Homebrew Good For Wife's Liver

[gjhansford]

We're having a celebratory homebrew or three tonight because ...

3 years ago we stopped drinking commercial beer on a regular basis and started home brewing. 3 years ago my wife's liver function markers were:

ALT: 209 (measures excess alcohol effect on the liver - recommended max 40)
GGT: 94 (measures liver disease - recommended max 65)
AST: 99 (measures degree of enzyme chemical activity - recommended max 40)

These are apparently the classic symptoms of what's called a fatty liver ... usually due to poor diet and excessive alcohol consumption. We were drinking 2 cartons of commercial beer a week back in those days ... usually Coopers Green and Red.

Markers today are:

ALT: 32
GGT: 28
AST: 26

Sure she's changed her diet and has been taking supplements (but no prescribed medication) but she's also been helping me and the mates drink in excess of 1,500 litres of all grain homebrew a year. This equals 3-5 glasses a night 4 nights a week and more on weekends. In fact she's drinking more now than 3 years ago!

Final word from the GP was to "continue drinking the homebrew ... it's obviously good for you and it reduces your stress levels!".

Conclusion ... homebrew's a natural product with no added sugar and no preservatives. We recon' it's good for you!

ghhb :beer:

 

[MitchDudarko]

Well done mate. Great news

 

[Slightly]

That's amazing, and great to hear!
:beer:

 

[thanme]

Woo hoo. Great news

 

[Effect]

I just got my blood test back as I have recently gone vego and wanted to see how my iron levels were going. They tested my liver function as well...



The doctor said that I am fine, but then took off his glasses and asked me how much I drink. I drink about 3 beers on average a night of purely homebrew - no commercial...he told me that I have to cut back my alcohol intake a bit and have some nights off drinking...aparently the test results showed that I am drinking too much...

I wish I got your wife's doctor, I want a doctor to prescribe me homebrew!

 

[Mantis]

Good news on wife ghhb :beer:

 

[DKS]

If its not to far off topic. How do they test liver function? and Does poor liver function mean disease ?
Daz

 

[gjhansford]

I just got my blood test back as I have recently gone vego and wanted to see how my iron levels were going. They tested my liver function as well...

The doctor said that I am fine, but then took off his glasses and asked me how much I drink. I drink about 3 beers on average a night of purely homebrew - no commercial...he told me that I have to cut back my alcohol intake a bit and have some nights off drinking...aparently the test results showed that I am drinking too much...

I wish I got your wife's doctor, I want a doctor to prescribe me homebrew!

Ask your doctor for a copy of your blood test results ... you're entitled to them ... just ring the surgery and you should get them for free. Then google your nights away learning how to take responsibility for your own body and blood. The more you find the more you'll realise that doctor's don't know everything ... especially about nutrition ... which is the issue here.

Homebrew ... because it's natural and not pasterised ... is nutritious.

BTW ... our doctor likes his wine ... so he's not all that hung up on the low alcohol line ... you might find this professional medical link interesting.

Cheers

 

[daemon]

I wonder how much processing goes on at Coopers, being bottled conditioned I would have thought it would have been very minimal. Either way, your homebrew is better than Coopers and certainly more variety. To know that liver functions have improved is great news and to know that drinking good quality beer isn't detrimental is even better

Just doing some "liver cleansing" myself now actually :icon_cheers:

 

[Uncle Fester]

If its not to far off topic. How do they test liver function? and Does poor liver function mean disease ?
Daz

Fatty liver = poor diet, too much alcohol

Fatty liver untreated/ignored = Cirrosis

Cirrosis left untreated = exit stage left

/Fester Out.

 

[bradsbrew]

First glance at this thread and I read Homebrew for wifes lover :huh: ........I thought wow thats a generous man :lol: . But in all seriousness that is a great result.

Cheers Brad

 

[Adamt]

I'd like to say it was the homebrew... but I'll bet it was the diet and/or supplementation.

Sounds like a great story for News Ltd. though!

 

[bum]

Fatty liver = poor diet, too much alcohol

Fatty liver untreated/ignored = Cirrosis

Cirrosis left untreated = exit stage left

/Fester Out.

While the above is not untrue in the strictest sense of the word it most certainly is not anywhere near the whole truth.

Recently I was very sick and had a great many blood tests checking liver function. Amongst other things it was discovered that I had fatty liver. Not an extreme case by any means but enough for him to ask me how much I drank (which I answered honestly). He then went on to say that fatty liver isn't in and of itself something to worry about and that pretty much everyone in the West has it to a degree.

DKS, the test is easy and extremely routine. If you think you've got any reason to worry about this go get it done. And no, poor liver function does not mean disease. It can mean disease, of course, but certainly not always.

 

[DKS]

Fatty liver = poor diet, too much alcohol

Fatty liver untreated/ignored = Cirrosis

Cirrosis left untreated = exit stage left

/Fester Out.

Bugger

 

[gjhansford]

I'd like to say it was the homebrew... but I'll bet it was the diet and/or supplementation.

The point isn't that the homebrew 'fixed' her liver ... it's that drinking homebrew in volume didn't undo what the diet and supplements was doing!

She was told to get off the beer ... instead we went to homebrew!

 

[Uncle Fester]

Bugger

As Bum farted above, poor liver function does not mean too much piss.

As with anything, there are a million factors involved with the human body.

The bottom line is, that with all of ghhb's wifes lifestyle changes, her current drinking habits are in no way shape or form detrimental to her health.

At the end of the day, if exercise, diet changes, vitamin supplements and whaterver else she is doing is allowing her body to carry on, then that is fantastic.


Better to be informed rather than be blind sided like Derryn Hinch was. (and I think he is a tool like everybody else)

/Fester out for good this time.

 

[Bribie G]

In my cask wine drinkin' days my liver enzyme readings were at alarming levels and whenever I got a blood test the doctor's eyebrows would raise and he would say "Do you drink a lot of alcohol?". Nowadays my enzyme readings are fine despite downing around six or seven pints a night, four nights a week, for the last 18 months. I put it down to the B vitamins in the yeast.

:icon_offtopic: Phillip are you vegan or ovo lacto vegetarian? And why? Just interested because veganism gave me horrible gout and inflammatory tendon disease which has been cured by going back to an omnivorous diet - like to read peoples stories on nutrition and diets.

 

[Uncle Fester]

In my cask wine drinkin' days my liver enzyme readings were at alarming levels and whenever I got a blood test the doctor's eyebrows would raise and he would say "Do you drink a lot of alcohol?". Nowadays my enzyme readings are fine despite downing around six or seven pints a night, four nights a week, for the last 18 months. I put it down to the B vitamins in the yeast.

:icon_offtopic: Phillip are you vegan or ovo lacto vegetarian? And why? Just interested because veganism gave me horrible gout and inflammatory tendon disease which has been cured by going back to an omnivorous diet - like to read peoples stories on nutrition and diets.

I suffer from gout as well, but the last thing I could be accused of being is Vegan. Still, I will use it as an argument against!

 

[gjhansford]

Fester and Bum are both right ... the real issue is about doing one's own research. The doctor told the wife not to worry about the fatty liver ... why? Because he has no drug to fix it! So she did her own research on the net ... and the results speak for themselves.

 

[RdeVjun]

I have to concur ghhb. I had a stubborn liver issue which required a couple of courses of treatment and I had lots of LFTs with crazy numbers for several different factors, after the issue was sorted my LFTs returned to normal, then after that I was hitting the HBs fairly hard for close to a year (what do newbies do?!) my LFTs were all still perfect.

That reminds me, it is time for the follow up pathology- fingers crossed...