Re: Black pepper - is it bad for the liver

[Guest guest]

Hi Marie,

A good article on Diet and Liver Disease is as follows, from the

Brtish Liver Trust:

http://www.britishlivertrust.org.uk/content/liver/diet.asp

The above article doesn't mention anything harmful about " black

pepper " , but rather suggests the use of freshly ground black pepper

to help disguise the lack of salt in their recommended diet.

Some studies with laboratory animals suggest a hepatoprotective

effect of black pepper. However, others have shown that the

ingredient of black pepper (piperine) can potentially lead to a

hepatotoxic effect by inhibiting detoxification of some toxic

compounds:

http://www.bioperine.com/Manual/Toxicology1.htm

The latter article points out the laboratory animal studies were done

with doses of black pepper/piperine well above those used in the

normal human diet. However, none of the laboratory animals tested had

PSC!

Best regards,

Dave

(father of (18 yr); dx PSC 7/03; dx UC 08/03)

> Years ago I heard that black pepper was hard on the liver. Does

anyone know if this is true? Here I've been avoiding it, and maybe

there's no reason to avoid it.