medical profession. Greetings from Buenos Aires!

It's been quite a while since I posted [not long enough for some, I'm sure], but I have an update that may be of interest, which I propose to share with those who want it, in my inimitable if much-maligned style. And for those who don't want it, I say phooey.

Before I get into it, though, I just want to say a special Hi! to my friends trish, aheart, nygirl, james, bali, susi, figuy, hector, willing, mary, gsd, goofydad, lauri, walrus, desrt, marcy, and all my other dear friends who I see from looking over recent posts are still active in the forum. I love you all very much. And I don't use that word lightly.

Now to the gist. First, I still haven't done tx three years after being diagnosed HCV+. Why? because I'm 67, genotype 1, and have a high viral count, and I don't like my chances [around 35%] with standard antiviral therapy. I haven't been able to get into a trial of the newer meds like Teleprevir and Boceprevir because of my high gammaglobulin and because there are very few trials here in Argentina. Also frankly because Interferon + Ribavirin really put me off. I can't tango while scratching riba-rash.

So what I did was study up on what causes liver fibrosis. I found that it was mostly the oxidation of hepatic cells going on in the liver, so I prescribed for myself - with the go-ahead of a hep MD - a regime of antioxidants. These are PPC [polyenylphosphatidylcholine, as Phoschol], ALA [alpha lipoic acid], milk thistle [as Siliphos], and vitamin E [as mixed tocopherols]. I chose these four antioxidants because they have been tested and shown to reduce hepatic oxidation and/or liver damage and not to have serious negative side effects.

I started taking them almost two years ago, at a point when my hepatic enzymes had both reached 100 and my platelets had dropped to around 115k. A few months after beginning the antioxidant regime coupled with a strict non-fat diet of healthy foods like grains, fruit, and raw vegetables, my hepatic enzymes have gone down to the high end of the normal range [41 and 44 in an April 2011 blood test], and my platelets, which had been dropping steadily for years, are holding at 135k.

I'm content. If, with the aid of this regime, I can hold the fort and wait for the approval of a more effective and less dangerous therapy, I think I've done the right thing. For me.

If this is useful to others, well and good. I have no idea if what I'm doing will work for other people. I offer it as a personal experience. The antioxidants appear to be working for me. My hep MDs [I have two] can hardly believe the results of my recent blood analyses and are totally on my side.

All this said, I plan to have a new biopsy this year because blood test results are not conclusive of the extent of fibrosis. They are supposed to be a sign of current liver cell destruction and liver function, nothing more. Biopsy is no sure thing, either, as many have pointed out here and as more and more articles attest, since fibrosis is not always uniform in the liver as was once believed. But biopsy is the best test we've got. So I'll do another, while sticking to my antioxidants.

I hope you will excuse my long-windedness and my little jokes, and that this info is of some use.

Cheers to all!

Mike

[mike716]

Wigs are cool, Cheryl. Even people who haven't lost their hair use them. I'm partial to the blue and the orange ones, myself [wink].

M.

[mike716]

Hi, Pam. Congratulations on your successful treatment. I believe you may be able to regenrate some liver cells and drop a stage. Maybe it's wishful thinking to believe that, but from all I've read about the body it does heal if the infection or other attack is removed. Keeping healthy is the way to do it.

I had a biopsy in 2008 right after I was diagnosed. It gave about F1/F2, A2. I say "about" because the slides were seen by three different MDs and they had conflicting reads on it. I had a Fibroscan (actually three Fibroscans, but that's another story) a year later that gave the same.

The platelet drop scares me because I have recently been having maxillary bone loss and need periodontal surgery, and platelets are what make that work so they tell me. For the moment my platelets seem to be holding around 130k.

Cheers!

Mike

[mike716]

Hi, Loli. Thanks for the good words. It helps a lot to know there are people on my side in this. I get to feeling pretty lonely out here, like I'm the only one in the world who isn't Tx-ing.

M.

[mike716]

Debby! How the heck are ya!? Long time no see.

Don't give me that stuff about getting old. You look great. Or did you run those pix through Photoshop? . . . Just kiddin, Debs. . . Don't get mad . . .

Yeah, gonna tango til I drop.

Hugs and kisses.

Mike

[mike716]

Hi, Stef. Congrats on reducxing your fat tissue and cholesterol! I will check out the glutathione liposomes. I read that taking glutathione was ineffective, which is why I'm doing the ALA, but maybe with liposomes it will work. Would be nice.

What are these trials ending in June?

Cheers!

Mike

[mike716]

Hi again. Sounds like you are probably making the right decision to go ahead with the Telaprevir trial. I don't think the non-Interferon tests are even close to conclusive yet. They're going to have to beat standard Tx to get approval.

How many biopsies have you done? If you've done more than one, you should post the series of biopsy results together with comparative blood data. There are almost no horizontal studies over time of fibrosis progression (biopsy) vs. blood scores in individuals. It's some of the info that is sorely lacking.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't think I'll go to Brazil for Int./Riba. + Telaprevir. I realize I may come to regret it.

Mike