How does diet affect liver health?

Diets help improve the condition of the liver by slowing down oxidation processes that are dangerous to cells, but dietary restrictions, on the contrary, are ineffective in treating cholestasis.

Antioxidants magazine indicates that, according to Russian scientists, stagnation of bile in the liver (cholestasis) is a common disease that causes liver damage - cell death, inflammation and swelling, and thus disruption of its function.

Researchers point out that some scientists promote the idea of ​​alleviating the condition of people with cholestasis by following a certain diet - intermittent fasting, reducing calories, but the effectiveness of this method has not yet been proven.

For this purpose, a scientific team from Moscow University, the Petrovsky Surgical Center and the Moscow Academy of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology studied the effect of diet on the condition of the liver of laboratory animals.

The researchers used 28 male rats in their study, half of whom had their bile ducts tied, which stopped the flow of bile from the liver (simulating cholestasis). They were then divided into three groups—one that ate as usual, one that fasted intermittently (24 hours fasting, 24 hours full feeding), and one that ate 35 percent fewer calories than their standard diet. The results showed that following the diet reduced oxidative processes by 1.5 times in the livers of animals that did not suffer from cholestasis, which damages cell membranes and kills liver cells, indicating that dietary restrictions are effective in preventing the disease.

But after cholestasis, diet has no negative or positive effect on the liver condition. Therefore, doctors should not prescribe intermittent fasting and calorie restriction for patients with cholestasis.

“The main cause of cell damage in cholestasis is oxidative stress. Our study has shown that in the absence of this disease, the diet has an antioxidant effect, but after it has occurred, it has no effect. This may be because cholestasis disrupts the biochemical processes in the liver, which cannot be compensated for by changing the diet,” says Dr. Yegor Plotnikov, the project supervisor.

According to him, researchers need to conduct detailed studies in order to develop effective diets for people with this disease.