I recently saw a patient with an apparent happy ending. At least for now. She is now a 41 year old mother of six who in January of 2018 saw a functional medicine physician for fatigue and migrating arthritis. By March, 2018 she was jaundiced and sent to a GI physician who found that her liver enzymes and iron levels were high and then she was sent to a hematologist where she had 3 or 4 phlebotomies and her liver enzymes came down from 1600 and 1900 AST/ALT to 51 and 42. Then she was seen at UCSF in May of 2018 and was just observed, but then her liver enzymes started to go back up in June 2018 and peaked in July with the AST/ALT was 732 and 894 respectively (normal upper normal ranges are in the 30s). She had a biopsy done in July, 2018 which showed no cirrhosis but she was put on 60 mg of prednisone at that time. The UCSF physicians felt she had autoimmune hepatitis and they attempted to taper her prednisone as the elevated liver enzymes came down and then planned to switch to a different steroid, budesonide, and go on a trial of the immunosuppressive drugs Azathioprine (Azoran) and Mycophenolate Mofetil (CellCept). She declined and sought out and got treated by Burt Berkson, MD, PhD ,an expert in New Mexico on using intravenous alpha lipoic acids for the treatment of liver disorders including liver failure (Wow! I interviewed Dr. Berkson on this topic in 1995! 25 years ago! And his work is so relevant today! Read: Hepatic Necrosis and Thioctic Acid ).
At Dr. Berkson’s office she started at 20-40 mg of intravenous alpha lipoic acid (ALA) tapering up from 20-40-80-160-300 mg IV. The IVs were 30-40 minutes long and administered twice daily. She was placed on oral selenium, ALA, N-acetylcysteine (NAC), sylamarin and a multivitamin/mineral. She received ALA infusions twice daily for 5 days. She may have had some IV vitamin C as well.
Alpha-lipoic acid (also known as thioctic acid), is found to be active in various biochemical systems in mammals. It is involved as a coenzyme in the tricarboxylic acid cycle as a coenzyme essential for and involved in, ATP production and cell efficiency. As an antioxidant, lipoic acid works alone and interacts with glutathione to protect the cell. Dr. Berkson in his early work used it as an antitoxin in liver failure do to mushroom poisoning (read interview ) . ALA is also suggested to have neuroregenerative properties. Dr. Berkson had observed liver regeneration properties properties with IV ALA.
She came to our clinic in October of 2018 just after spending 5 days at Dr. Berkson’s clinic to continue ALA treatments. We started at 300 mg IV and then increased up to 600 mg 1-2 times per week. We usually start at 300 mg of IV ALA and then go up to the 600 mg per treatment dose after 1-2 at 300 mg.
Over the last 2 ½ years she has had over 30 ALA IV treatments at 600 mg per treatment of which 10 had an additional 1500 mg of glutathione piggy-backed in a separate bag after the IV ALA. She has had normal ASTs and ALTs since 9/20/19. She is on no medication. Her UCSF doctors originally said she probably would have to be on immunosuppressive drugs on and off for the rest of life.
She is feeling great right now. She had felt at the beginning of this allergy season for about a week and a half fatigued and had some body itching. She was concerned maybe she might be having a flare up of her liver function but it appears to be just the opening of the allergy season that was causing the symptoms because now she is feeling better and her liver function and labs are all normal. She has gained 4-5 lbs and has liberalized her diet.
For much of the program since October 2018 she was on a low allergy, whole food plant-based
diet and now she has liberalized her diet to consuming small amounts of animal foods. She is still
cautious about consuming dairy and consumes only small amounts.
The Family, Covid 19 and Ivermectin
It is noted she had documented Covid 19 in the middle of December 2020 as did her husband and
children. The children had mild cases. Her experience wasn’t fun but the infection was not severe.
Her husband has just got well but he had a much harder time. He had fevers up to 103 for 15
days. He was not hospitalized but she said he began to feel almost immediately significantly better
after being given the anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin at an initial dose (by weight) and then the same dose 48 hours later.
Presently she is on:
MEDICATIONS: NONE
SUPPLEMENTS
Algal Oil 1/d
Alpha lipoic acid 600 mg/d
Milk thistle 400 mg/d
Quercetin 250 mg with bromelein
Raw Food Multivitamin Mineral 1/d
Vitamin C 1000 – 2000 mg
NAC 500 mg/d
Essential Pro 250 mg/d
You can take what you want from this story. “Spontaneous Remission?” …No, I don’t think so. It doesn’t happen all the time that you get the right combination of therapies, a compliant patient, and someone who has the will, belief, strength and money to do all the therapies completely. Kind of a "positive perfect storm!"
This patient did this as a mother of “six”. An she has a daughter who is getting married so she
could be a grandmother sometime soon (she is 41). I sincerely hope she is done with her “autoimmune” hepatitis. I think diet is most important at keeping it at bay, mostly plantbased with lots of cruciferous vegetables which are very good for liver function. Avoiding things that insult your liver - alcohol, drugs, eating processed sugary and fat foods, high animal protein diets, being overweight, toxin exposure, etc.. I think the IV and oral ALA and the work of Dr. Burt Berkson played a huge roll in turning this condition around.
So I said at this last office visit she didn’t need any more IV ALA treatments unless she wanted to.
I encouraged her to keep taking the supplements above. See me twice a year and do liver function
testing with any symptoms but if there were no symptoms maybe twice this year and go from there.
It is a joy to see this patient and have this outcome.
We use ALA for a variety of neuropathies, most liver (and gall bladder) conditions, and sometimes 1-3 IVs as a trial for chronic fatigue. It is a reasonably short, painless IV treatment that takes under an hour.
Call me to discuss or make an appointment with me on the use of ALA IV therapy or other nutritional IVs by calling 916-489-4400.
QUESTIONS OR TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT... CALL 916-489-4400
Be Well and Thankfull!
Kirk Hamilton PA-C
Prescription 2000, Inc.
Health Associates Medical Group
3301 Alta Arden, Suite 3
Sacramento, CA 95825
(916) 489-4400 (w)
krhammer@surewest.net
www.KwikerMedical.com
www.HealthyLivingforBusypeople.com
www.StayingHealthyToday.com